Successfully Building Rapport
What skills will you work to develop to successfully build rapport with others?
Body language and tone are very important and I plan to work on improving my skills in these areas.
Awareness of what you do well and what you may need to work on are so important to taking skills to the next level. Thank you for your honesty! How specifically do you plan on improving your skills in body language and tone?
My office is very busy and sometimes I don't have time to take a call. I get many calls during the day and I am going to make sure I smile when I answer the phone so that my tone does not sound annoyed.
Hi Krista! It certainly sounds as if you are really busy and one can understand why your tone may not quite be at a place where you want it to be. It's great that you realize how important this is for the caller and you can now make a choice to do something different. Great work!
I will work on my greeting skills and building rapport by engaging the prospective student in more small talk before going into the primary purpose of the visit or conversation.
I will work on being more empathatic with students needs
This is a great skill to have, Victor. Any thoughts on how you will begin to do this?
Work on listening and stop trying to always be the problem solver for the student
I am going to work on improving my listening skills.
Being in control of your body language reflects confidence!
You're right, Kristy, positive body language can help you project confidence and credibility. Besides being in control of your body language, what other ways do you project your confidence?
Reflecting on your strengths and challenges is key to improving your skills, thank you for sharing Kristy. What is the first thing you plan to do to help improve your listening skills?
I think I need to work on my small talk, because it helps to build a repore with the student and family. Building a repore helps to build trust, because I believe that people do business with people they like first and foremost.
I think you're right, Tovin. People will do business with people the like AND trust. Building meaningful rapport is key and small talk is one way of getting to really know (and connect) with others. Let us know how the small talk is going for you!
None because I have a quality to relate to all individuals.
I like your confidence, Jon. Building meaningful rapport is one of the first steps that we take in getting to really know (and connect) with others. What are some of the specific traits you have that help you to relate to all individuals?
Being aware of your audience, who you are speaking to/with, is a very important thing to think about prior to speaking to/with that audience. I think that once you are prepared to speak with said audience, it will make it an easier task to build rapport with them. The conversation can build from what you already know about them.
You're right, Megan, having information about your audience prior to speaking with them is certainly ideal. Especially, when you can tailor your conversation based on what you know about the student already. I'm guessing that you do this already, would that be right?
Unfortunately, we don't always have information about the audience before we communicate with them. I'm curious, how do you adapt your approach when you have little to no information about the audience?
I am definitely going to be more aware of myself, and my response to people. Smiling more often, paying attention to overall body language, even something such as the handshake. Just being more alert in general.
