Chapter 6

Building Rapport: The Heart

of Successful Relationships
In This Chapter
▶ Becoming aware of when you are – and aren’t – in rapport
▶ Getting into rapport with people who are different to you
▶ Using rapport to increase your influence one to one and in groups
▶ Creating rapport in virtual communications

U nderlying all good communication is rapport. But what is rapport

exactly? You certainly know it when you have it.

Rapport happens when people are relating to each other well – when they
trust, respect, and understand each other, even unconsciously. Rapport is
the ideal good foundation for discussion, negotiation, and decision making.

People make business decisions more often as a result of good rapport than
on the merits of an idea or proposal.

You build strong rapport over time, through ongoing relationship building.
For this reason, you may notice that leaders who join your organisation often
bring some of their relationships with them and use these to:

✓ Recruit previous employees

✓ Engage suppliers they’ve worked with before
✓ Bring clients with them

Forward-thinking organisations are now realising that getting people working

well together is critical to business success. Rapport is an essential ingredi-
ent of good relationships, enabling mutual respect and trust.