Richard Maun – 5 Ways To Build Rapport
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5 Ways To Build Rapport

30 May 2010

Go on, shake hands with people....they like it!

Go on, shake hands with people....they like it!

Although this post is aimed at people who are going to job interviews, building rapport is an essential life skill. Like most essential skills, including money management, knowing what APR really means when you take out a loan and basic parenting skills, it’s rarely taught. People who need to have great rapport building abilities, in order to help them get their next job and earn bags of cash, have a horrible habit of blundering along in the dark, ignorant of their own faults and foibles.

To help out here are my Top 5 Tips to build rapport. Which ones do you do already and which ones do you need to do more often?

1) Smile. It relaxes people and we appear warm and friendly.

2) Shake hands.This is an assertive thing to do, although be careful not to crush people’s hands. It’s not a test of strength.

3) Use names. Few people are really called ‘Mate’, unless they’re the first mate on a ship. Names acknowledge us as individuals and are important to use.

4) Use social gaze.We can draw an imaginary triangle between the outside of someone’s eyebrows and the tip of their nose and can let our gaze wander round inside it, instead of staring eyeball-to-eyeball.

5) Notice commonality. This is my favourite tip. When we find that we have something in common with another person they cease to be a stranger to us and become a member of one of the tribes we belong to. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an iPhone tribe, or a Blackberry tribe, a football supporting tribe, or a wine drinking tribe; all connections have value. When you hear something that fits with your world, notice it by saying: ‘Hey, I do that too…’

Our Task For This Week

Choose a top tip and and have fun using it. There are many more tips in the book Job Hunting 3.0 which is out on 15th June. Click here to order your copy from Amazon.

Next Monday – Classic Interview Questions

Interviews are unpredictable, right? Wrong! They tend to stick to a well worn pattern and we can influence them, if we anticipate answers to classic questions. Next week, we’ll look at ones that pop up time and again. Which one do you think will be top of the list?

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Missed Last Week’s Post?

Last week was all about 3 juicy questions to ask at the end of an interview. Click here if you would like to find out more.

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books

Click cover to view details on Amazon

bouncingback

Riding the Rocket

How to manage your Modern Career

Published 2013 Marshall Cavendish

240pp

bouncingback

Bouncing Back

How to get going again after a career setback

Published 2012 Marshall Cavendish

200pp

keepyourjob

How to Keep Your Job

Brilliant ways to increase performance, stay employed and keep the money rolling in

Published 2011 Marshall Cavendish

208pp

jobhunting

Job Hunting 3.0

Secrets and skills to sell yourself effectively in the Modern Age

Published 2010 Marshall Cavendish

260pp

leave

Leave the Bastards Behind

An insider's guide to working for yourself

Published 2007 Cyan Books and Marshall Cavendish

192pp

boss

My Boss is a Bastard

Surviving turmoil at work

Published 2006 Cyan Books and Marshall Cavendish

192pp

© Richard Maun 2015 / Click here to contact