Leaders think that it only takes a professional working relationship with their team for an organisation to be effective and to produce results.
They ask themselves, “Isn’t working together enough?”
If you are one of those leaders who think the same, you need to rethink how you see your team and plan to rebuild your relationship with them.
Every leader is responsible for not just producing results, meeting deadlines, and finishing projects on time – you are also responsible for your team development goals. It includes coaching your team, understanding their motivations and needs, and providing balance in their professional and personal life.
It takes more than just a transactional and working relationship to make all of this happen. And that is where rapport comes into the picture.
Rapport forms the basis of meaningful, close and harmonious relationships between people. It is the bond you create when you discover that you share values and priorities in life with someone. (Source: The nature of rapport and its non-verbal correlates by Degnen and Rosenthal).
Researchers Linda Tickle-Degnen and Robert Rosenthal identify rapport when individuals share mutual attentiveness, positivity, and coordination.
Today, rapport is not just between team members, but it needs to be developed and achieved by leaders. It is not just key to building a relationship, but to influence, coach, and train someone – especially your teams – as they are more likely to be receptive to this when you have established rapport with them.
Why should you build rapport?
One thing that determines your success as a leader is your team’s results – and you can improve those results when you build strong relationships with them. By building rapport, you can also establish several things:
- Engagement among your employees – They are more likely to come to you as a leader with their issues and more likely to trust you.
- Motivated teams – Your team is more likely to become motivated when they know that you have built a relationship with them as a leader.
- The positive reception to feedback – They are more willing to listen to what you say and will let you coach them.
- Loyalty – Your teams are more likely to be influenced by you once you have established rapport with them.
How can you build rapport?
At Ellivate, we like to simplify the definition of rapport as minimising the differences and maximising the similarities of two individuals. We believe that there are three things to consider to establish rapport:
- Body language – Employing non-verbal cues that will build interest around them and what they want as a team, such as matching their movements, mirroring, etc.
- Speech – Using their communication style based on their personality types, you can speak and relate to them. One effective method of knowing their personality type is through DISC.
- Language – Looking for common ground and using the same terms they understand, you become more relatable as a leader.
You can build a more effective working relationship when you consciously establish rapport with your teams. As a leader, it helps you build trust and loyalty faster, improve communication, and develop your active listening skills.
By knowing individuals in your team on a whole new level, you can create a trusting and humane bond with them. In turn, you can produce great results as a team since you can collaborate and work efficiently and effectively.
Ready to take it to the next level?
We at Ellivate understand that one of the hardest things in being a leader is creating a seamless relationship with your teams to build the foundation of your organisation. We also agree that building rapport is essential not only with your clients but also with your team.
As we are passionate about our customers, we also help them establish the foundation of their business to achieve success.
Their success is our success.
We offer several solutions to achieve growth in different facets of your organisation, such as values workshops, DISC workshops, coaching, and training for teams. If you like to know more about how we can help you, click here.
We know what is required to transform your success into scale. We understand what it takes to go next level.
That is why we ensure to help businesses and partner with them to realise their potential as a hypergrowth organisation.
About Ellivate
Ellivate is the expert partner helping organisations and their go-to-market team’s scale.
Our powerhouse team of industry experts – with a combined 60 years of experience across the fintech, corporate and technology spaces – will work alongside your business to achieve your goals.
We have a shared passion for working with businesses to achieve rapid growth and apply an authentic, human layer of expertise that addresses the real challenges and concerns at the heart of your business.
We will work alongside you as a trusted and expert partner. We get in the trenches and ensure every solution is embedded within your business.
