How to build great rapport with your teams
As a leader or manager you know you will be judged on the success or failure of your teams. This can feel like an uphill battle but the results you get from your teams definitely needn’t be.
Because, here’s the thing, the results your teams deliver can be highly influenced by the relationship they have with you, their manager. And whether that’s a positive or negative one is totally up to you. Building great team rapport is crucial to this.
Great rapport makes it possible
Ensuring you have a positive, empowering relationship with your team is made a whole lot easier with great rapport. Developing rapport is an essential part of any relationship. It’s a skill that will help you build business relationships faster, and rapidly improve communication in many situations.
Yet many managers, especially those new to the role may find they need a little help developing this essential soft skill in the workplace.
Like any new skill, your rapport building techniques may need to be honed until the great relationships you build with your teams are the solid foundation on which outstanding performance is formed. Worth working for? Yes, we think so too!
Here are some tips on how to improve your rapport building with your teams.
Listen more
One of the core principles of building rapport is active listening. Give individual team members your full attention, minimise your distractions. In group team meetings make sure that everyone has a chance to speak and feels listened to. Whether that’s in a face to face setting or in a virtual meeting. Manage the communications and give everyone an uninterrupted chance to speak.
ASK QUESTIONS
You can learn little from telling people things but a lot from listening. Asking great questions will open up your understanding of your team’s world and demonstrate you really are interested in them.
RECOGNISE EMOTIONS
Part of being emotionally intelligent is to recognise emotions in others, and yourself. It’s a crucial part of good leadership. If you can pick up on others emotions you will be better at making strong connections. Learning to recognise these and act upon them helps us to better connect with others. It’s easier if you’re talking with your team members in person, in a virtual setting you will have to consciously work harder at this.
DON’T INTERRUPT – ENCOURAGE
Often we can spend much of a conversation thinking about what we want to say, not really listening and interrupting to talk our thoughts and needs. Learning not to interrupt and visibly and emotionally encouraging others to speak can pay huge dividends in building your relationship even if your answer still is no!
Taking time to develop your rapport building skills and put in the effort to use this to develop trust with your team will ensure that those great relationship pay off with outstanding performance all round.
LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE?
Intrigued? Join us at our next virtual taster session and discover how we can help you or your teams build trust and rapport.
Or if you have any questions or a project in mind get in touch via our Contact Form here.
