What do you want in life? What would it take to get it? Rapport is one of the most important tools we have to help each other accomplish the things we are trying to do. It enables teamwork and collaboration. Where rapport needs to be developed, it requires trust. So your first step, perhaps, is to trust first. Because trusting others helps them to trust you.
Rapport is the ultimate tool for producing
results with other people. No matter what
you want in your life, if you can develop rapport
with the right people, you'll be able to fill their needs,
and they will be able to fill yours.
— Tony Robbins
It's more enjoyable to work with people we like and with whom we have rapport.
Rapport is a mutual trust and respect that provides a potent advantage in a school. It starts with being mindful, giving them our attention and responding to needs.
Relationships grow from presence—staying curious in the space our bodies occupy. Educational teams with rapport grow with more authenticity, achieve higher levels of innovation, experience greater joy, and are simply more resilient and productive.
When colleagues are supportive, they go out
of their way to be givers rather than takers,
working to enhance our productivity, make us
look good, share ideas, and provide timely help.
— Adam Grant
The best way to establish rapport with people and to win them over is to be truly interested in them, actively listening with the intent of learning and understanding. We all tend to see differences, but it's our many similarities that bond us together.
When they feel valued through our genuine care and collaborative habits, they are more willing to be vulnerable, to share timely insights, and to resolve the problems. Teamwork and collaboration enable results that truly cannot be achieved otherwise.
Rapport equals trust plus comfort.
— Neil Strauss
All of us desire collegial connections, but the math of relationships is seldom a balanced equation. That requires sacrificial and unconditional giving and forgiving. The most effective way to achieve healthy rapport with colleagues is to look for the best in them, encourage their pursuits, and then help them become their very best. Protect them from learning information or decisions from the grapevine, assuring they take comfort in knowing we're in this together and we will find a way through.
To accomplish the things you want to accomplish and to help others to do the same, plant the seeds of trust. This proactive initiative develops the mindset and habits that grow rapport.
