Throughout the world, whether for business, humanitarian or religious missions, international assistance or war, relationships are built on a daily basis through the intricacies of intercultural communication. Communicating, especially across cultures, is a challenge mastered only by those who can easily build rapport and relationships with people from diverse backgrounds.
No matter where you are in the world, building rapport with an individual helps even the most tense of negotiations to be resolved more favorably for both parties. Rapport building could mean the difference between a successful fundraising campaign and a failed one. It could also very well be the determination between a safe trip overseas and a tragedy abroad.
Therefore, mastering the art of building rapport and relationships is of vital importance for anyone working in any industry. One of the first important steps to building rapport is getting people to like us. But how? A series of subtle friendly signals will help the other’s subconscious accept you as a friend.
Friendly Signals
- Smiling
- Eye Gaze
- Eyebrow Flash
- Head Tilt
- Nonverbal Encouragers
- Verbal Nudges
- Self-Disclosure
- Asking for a Favor
- Using Names/ Titles
- Touching
- Flattery
- Whispering
- Expressive Gestures
- Isopraxism (Matching Body Language)
- No obstructions
How you execute each of these signals and their perceived level of friendliness is determined by the culture in question. Some cultures are more expressive, others more reserved. Some cultures touch more while others find too much touching offensive. Each culture is different. Knowing these differences and the details of the culture you’re communicating with will determine your success rate while using any of these friendly signals.
So if we can tell that someone likes us based on certain signals, we can surely tell if someone is inclined to not like us. Negative signals tell us when someone is not very pleased with our presence. Most of these signals are subconscious, but many of them may be employed deliberately as well.
Negative Signals
- Cold Stare
- No Touching
- Hair Twirl
- Asynchronous Posture
- Negative Head Shake
- Self-Preening
- Gaze Aversion
- Eye Roll
- Fake Yawn
These signals will also subconsciously trigger a “foe” reaction in someone we are speaking to if we use them. So it’s important to avoid using any of these negative signals when building relationships through rapport. At the same time, pay attention to the signals the other person is using during the conversation.
[Tweet “Mastering positive and negative signals of communication = success building rapport with anyone from any culture or background.”]If you have any questions or would like to add to this discussion, please leave a comment below. If you found this article helpful, share it with your friends!
Contact JS2 Application Development for in depth training on this topic or any of our other areas of expertise.
For more information on Intelligent Communication, visit our Intelligent Communication Website.
[grwebform url=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=BJ6Mm&webforms_id=6020503″ css=”on” center=”off” center_margin=”200″/]
[…] Rapport leads to influence and trust which can make or break an elicitation attempt. Find common ground, laugh at their jokes, use their name in conversation, mirror their body language and speech pattern, defer to them as being the expert, and overall make them feel good about themselves. Sometimes you need to elicit information from someone who doesn’t have the most glamorous job or might feel under appreciated. Supply them the recognition they want and it will thrust you down the path to rapport. […]