Rapport is one of my Quick Coaching Tools. They are exactly what the title suggests. Short snippets of coaching tips, tools and ideas for you to use on a just-in-time basis. Use them as an update and to refresh your coaching practice and professionalism. You could call it coaching in a hurry!
What & Why
A Coaches ability to build rapport with their Coachee is vital. This ability comes from a genuine desire to help people, which, like honest intention, is integral to coaching. Building rapport should be easy in coaching because the Coaches only focus is the Coachee. When a Coach decides to support someone in this way it naturally accelerates the rapport-building process.
How
Here are practical things you can do to build rapport:
- Focus on being genuinely interested in the Coachee. Be curious and discover what interests you about them. Discover their beliefs, opinions and experiences.
- Suspend your own judgment – focus on what they are saying rather than your interpretation of it.
- Be inquisitive – not just the purposeful questions you use in the coaching process, but questions about the Coachee and how they feel.
- Suppress your internal conversation. If you become distracted, focus your attention on what the Coachee is doing, thinking or feeling.
- Practice matching their behaviour. This is a very powerful form of rapport building.
Further Reading: ‘Techniques – Building Trust and Rapport’ in the Coaches Toolkit (for Blog subscribers)