How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 52

experience with the organization, then you have a positive foundation for
being able to communicate this to your employee.

1.3 Establishing Rapport as a Means to Influence and
Persuasion
Rapport is an important concept in the business world. It's behind most
relationships that you will have with bosses, subordinates, suppliers,
partners, and clients. Rapport means that you establish a level of
relationship with someone so that you feel comfortable working with the
other person. More importantly for our topic, rapport is essential for
influence and persuasion.
Think about it a moment. Are more you likely to be persuaded by
someone that you don't like or someone that you do like. How about
someone that you know versus someone you don't know? The fact is that
as human beings, we find comfort in relationships. When we need to
make a decision, such as whether or not to agree with someone else, we
will be more likely to agree with someone with whom we have an
established relationship. We prefer the known to the unknown, even if the
known isn't necessarily our favourite person in the world. Rapport doesn't
mean th at you have to consider the other person a friend. But it does mean
that you:
* Feel comfortable communicating with the other person
* Get a sense that you have shared goals, values, or desired outcomes
* Have trust that the person is somewhat reliable and honest based on past
dealings with the person or the person's reputation
* Feel that you are being heard by the other person
* Treat the other person with respect (and receive the same in return)
After reviewing the foundation of persuasion and influence communication skills - we will spend the majority of this eBook exploring
methods of establishing rapport as a way to influence others. We will also
examine some persuasion theories to understand why we might be
persuaded by another person – and just as importantly, why we may not
be persuaded by them. You will learn techniques that will immediately
make you a better communicator, better at building rapport with others,
and thereby better at persuading and influencing others.
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