Basic Techniques for Building Rapport

Dummies UK site (click on title) provides the article below, adapted from the book, Neurolinguistics for Dummies.

Seven quick ways to sharpen your rapport

For starters, try some immediate ways to begin building rapport:

* Take a genuine interest in getting to know what's important to the other person. Start to understand them rather than expecting them to understand you first.
* Pick up on the key words, favourite phrases and way of speaking that someone uses and build these subtly into your own conversation.
* Notice how someone likes to handle information. Do they like lots of details or just the big picture? As you speak, feed back information in this same portion size.
* Breathe in unison with them.
* Look out for the other person's intention — their underlying aim — rather than what they do or say. They may not always get it right, but expect their heart to lie in the right place.
* Adopt a similar stance to them in terms of your body language, gestures, voice tone and speed.
* Respect the other person's time, energy, favourite people and money. They will be important resources for them.

Employee Engagement

Another "E" post before the week is gone... I want to share this post from David Zinger--mostly for the poem by Moshe Safdie!

Employee Engagement Extra: Making Projects Unique

By David Zinger on Employee Engagement

Welcome to the Employee Engagement Extra.

I encourage you to watch Moshe Safdie talk about what makes a building unique. I encourage you to think through Mr. Safdie’s experience with buildings for the employee engagement you may be working at building in your organization. View the 17 minute video by clicking on the screen below or by clicking here to go to the TED Site.

Mr. Safdie concludes the video with the following poem he wrote:

He who seeks truth shall find beauty
He who seeks beauty shall find vanity

He who seeks order shall find gratification
He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed

He who considers himself a servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self expression
He who seeks self expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance

Arrogance is incompatible with nature
Through nature the nature of the universe and the nature of man we shall seek truth
If we seek truth we shall find beauty

~ Moshe Safdie

Struggling to be Understood in Conversation

Yesterday, on the phone with my favorite teenager, I said, "So, what else is new?" I intended this to have its most sincere meaning. A snarky exchange ensued because the teenager took it as a criticism of her previous comments. Ummm.....

So I thought that gave me an intro to use to share this blogger's post and the original article in full.:

Lifehacker
Do you make these 10 mistakes in a conversation?
By Leon on mistake

Conversation is an art, if you want to do it right. It is a big topic to discuss about, and has a lot of areas for improvements as it will affect your personal and professional life. This article will help. Henrik sends me his article on improving your conversation skill by introducing some common mistakes and solutions on it:

* Not listening
* Asking too many questions
* Tightening up
* Poor delivery
* Hogging the spot-light
* Having to be right
* Talking about a weird or negative topic
* Being boring
* Not reciprocating
* Not contributing much

Great rounds up on the common mistakes.

Most of the mistakes wouldn’t really push me away from the conversation, but the mistake Having to be right is deadly. Conversation is not about “winning” and definitely not about proving oneself “right”. If a person is doing this in front of me, I will refer the person to a debate forum and avoid to talk to him/her once and for all.

In your opinion, which mistake is the most deadly?

Do you make these 10 mistakes in a conversation? - [The Positivity Blog]