Never underestimate the importance of building rapport because it is the key ingredient to successful coaching. The capacity in which you build rapport determines how well you build a solid relationship with your clients.

A successful coach must understand the client's view of the world. To truly understand and appreciate the client's worldview, the coach must detach from personal and professional bias. Successful detachment can only be manifested when the client's best interest is put first. In order to view the relationship from what is the termed the "second-person” perspective, the coach must actually place himself in the perspective of the client. The second-person position allows the coach to remove himself from the center of attention. This technique requires skill and practice.

There are several techniques used to build rapport. The first technique is called the well-formed outcome. It is used to establish the client's needs and to secure a certain level of knowledge about the client's perspective. When establishing rapport, the coach will ask a series of questions such as:

What are your expectations of this coaching relationship?

Why are these expectations important to you?

What will these expectations give you once you've fulfilled them?

When do you expect to see results?

How will you

know when you've received results?

While asking these questions, the coach should reaffirm the response by "parrot phrasing”. This is a technique, which restates the client has said. For example, the client may respond, "I expect to have an honest relationship with my coach”.

The coach then says: "I've heard you say that an honest relationship with your coach is what you expect.”

Unlike paraphrasing, the coach does not change the context or intent of the message but reaffirms it and reassures the client that he/she is listening.

When using the well-formed outcome and parrot phrasing, the coach may also choose to match the client's body gestures. This will help the client feel a sense of connection with the coach. Body matching can be as easy as matching the client's voice, tone or pitch during the conversation, or as complex as matching the client's breathing and body movements.

Successful implementation of these techniques requires a lot of practice and patience.

Contact me: www.braxtoncoaching.com

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