People who feel safe and comfortable are more likely to share valuable information. Some desired insights might surface mistakes or struggles that people feel ashamed about. To comfortably talk about anything with everyone, you should build rapport (pronounced ‘rah-pore’) with your interviewees.
People look for themselves in others. The ‘similarity’ effect, from the field of sociology, says people will like you better if you seem similar. Commonality will help you build rapport during your interviews. Don’t shy away from sharing what you think is important or have experienced that they might value and understand. Just keep the interview goal in mind.
You might have heard of ‘mirroring’ before. By replicating someone’s posture and presence, you again create similarity on the spot. But don’t just copy their body language, people can see through this easily! There’s other things that you can mirror too. Think about tone of voice, emotion, use of words, and their points of view.
Everyone appreciates feeling heard. Simply nodding your head is a simple gesture that lets someone know they’ve been heard. Affirming what people say will make it easier for them to keep talking. Be attentive to what people communicate and how. Make sure they keep talking about the things that you want to learn from them.
One final note. These techniques are valuable. But being honest and truthful is key. Stay as close as possible to what you’d normally do. If you look or feel like a ‘fake’, you instantly lose credibility and your shot at getting valuable information.
Send me an e-mail on hello@jeffreykroonstuiver.com or find me on LinkedIn.
