[SOUND] Hello and welcome to this lesson on Engaging Your Stakeholders and Counterparts. I am Susan Lee. In this video, we will be talking about establishing and sustaining good rapport with all stakeholders and counterparts. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to express warmth and interest when engaging counterparts and stakeholders through small talks, show empathy when engaging in small talks. Ask good questions to establish rapport, use self-disclosure in a conversation, prepare for follow-up conversations with counterparts and stakeholders. Most of us spend many hours in the workplace. Besides working, we build relationships and develop friendships with our colleagues. This usually happens over time. However, there are instances where we are expected to build good rapport with individuals we interact with at work, but these may not be our closest colleagues. I am referring to two groups of people, whom we call our counterparts and stakeholders. Counterparts are individuals we collaborate with, and they can be from another department, branch office, subsidiary or country. In other words, these individuals possibly perform roles and functions that are similar to ours. For instance, cross-functional work teams are formed by counterparts from different departments with strengths of specific skills. The team relationship is not hierarchical, though interlinked. Similarly, in networking functions, professionals from the same sector socialize and collaborate as counterparts. Stakeholders are individuals who take a vested interest in your work because they are impacted by your performance or vice versa. In essence, you are responsible to them and they to you. They may be your bosses, clients, investors, and suppliers. The interdependent relationship is linked through tangible factors like profits, gains, and favors. Building rapport with counterparts and stakeholders efficiently helps to build work relationships. What are some communication skills we can apply when displaying warmth and interest while engaging them? Start with making small talk. Yes, small talk is big business. Take time to make conversations with individual counterparts and stakeholders before an official meeting starts. The ice breaking goes a long way to ease any potential tension in the conversations ahead. Prepare to make small talk by preparing to share something about yourself or engage in self-disclosure. These could be something relevant to the event or something simple and personal. For instance, you may want to share about your being a fan of a particular sport, movie genre, or food. Some counterparts may like to talk about their family, for instance, having young children. You could also share something more related to work by mentioning, for instance, something you would like to know about the counterpart's organization. Keep it general and neutral, avoid giving a strong opinion. Keep the conversation light. Self0-disclosure often leads to turn taking, inviting the other party to mirror your behavior and share. If this does not happen, you may ask an open and related question to invite the other party to share. Take an interest in listening through active or attentive listening. In so doing, you are showing empathy. Demonstrate empathic listening by acknowledging through occasional nodding, appropriates facial expressions and verbal utterances like mm and. In a conversation, active listening and empathy could mean responding with familiar brief accounts of your own. Be sincere. Only do so if you share the sentiment. For instance, if you can identify with the demand of having growing children, share a little thought or anecdote when your counterpart talks about bringing up children. All these good interpersonal communication habits contributes to building relationships which will lead to generating goodwill that will go a long way. Each time you meet up and reconnect with the counterpart and stakeholder, prepare ahead by recalling what they have shared and make mention of it briefly. For instance, as you shake hands and say how have you been, don't stop there. Add a personalized comment, like how's the golfing coming along? So, have you caught the latest movie by? How is your toddler? The efforts you put into remembering, asking and taking an interest, goes a long way in forging good work relationships. As you ease into building friendships, you are transforming the transactional exchanges into more meaningful and relationship centered partnerships. To further engage counterparts and stakeholders through your warmth and interest, you could also use questioning skills. Not to interrogate or interview, but to find out more about them. For instance, you may pose questions frequently during a networking dinner to take an interest to find out more about something you have heard. Again, keep it light and decide if the question is appropriate. A good guideline to note is to avoid asking questions about what has been tabled for discussion in the boardroom. You could ask questions about well-publicized group practices and culture of an organization. For instance, I heard that your management team always puts up a item at office Christmas party, is that true? If the conversation is social in nature, keep it positive and light. Display your interest by listening actively. Always show understanding and consideration for your counterpart's needs. This can be as simple as offering to fetch a drink for the counterpart you are chatting with when you walk away to take one for yourself. In the social context of engaging stakeholders and counterparts, they exchange most from making small talk to getting to know each other and perhaps to forging collegial friendships. We can express warmth as we get to know each other better when we extend help and support where needed. This can be as simple as asking visiting counterparts about their plans for leisure after official work and offering information about the local commuting system. They usually appreciate receiving information and tips on shopping, dining and even the weather condition, if they came from a country with a different climate. In a work-related context, display professional humility and friendliness by asking questions to seek clarification where needed. Humbly acknowledging that you need a clearer or second explanation for a task can help to prevent unnecessary mistakes and misunderstanding between you and your counterparts. This is especially important if there is a language or cultural barrier between both of you. I am Susan Lee, thank you for joining me in this lesson on engaging with stakeholders and counterparts. I hope you have found something practical, and insightful here on making small talks and establishing rapport. See you in the next lesson.
