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The IUP Journal of Soft Skills

Breaking the Silence and Building Rapport Quickly

Article Details

Pub. Date	: Jun, 2019
Product Name	: The IUP Journal of Soft Skills
Product Type	: Article
Product Code	: IJSS61906
Author Name	: Revathi Turaga
Availability	: YES
Subject/Domain	: Management
Download Format	: PDF Format
No. of Pages	: 07

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Abstract

When between two unknown people, silence can be the beginning of a relationship. However, when between two known people, silence can also be the end of a relationship. In communication and relationships, though silence sometimes does help in avoiding arguments and conflicts, most of the times, it can create a wedge between two individuals. It is thus a good idea to learn how to break this silence; be it between known people or be it to build a rapport between unknown people. This paper gives a brief glimpse into various simple techniques one can try and use to break this silence.

Description

Many a time, we hear that silence is very good and beneficial for us:

That it is better to be silent than to yell because it helps in conflicts;

That speech is silver but silence is golden;

That it is better to be silent and appear foolish than to open your mouth and remove doubt;

That silence sometimes conveys way more than many words do; and

That a silent conversation between two friends says a lot about the depth of their friendship.

Yes, there are benefits of silence and being silent. However, not when two or more individuals are meeting for the first time and the purpose is to build connect and rapport. However, silence is our natural tendency, our natural trait with strangers and we have to consciously choose to overcome it in order to build rapport.