Report vs. Rapport Communication Styles

Hi, I'm Kathi Balasek, and I teach grief communication skills to financial professionals so that they can connect, retain, and attract bereaved clients.

Today, I want to talk to you about great teaching.

Great teachers know their audience.

You, as advisors, are teachers, facilitators. You're partnering with your clients. But if what you are teaching isn't driving conversation, you need a different approach.

There are two key differences in gender communication.

The research is very clear about this. Men have a report style of communication, and women have a rapport style of communication. What I mean by this is, men with report style, their speech contains facts, data, and aims to solve problems, and they tend to leave out a lot of the personal information.

But women, are more rapport-driven. They share more personal information, and their speech aims toward relationship building.

So in your industry and in life, men and women complement one another. It is the Ying and the Yang. However, knowing gender communication style differences is really important because you need to know how your information and your teaching lands with your client. That's the key. Know what style of communication you need for a bereaved client.

So I hope this helped you today in your practice, and I would love to hear how it landed.

Cheers