communication skills

Building Rapport:

Building rapport is essential when interviewing someone as it makes the interviewee reveal more.  By Building rapport it helps you build up a level of trust and understanding with your interviewee, almost as if you are creating a mutual connection with them. Good phrased questions and positive body language are the keys things which make building rapport successful. The interviewer does not have to agree with the interviewee in order to build rapport. Having confidence is a useful way of building rapport as it makes you seem more approachable. Though being confident is helpful, it may also have the opposite effect as you may become overly confident, which could be seen as being arrogant and may not get you the answers  and informations you want gain from the interviewee. Using the interviewee's name often (but not constantly as practically every sentence) can make the interviewee feel as though you're almost friends, as you're on a first name basis. Compliments go far when building rapport with the interviewee, which can often be built within the confidence building section of the interview, but don’t overdo or you may appear false. Your overall goal should be to understand them rather than expecting them to understand you. Alan Carr and Jonathon Ross are interviewers that consistently build rapport with their interviewees. 

Body Language:

Your Body language is imperative as an interviewer in interviews, a bad display of body language can ruin the whole interview. Having a positive body language goes a long way as it helps the interviewer feel more at ease, relaxed and open up more.  For example; mirroring an interviewer while having a discussion, therefore making them feel comfortable which something we usually do subconsciously. Sitting up straight, and leaning in slightly forward in your chair shows a level of interest, and also showing enthusiasm by keeping an interesting expression. Eye contact is also a plus as it shows you’re focused and engaged on what they are saying which will make the intervieweefeel more relaxed and reveal more as though the interviewer is paying attention and wants to hear more. However you have to be careful not to overdo it. Personal space is something the interviewee will demand in order to feel comfortable. Negative Body will make the interviewee feel uncomfortable. For example sitting with armed folded across your chest will make appear unfriendly and disengaged, most importantly turning your back from the interviewee will make the interviewee feel isolated and unwelcomed. Invading their personal space may lead to them not giving good responses and feeling apprehensive or uneasy. The interviewer should never have bad posture. Sitting in a 'sluggish' way is a revealing sign of your confidence and interest. It doesn't portray you as very confident and shows that you're not extremely interested in what the interviewee has the say, which can both be off-putting for the interviewee.

In this clip Grace Jones is being interviewed by Russel Harty. Russel Harty shows extremly bad body language as he has his back turned to grace jones and focusing more on the other interwiewee, this makes Grace joins feel isolated and less involved in the conversation. It later on becomes even worst when she points out his closed body language towards her and tells him she does not appreaciate his lack of engagenment with her, this cause Russell Harty to rudely repond back and put his hands on her face. This is a high level of bad body language and should never be practiced by anyone. 

Active listening:

Active listening is a blatant communication technique in which the interviewer gives a positive or assuring feedback on what the interviewers just mentioned on. This means avoiding interruption and getting a word on edgeways in thinking about the audience’s perspective.  Active listening is also a knowledgeable way to engage the interviewee more in an interview. As an interviewer it is your task is to listen carefully to what the interviewee is saying during an interviewee as it makes the interviewer feel though they have the power to speak freely, often prompting them to reveal more. Active listen could be shown by the interviewer nodding and smiling in agreement to the interviewee and to also make sure the next question follows on from the previous answer in order for the interview to flow smoothly throughout. Very few interviews go the whole way with no active listening involved, even fewer good interviews experience this. The interviewer's prepared questions may not involve everything they possibly planned to find out, sometimes they have to evaluate the answer given to them by the interviewee and ask a question relatable to what just been said by the interviewee. They might not even know something that the interviewee will reveal in the interview. So with active listening questions can be asked that the interviewer had never planned on asking. Not only can the interviewer and interviewee feel less comfortable when the interview doesn't flow as well, but the audience who will in turn listen to the interview may feel slightly uncomfortable as well.

In this clip of Oprah Winfrey and Lindsay Lohand i can identify Active listening by Oprah Winfrey body language. Oprah Winfrey is mirroring Lindsay Lohan and showing a hign level of interest as she nods to what Lindsay is saying and making eye contact with her, this shows that Oprah is listening carefully to what Lindsay is saying which encourages Lindsay to open up more.