Social intelligence is an essential part of being a Positive Networker--someone who builds long lasting relationships but has the ability to connect immediately to another person. The previous blog post explains how we are wired to connect. But there's another interesting piece to building rapport.
Benedict Cary in a NY Times article You Remind Me of Me says, "Most people are also strongly sensitive to rapport, to charm, to the social music in the person making the pitch. In recent years, researchers have begun to decode the unspoken, subtle elements that come into play when people click.
They have found that immediate social bonding between strangers is highly dependent on mimicry, a synchronized and usually unconscious give and take of words and gestures that creates a current of good will between two people."
This picture of Darcy Rezac (r) and Peter C. Newman (l) engaged in a conversation at Davos during the World Economic Forum illustrates that kind of connecting. They are leaning into conversation with each other and using the same gestures. Social intelligence is about brain to brain linkages, but as important is body language.
