Building Rapport with Students
Components of building trust and rapport include availability, responsiveness, reliability, knowledge, effectiveness, advocacy, caring, and concern (Ohrablo, 2014)
- Availability: A key factor in establishing trust with students is to let them know you are there.
- Responsiveness: Set expectations so students know when they should receive a response from you. Inform your advisees if something changes, and you will be delayed in your response.
- Reliability: Strategies for conveying reliability include establishing routines, such as monthly communications to students, University reminders, following up after an appointment, and consistent invitations for student appointments.
- Knowledge: Students will develop trust in an advisor who demonstrates knowledge and expertise. Students also begin to trust when they receive appropriate referrals when the advisor does not know the answer. Advisors should attend training annually to refresh their memory about policies, university resources, etc.
- Effectiveness: Students will develop trust and rapport with an advisor after seeing that the recommendations/referrals are effective and correct. Developing a network with other faculty and staff can help ensure your effectiveness as an advisor.
- Advocacy: Listening to a student and understanding their perspective is an important step in being able to advocate for them. While students should be taking ownership of their education, sometimes the advisor needs to step in to help.
- Caring/Concern: When advisors consider the individual student, rather than treating every student the same, students feel cared for. When an advisor follows up with a student after a significant life event, they feel cared for. Showing you care helps a student feel safe and allows a rapport to be built.