NLP is a simple yet powerful approach to personal and professional development. It is based on the study of successful human performance in which the methods of very effective people are studied.
- NLP is a method of personal development – a tool for improving your own and others’ performance.
- It is also a model of effective communication – a practical and pragmatic collection of insights and methods that can enable you to improve how you communicate with yourself and others.
- And it is a means of modelling – or creating models of human behaviour.
The results are then distilled into easily learned ‘techniques’ and presented in workshops – making each workshop a valuable short cut to more successful living. In a few hours, you can learn what may have taken others years to discover in a trial and error manner.
Why business results matter?
Whatever business you are in results matter. The necessary elements to create those results are clear. Focused innovative teams, which prioritize and maximize their efforts to achieve business results, are the dream of many companies and a delight to others. The creativity and flexibility required to ensure survival needs careful nurturing through company culture. Sustained business results and growth, corporate vision and committed employees do not happen by chance.
Attitude makes the difference
NLP has identified a set of learnable attitudes, which help individuals identify and achieve their goals; building a basis of behavioural flexibility, linked to personal values and aligned to those of the organization. These attitudes are much more than left-brained positive affirmations; they are the neurological drivers that allow your subjective experience to become much more rich, enjoyable and fun.
Paradigms and change
The first key to change is identifying physical or mental patterns. Just the awareness and the appropriate management of this will begin the process of creating change, for example, the way you sit when you are answering the telephone can have a big impact on what you say. And your emotional state whether unhappy or smiling influences your vocal tonalities and will also influence those you talk to. Test it out! Similarly, the first thing you say to yourself when you wake up can have a big influence on your day at work. Or more importantly how other people will experience you. These are small but powerful examples of how tiny elements in how we think and emote can make a big difference in our level of functioning. And the key to developing them is not only the identification and enhancement of the individual skills but the ability to align oneself so that all those skills link together to form a harmonious whole.
The building blocks of personal success
Knowing what you want in business is essential. And people who enjoy a lot of success in their professional lives have a way of setting goals that are appropriate to them and their organizations that are clear and communicable and are set in a way that is highly motivational to themselves and their teams. While most people believe that they are good at setting outcomes for themselves we have found that the way goals are set is one of the major differences between fairly good and superb results.
Success is not only about setting goals. Successful people also know when and how to take action. They remain aware of what they are about, where they are and where they are going. They are extremely sensitive to feedback and they continue to modify their behaviour until they reach their goal. They somehow know how to sustain themselves so that they appear to achieve more while seemingly doing less. And this allows them to maintain feeling good about their outcomes and themselves. This, in turn, allows them to maintain their energy and creativity and they naturally find it easy to motivate others. They know to ask a series of consequential questions to help them and others achieve their outcome. The win/win attitude can now be seen for what it is – just the natural result of correct internal and mental structuring.
The natural habits of high performing individuals
In whatever business you are in, there are some personal skills that could be considered core skills. We have found that high-performance individuals naturally continue to develop these skills over time. That development requires ongoing attention. These individuals have habits that allow them to constantly sharpen those skills, and doing so keeps their sharp edge.
Your staff’s ability to use these skills directly affects the bottom line of your business through improved relationships with colleagues, customers and others. Most companies have vast resources in systems, research, infrastructure, contacts and people that they do not even begin to use. Tapping into the potential of your people through developing them will have a profound effect on the success of your company.