The meaning of NLP is simple. It is an epistemology – a model of how we know what we know. How do you know that you
like something or dislike something? How do you know that something like a bill you have paid is in the past or an unpaid bill is something in the future? Neuro linguistic programming is a jigsaw puzzle of your mind. It teaches you where information is stored and how to retrieve it easily. It also contains the methodology of eradicating negativity fast and permanently… In one of my earlier blogs “What is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)?” I defined NLP as an epistemology – a model of how we know what we know. Many people ask “is it beneficial to learn NLP?” As human beings we think and feel then apply language to our actions. These produce results in our lives whether in our career or family contexts. So just imagine if you knew how to change your thoughts and feelings? And if you had language models to influence others? Wouldn’t these produce amazing results in your life? Well this is what NLP Training does. I teach you models that produce accelerated outcomes, ones that high performers use to achieve outstanding performance. And why wouldn’t it? After all NLP was created by two geniuses in the late 70’s. Co-founded by a Professor of Linguistics, Dr. John Grinder and a computer scientist, Richard Bandler, I had the pleasure of meeting them both on many occasions. I wanted to learn NLP from the masters themselves! So you may be wondering what NLP stands for? Neuro We process our experience through the five senses – what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell. Our filtering through values and beliefs for instance differs from one person to another. We capture and store these experiences. Linguistic We then assign our own meaning to the data we have received and apply verbal and non-verbal language to what we have captured above in the five senses. Programming Our unconscious mind works in patterns which we call habits – good and bad. We are programmed emotionally from young. We are able to change/break these patterns and install new ones that produce better results. NLP consists of more than 100 processes, each one for a specific problem. It caters to every type of issue found in a person’s life. Whether it is resolving team conflict, deepening rapport with friends, managing a state of mind to achieve personal goals or understanding how values drive motivation, there is a process for it. The first level of an NLP course that is certified, is the NLP Practitioner program. It starts off by helping to shift mindsets and work with context rather than content. This migration to resolve issues out of the content of an experience creates accelerated results. We do not need to ask WHY, WHO, WHAT, WHEN or WHERE an experience occurred. For example, if you know the language of influence and use its structure to negotiate a sale or engage your child in a conversation, just imagine the stress you could ooad at the workplace or home. When an organisation views NLP training as an investment it is an awesome step in re-directing the mindset of employees towards the corporate mission. This leads to clearer and transparent communication which harnesses engagement and ultimately higher bottom line results. It is worth every dollar spent for everyone in the organisation tolearn NLP. Which corporate wouldn’t want such a return on investment? I have seen successful companies get their money’s worth signing up for an NLP course in the following ways: They invest in upgrading employee skills during downtime, prepared to hit the ground running when good times come around again. It is highly recommended that the NLP program be rolled out over several months to allow employees time to assimilate knowledge learnt and integrate application in small chunks. They launch a corporate wide NLP course to create a common language that opens up communication and transparency. Here are three major reasons why an NLP program is worth much more than the corporate’s initial investment:
I find that this has its advantages too, allowing participants to learn through different styles by engaging in all their five senses. There are myriad reasons why an NLP training is well worth the time and money invested in it. With such a range of processes at your disposal there will always be a solution for any problem in your organisation. An organisation is only as good as its people. Take care of the people and the rest will fall in place. Knowing that NLP training is an effective way to empower people in your organisation to solve problems and perform at their optimum level, doesn’t it make sense to pave the way for them?
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Richard’s spousal relationship made a significant turnaround fast. He was shocked at the rapid changes both he and his wife experienced. Overnight they were both on a different level. It was a miracle!
But then again was it? In the back of his mind his NLP coach Sandy’s voice rang loud and clear. She had said that as he hit session 3 or so, he would begin to see phenomenal changes. His internal radar was re-orientating. He didn’t quite understand what that meant specifically as he had never experienced immediate change before. As he learnt more about NLP he was beginning to gain some semblance of deeper understanding as to how the unconscious mind worked. NLP worked completely with the unconscious mind, by-passing conscious filters which is how change happened fast. In layman’s terms when Richard cleared anger that he had harboured for years, he changed some pictures, sounds and feelings of the event that had caused him to be angry. He did not have to discuss why he felt that way or intervene with conscious thought. It was such an easy, meditative process called Timeline Intervention. Contrary to what he had heard in the past this did not require a diagnosis or judgment of any sort. He merely knew he had anger – not why, how, when, where? Then cleared it through Sandy’s expertise in facilitating the NLP process. It made sense to do it this way. For years he had steered away from “therapy” never wanting to talk about his anger. If only he knew that NLP did not require him to do so. No wonder Sandy called it Rapid Success Coaching! It was starting to make so much sense now. There were processes for every type of life situation – conflict resolution, rapport building and more. He thought this would prove beneficial to his team as well. His relationships there could improve significantly too. In fact he would bring Sandy in to do some ground work with the team while he did some of her online classes and upskilled himself. She had designed these courses specifically for people to live from Purpose and taught these very processes that he experienced as a client. “Create Your Future Now” was about eradicating past negativity and designing a purposeful future. He knew that working with “context, process and structure” was an art, he wanted to learn. “Content” of life was slow and noisy. Stepping out of it with artful questioning and influential language was the way to go. Plus if he could help his team change the 5 senses in experiences that were the blockage, their perspectives would improve for the better. It was like doing a software update for your computer. NLP was becoming more commonplace in corporates, where tools were applied to leadership, coaching and culture alignment. Leaders were more open to engaging coaches and trainers as a means to improve career growth and manage themselves efficiently. It’s funny how this was more evident now than ever for Richard. He had taken the blinkers off and realised that many colleagues had hired coaches. Anything to make things happen and achieve the goals they set for themselves. There was one philosophy in particular overarching NLP technology that stuck in his mind. It read “if I can change my mind, I can change my performance. So when I change my performance, I change my results.” The tools to change his mind were in the NLP toolbox and if he had his way he would have liked to add the word “FAST”. He had re-programmed his thought patterns, the habits he had formed from young. These emotional thought patterns had affected his mental health all through his adult life. Now that he was free he could imagine what his team and company would be like if everyone was on the same level playing field. Speaking the same language, they would be producing superior results without trying. NLP being an accelerated learning model fit perfectly into the mindset of a high performer or a progressive employee, anyone who wanted to spike their career path fast. It was like unknotting a rope within. Exactly what Richard had experienced once he unknotted himself. He saw different perspectives and felt totally refreshed! A new way of operating was available. He just had to choose it. Many described NLP as magic. He now knew why! Nervousness is the body’s way of responding to stress. It is nature’s way of sending a signal to the body, to prepare for an imagined threat. A little bit of stress can be good. This is called good stress. It keeps us on our toes and heightens awareness. But too much stress leads to nervousness and having this occur frequently, does impede functioning. So, it’s good to learn tools that manage stress levels and teach us how to stop feeling nervous. Nervousness can be brought about in a variety of stressful situations:
These are but some examples. Even children are not spared. Nervousness is rampant on the first day of school, parents included. A common trigger is upcoming exams and the thought of making friends, especially for introverted people. So it isn’t surprising when people seek out remedies of how to stop feeling nervous at one point or other in life. A worthy point to note is that sometimes we can mistake excitement for nervousness. For example, when you’re about to step on stage to receive an award. It is natural to feel excited but the sudden increase in adrenaline causes a rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms and butterflies in the tummy, which feel a lot like nervousness. Years ago I conducted an NLP for self-confidence course to a group of head teachers and head mistresses of a large Government pre-school. Within two half days their level of confidence shot through the roof. It was a matter of using the excitement they felt for self-confidence. Just like we re-cycle things physically, we are also able to do the same with states of mind. A short process is all it takes! Although we stop being nervous once the stressful situation is over, it’s an uncomfortable feeling while it lasts. The good news is, we can learn how to stop feeling nervous and overcome the drama associated with it. This will certainly lead to greater confidence and improved performance. Equipping yourself with NLP for mental health is a great way to manage stress and nervousness. The following are some techniques to try for fit and assess what works best. De Stress Tools Be mindful of your breathing. When you’re nervous the tendency is to breathe from the chest. That’s shallow breathing which does not give you enough oxygen. Breathe deeply from the belly. This calms you down immediately. Find a meditation you like and practise it daily. It doesn’t have to be long. Just the act of sitting down and focusing on your breath for a few minutes is a good start. Spend time in nature. Even a park with some greenery is good enough if you’re in the city. Take a walk outdoors. It clears your head and lightens your mood. And it’s a real treat when the skies are blue. Rehearse Build confidence by rehearsing, what you need to do as many times as possible. In NLP terms you are acquainting and familiarising your unconscious mind with what is to come. In my life as an NLP Trainer, I almost always set up the training room the night before. This allows me to conduct training the next day feeling relaxed and the best outcomes are achieved. If you are new to the stage and you have to make a speech or do a presentation, practise in front of a mirror. With anything, the more you practise the more skilled you become. If you find that this is your weakness, an NLP for self-confidence course is a great way to learn more such tools. Stop The Self-Talk Observe your internal dialogue when you get nervous. Are you saying to yourself things like:
Break this cycle of negative self-talk. This is part of how to stop feeling nervous as your thoughts are crucial in this process. Instead tell yourself:
Take Charge Using tools shared in NLP for mental health can help you take charge and actively reduce this feeling of nervousness. Some tips to take charge are: Eat a balanced diet. You are less nervous when you feel good and physical health has a big part to play in this. Limit consumption of alcohol, drugs and caffeine. These substances impact mental well-being. Get enough sleep. Statistics reveal sleep deprivation increases nervousness as the body craves relaxation. It’s perfectly normal to feel nervous now and then when we’re faced with a stressful situation. Unless you’re a hermit on a mountain top, there is no escape. It is part and parcel of the competitive world we live in. Some adrenaline is fine if it helps improve performance but if you are exposed to too much, this can be detrimental. Whatever you practise becomes easier to call upon when you’re feeling nervous, for example, when you train yourself to breathe deeply during normal times, you’ll be more mindful to do so when you’re nervous. How to stop feeling nervous depends on how you view the situation and what you tell yourself. Knowing this, gives you more control over the situation as all behaviour change is a matter of raising awareness and then changing your thought patterns.
Mastering the de-stress tools and techniques above plus attending an NLP for self-confidence course, will certainly catapult you to a different realm. Even picking up tips from an NLP for mental health book could give you tips to start you on the journey to a new life, where nervousness becomes a thing of the past. Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. As the backdrop of war pervaded in the external world, organisations began to see the greater need for employees to live with strong mental health. Covid-19 and the Ukraine invasion dominated. It caused anxiety fears that the very basis of survival, safety, was under threat.
Employees needed to feel safe. The corporate sector was in a global war for talent. Today it was a very different global war we were up against. This one brought everyone down to a most basic level of a human being’s very existence. As the backdrop of war pervaded in the external world, organisations began to see the greater need for employees to live with strong mental health. Covid-19 and the Ukraine invasion dominated. It caused anxiety fears that the very basis of survival, safety, was under threat. Employees needed to feel safe. The corporate sector was in a global war for talent. Today it was a very different global war we were up against. This one brought everyone down to a most basic level of a human being’s very existence. Trevor and John felt that their decision to drive NLP through the organization in an effort to align their culture, was timely. It was no longer just about talent. As businesses and people in the workforce struggled to stay afloat it was imperative that they focused on creating effective people. People who could adapt and thrive in a new norm, ready to reinvent themselves whatever it took. While the need for talent to drive leadership and fill pipelines for succession planning would remain, they felt it would augur well to prepare for challenges ahead. How would they do it? By creating effective people from within the organisation. This would reduce reliance on external recruitment and why not? Their employees were well trained and had the capacity to step up to the next level through mentoring and coaching. A strategy that had proven to be the cheapest as organic growth from within, meant employees already embraced the organization culture. Sylvia, the NLP Trainer who would take them through this culture alignment initiative was a great advocate of this strategy. Through her many years of NLP training and coaching, she helped ordinary people become extraordinary. She believed that people inherently had the resources within them,, they just did not know how to access them. With multiple generations in the melting pot of the workforce, they were keen to make use of the inherent diversity of Baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Millennials. So many different values and perspectives to tap on! It was an exciting time for Trevor and John to see how the organization would morph and transform into something immensely different and powerful. For one, a natural culture of higher tolerance towards difference. Sylvia shared some traits in common of highly effective people, that she had observed over the years of doing this work. Regardless of generation and level of seniority, she found these traits surfaced unbeknownst to the employee;
So what was the start to creating effective people? The operative word was “accelerate”. The fastest way was to identify high performers at each level of seniority in the organization, who would present the formal leaders. They would begin to attend Sylvia’s NLP modular courses inside of the organization’s program. She had depth and breadth of corporate experience. She fit the bill and her stories from past experience would fit the context in this case. Bit by bit in small chunks, little nuggets of NLP tools learnt would give them the opportunity to apply to daily contexts at work. From conflict resolution to building rapport with the most resistant team member, these formal leaders would start the change process towards creating effective people. In a matter of months the organization would see momentum building. This type of program had to be a “C-suite” buy. It usually started as a conscious effort, a directive from the Board or something akin to that. For the initiative to work, there had to be total commitment from the senior leadership team. Timing of implementation was everything. An NLP program offered organizations a way to support their employees in tough times while giving them tools to manage change. Employees who were open to improving themselves would be the first to spike performance and hit new targets. Exponential growth after an NLP program, especially one that was conducted organization-wide was common. From employee’s feeling motivation to mobilizing a team to higher performance, these were some wins the organization could look forward to. The word change is more feared than death and taxes. I have often wondered why? How does the anticipation of doing something new or being in a new context, elicit so much fear? There must be a connotation and meaning that change will bring bad things. What if we made change for the better? If we wore the hat of an adventurer and actually looked forward to change? Considering change would be a totally different story! Dealing with the fear of change is my expertise. Having come from an above average income family, we had everything. My parents loved life. We went to the beach on holidays at every school break and fear was something we never thought of. We just got into action and did what we had to. This taught my siblings and I to move through change comfortably and ride the wave, when we were faced with a challenge. I guess my parents taught us how to eradicate negative emotions without formally attending an NLP course. Today I look back and think it pretty cool. That I migrated from Malaysia to Australia then to Singapore, with that very mindset. Staying stuck in the same place is actually more risky as we remain numb and end up lacking clarity about the future. It is true that our brain prefers familiarity and certainty. However the neuro-plasticity of our brain also allows us to change and be adaptive to our environment. This is what I teach at an NLP course. How to re- direct your brain to what you really want. Most people have difficulty dealing with fear of change because they do not have the self-tools to do so. Could you drive a car if your spouse or parent bought you one and you had never driven a car in your life? Of course not! The same analogy applies here. We expect people to know how to eradicate negative emotions, in this case fear, but we don’t equip them with tools for change. One big factor to assist people when they are dealing with fear of change, is to help them build resilience which are skills taught at an NLP course. From this point, help them realise that the fear they feel, is a figment of their imagination. Clear the course by helping them create strategies of what it would look like, when they have made the change. Options and possibilities abound. This gets enthusiasm levels up and re-focuses them on the future, rather than the past. Typically at an NLP course like “Create Your Future Now”, content is geared towards the past to eradicate negative emotions first. We call this remedial work that helps to remedy the past. Once past this milestone, we generate the future to build resilience, for instance. The idea is to focus on purpose which is exciting and magnetic. This pulls the person forward into the future, at a much faster pace.
When in this mindset, people are fired up and the past is left in the past, where it belongs. I often say that the value of the past is that we learn from it, so we don’t make the same mistakes again. It also avails a wonderful opportunity to revisit good memories. Other than that, it is far more valuable to focus on the future, where we are able to create what we want. Most often it is the perfectionist who sits in a box of life that they have designed for themselves, as they are unwilling to have unexpected twists occur. To me that is not life. Doing the same thing over and over again to perfection. Whose idea of perfection is that anyway? We are a diverse culture today. Perfection lies in the imperfection. In my life as I moved countries, then careers and ended up running my own business, I allowed myself to flow with life. There were no expectations. Just awareness of the present and intuition to guide me in making decisions. Some were good and some were bad. No matter. I learnt how to pick myself up and move on to the next place. I eventually found my calling by doing an NLP course that gave me loads of self-management tools. My resolve to build resilience was mighty. Dealing with fear of change didn’t even occur as I had overwritten my past script in replacement for a future one. I had connected to my purpose. This only becomes available once you eradicate negative emotions. It is like a freeing of the spirit and liberation of the soul. This is what people who are dealing with fear of change, miss out on. So this is where they need to redirect their focus. Over the years of observing people straddle a job and home, I observed that the ones who “perfected” work-life balance were good time managers. Hence my first focus in this series is time management.
So which bucket are you in? Do you manage time or does time manage you? Do you often feel that there are not enough hours in a day? Or are you someone who marches through the day like clock-work? No matter where you are on the spectrum, everyone could use tips to improve time management with a view to having happy stakeholders at the end of the line. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) works with your unconscious mind – how you process life through the five senses and store these experiences. In terms of time storage and management, NLP recognises that people broadly fall into two categories - Through Time and In Time. We use the metaphor of a timeline which is a series of memories stored in a line. For Through Time people, time is stored external to their body. They see their time line in front of them. They love lists and schedules, are highly organised and dislike others being late. They complete tasks on time or even early and get impatient if things are delayed. All this because they are able to see the next appointment coming up. For In Time people, time is stored internally and the time is always NOW. They live from moment to moment. They are present. They hate lists or to be controlled by schedules or routine. Such people struggle with being on time for meetings, keeping up with deadlines or even being punctual to work every morning. They tend to start tasks in the hope that they are able to multi-task but end up not completing everything. Tips for improving time management are only a temporary fix. They need something more, to help them manage time efficiently in the long run. What would help them more would be NLP coaching to help them adjust their timeline. NLP coaching would help identify a preference for time sorting and then adjust it so that the person is able to do both – change depending on the context they are in. At one of my NLP practitioner courses, a participant who struggled with time management, discovered she was an In Time person. It was a huge light bulb moment for her as it explained why she was so stressed working in the corporate setting which is a Through Time environment. Once she learned how to cross between In Time and Through time, life became so much easier. A combination of the two would allow you to enjoy the best of both worlds: utilise time to the fullest at work and forget about time when you’re on holiday. This one adjustment also leads to behavioural flexibility and work life balance becomes far more manageable. In any case, I invite you to practise the following six tips for improving time management and see where you stand: 1. Plan Always plan what you need to do for the day. In fact, you can make it more effective by setting 15 minutes aside every evening to plan for the following day. Make your plan about the big picture and a list of accompanying tasks that require action. Don’t get too carried away and take hours. Remember, it’s about improving time management, not making the perfect plan. 2. Prioritise Go through your list of tasks and rank the importance of each one in relation to your goals. This ensures that your tasks are aligned to your goals. The completion of each task should take you closer to your goals. Assess resources - manpower, time, funds needed to complete each task and prioritise. 3. Delegate Knowing when to delegate shows strength and maturity. It frees up time for the tasks which need your skills and personal touch. It’s an indication of good self-management skills and has major positive impact on work-life balance. Freeing up time is a freeing experience. 4. Overcome Procrastination Procrastination is enemy number one to improving time management. Reaching for more snacks and doing trivial things before starting a task, are unhealthy signs you may recognise. Overcoming procrastination demonstrates strong self-management skills and these are easily picked up through an NLP for self-management course. 5. Do an Audit Do an audit of how you spend time at the office. Is managing emails taking up most of your time? Are you attending too many unproductive meetings? Do you entertain everyone who stops by to chat? Do you say no when there’s too much on your plate? Are you taking too many long lunches or attending to personal matters during work hours? 6. Start Early This tip for improving time management is the best leverage to give yourself a head start. You’ll be surprised at how satisfying it can be to wake up an hour earlier on week days. Going over your plan for the day, having a leisurely breakfast or beating the rush hour traffic to get into the office early, are some ways to give yourself a good start to the day. If you’re working from home you’ll enjoy peace and quiet before the rest of the household wakes up. Imagine starting the day relaxed and in control instead of rushing frantic. Of course, this means an early to bed night too. It might take some practise if you’re not an early riser but the benefits far outweigh that extra hour of snoozing. Whatever tips for improving time management you follow, it’s best to first identify your behaviour pattern in relation to time. This way you will not be self-sabotaging despite your best efforts. Time management is closely linked to work-life balance and productivity. It is also one of the most important self-management skills you could cultivate. Investing in time and effort to learn NLP for self-management or NLP for improving effectiveness would go a long way towards permanently changing your patterns with time, not only at work but in your personal life. Just imagine being in control of time and managing work-life balance comfortably. All else stems from this base. It is a feeling second to none. You are now in charge! The opportunity to re-set stares us square as we enter a new year every year. Some make use of this refreshing energy that affords a boost and a clean start. Others see it as just another year to do the same thing over again.
How do you feel? Will it be the same or different from the last? Are you a fatalist who does not believe in creating what you want or a manifester who knows that paths can be changed? In my years of helping clients manifest their future it has been heartening to see how lives changed from mediocre to amazing. Being in the field of personal growth, charged with tools to make dreams come true I definitely fall in the second bucket. I read books on the brain’s neuroplasticity, its ability to change focus thus change reality. Gifted with attracting people who had experienced this, I heard stories of how they did it. Moving out of calamity to create a stable normal life based on their choices. Inspired by the, and never imagining I would be an influencer of sorts someday, I followed my heart. From many years ago when I began my career as a banker, I very naturally followed my soul’s purpose. A deep unconscious feeling that led me to be a living example of how outcomes can be achieved. Looking back I would say a big aspect of making change was having an attitude of openness and curiosity. Like others, I realised my formative years as an adolescent drove my decisions. Absolutely nonsensical when I think about it. Today was so different to my growing up years. How could I still operate from the same canvas? That question led me to dig deep inside, to understand my identity. The question “Who Am I” came to mind repeatedly. I then set out on a journey of self-development to find out. As pieces of the puzzle came together I realised toxic beliefs I was holding. With an open heart I disbanded with them. At this stage this was easy enough to do as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) tools were process-driven and highly applicable to daily life. Having reached this level of insight, I realised the most difficult part was accessing my unconscious mind to discover behaviour patterns that were hurdles in my way. Like layers of an onion deeper patterns only surfaced once outer layers were peeled off. The next step of eradicating these patterns was so easy. Like going through revolutions of change internally, I very quickly realised I had impacted my behaviour positively without knowing. Old triggers were gone. The same people who were deemed as problematic were still there but I was unaffected. Incredible that! Life started to become exciting as the old and the past were attended to. The fun part was beginning. The part of creating what I wanted my future to look like. I recall an NLP process I did that had a hugely profound impact on me – setting goals on my future timeline. It was one thing to set a goal but another to learn how to install it in my unconscious mind. Through a series of visualisations I placed my goal in the future. I wanted to be an international trainer. I had not trained for a single day of my life. I was a banker moving to a stage with an audience who would pay to hear me speak. A few months later I was called to a meeting of trainers by my friend Phil. He hadn’t seen me in a while. That night an announcement was made that an Australian trainer was needed for a training in Singapore. I never looked back. Being in the right time at the right place took a few things;
For now, I wish you a Happy New Year! Gone are the days when people were expected to ‘work hard’ and ‘put in the long hours’. We now live in a world that is fast paced and more efficient than ever, which prizes working smart. There are countless ways to improve productivity at the workplace, even Apps to keep you focused and productive. So, there’s really no excuse for low productivity and if you want to really get ahead of the game, a good start would be to learn tools from an NLP for effectiveness course. While most people frown upon stress, there is some goodness in it. Stress when used positively actually boosts productivity. We call this good stress. Deadlines, targets and personal career goals have the ability to produce an adrenaline rush. This helps us complete tasks and achieve desired outcomes consistently and most of all, stay motivated at work. When stress gets past manageable levels, we know it becomes counterproductive. Hence it is important to employ self-managements skills and observe levels of stress that you are able to manage, that keep you in the green zone. One thing for sure, you wouldn’t want to be in a situation where too much stress impacts you to the point of causing low productivity. So, let’s look at how you could leverage ways to improve productivity and perform at an optimum level. 1. Use Technology, Don’t Abuse it Technology itself is a good thing. It’s hard to imagine life without it, for it provides us with many ways to improve productivity. But technology can be a double-edged sword at the workplace, if abused. It takes sheer willpower not to check your phone every five minutes or pick it up when there’s a notification. Turning “Notifications” off while you’re at a meeting or writing a proposal for instance, will keep you focused on the work at hand and help you achieve targets efficiently. You probably already know that it’s absolutely unprofessional to be on social media during working hours, unless you are working in a field that requires its usage. One of the best self-management skills to practise is being proactive rather than reactive. By having a regime of when to check messages, you avoid being a slave to your phone. People will call you if it’s really important. Taking your mind outside the traditional box, an NLP for effectiveness course teaches technology of the mind, which when used well produces even more profound results. 2. Make Lists Making lists of what you need to do saves memory cells. The objective is to save brain cells by not having to go through mental “to do lists”, a small tweak in self-management skills that saves precious time. There is something to be said for writing things down. When I schedule an activity in my calendar, I do it. If I think about it in my mind, there’s a 50/50 chance that I will complete the task. Why? Because I don’t forget when the activity is staring me in the face. While at it, I may also re-prioritise as the full to-do list gives me perspective. Of course, accountability reigns supreme at the end of the day. What a great deal of satisfaction to cross out items as I complete them. I find this to be one of the more motivating ways to improve productivity. 3. Master Your Inbox An Inbox with thousands of unread emails, with work and personal stuff is a nightmare. A tidy and streamlined Inbox on the other hand will help you stay motivated at work instead of feeling overwhelmed. Using a separate email address for personal matters is highly recommended. Only subscribing to relevant newsletters or marketing promotions to keep my Inbox tightly managed, helps in the long run. Further self-management skills like creating folders for different areas of work also help with being well organised and efficient, for the tasks ahead.
4. Utilise Time Efficiently Productivity is directly linked to how you utilise time efficiently. It’s not only about time management but also about how you use the working hours available to you. You must master the fundamental self-management skills of accountability, initiative and time efficiency in order to be productive and successful. Do you stay focused for the duration of a task and complete it? Are you allowing colleagues to distract you during working hours? Are you punctual in getting to the office or are you habitually late? Do you try to do everything yourself or work as a team player? Do you take initiative or wait for instructions? These issues lead to lots of wasted time and are signs of poor self-management skills. These problems are generally chronic in nature and hamper productivity. You could overhaul your mindset by learning NLP for effectiveness. It would help address these problems and discover more ways to improve productivity. I have deliberately chosen these four ways as they don’t require any resources other than yourself. Having an innate desire to stay motivated at work will help apply these practices at work. If you need a little boost to put them into practice, explore an NLP for effectiveness course that will accelerate the entire process internally for you. For now just get the ball rolling and choose one of the tips I have recommended above. Practise it for a week and observe your progress. Once you have achieved mastery move to the next tip. Before long you will be seeing results from implementing these simple tips to improve productivity! Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. We are selling something every single day of our lives. Whether it is a concept, an idea, a product or a service, selling is at the heart of every business. So, it pays to acquire skills for it and good skills at that. I have seen sales courses share conscious mind, obvious stuff that could be read in a book. My approach to an NLP for selling course, would be to assume that a salesperson already knows how to sell. Hence when I conduct an NLP training, I go beyond the obvious. Working with a salesperson’s mindset, I share tools for impact selling with NLP that include processes like:
If you were a salesman, wouldn’t you think these would be more valuable to you? The “how to” depicts process that an NLP course would teach. Using these NLP techniques to sell your products and services is where the actual magic is, as these processes are applied to the context of selling. NLP has been hailed as a powerful toolbox for many years. Many have experienced the wonder of it but only because these learners have in the first place, an expertise and depth of knowledge in a specific field. So, as in a sales context, if you are a great salesperson and want to move to the next level, an NLP for selling course would be of tremendous benefit. Since even the best product or service requires some form of selling, I would highly recommend that everybody does some form of an NLP course, to learn techniques that will help them in sales and life as a whole. In this article I share five effective techniques to sell your products and services: 1. Set Goals to Direct Your Focus It is important to have a sales strategy in order to focus your energy towards a directed outcome. It prevents wasting precious time by charting a clear path. First things first, establish your target market. When you are clear on who your segment is, it will be easier to come up with the most effective sales plan to sell your products and services. Understand who they are, what they need, what their business is about and their buying patterns. Once you have done some research on competitors, set your realistic goals to direct your focus and make things happen. 2. Build Rapport In an NLP for selling course, building rapport is emphasised as the most fundamental skill to have in life. When you are in deep rapport the client feels comfortable and is less likely to object. And even if they have any objections, your NLP training should augur well to resolve it smoothly. You build rapport when you make the selling about your client rather than just putting across a sales pitch. Listen carefully and match their language. For example, observe if they are very visual in their explanation or description, then use the same type of language in response. This is something you can easily learn in an NLP course. 3. Appeal to Values Always emphasise benefits that the client will gain by buying your products and services. This is more effective than just spouting a list of features. For example, if you’re in the software business, show them how much time and money they could save by going digital, with facts and figures as back up. Then elicit values that are important to a client. Is it congruence, where the client expects to receive exactly what you have promised? Or speed of service? Whatever the case, appeal to what the client values. When you sell your products and services with values in mind, the client will feel heard and this matches his expectations as well. 4. Reframe to Handle Objections Respond to objections as an opportunity to get nearer to closing a sale. Don’t get defensive and never take objections personally. Seek to understand what aspect of the products and services they’re objecting to and provide an acceptable response. I personally prefer a client who asks many questions because it is a sign that they are engaged and interested. Clients who just nod and say “no questions” are generally not engaged in the sales process and this is not a good sign. Be prepared with a list of common objections related to your products and services. Create this list before you meet the client and ask yourself “what else could this situation mean for the client?”. Think about how you could open the client’s mind to something that he has not seen. This is called the art of reframing and is taught in an impact selling with NLP course. 5. Close the Sale Sometimes you can get so caught up on how to sell your products and services, that you forget to actually ask for the sale. At some point, after presenting the benefits, cost and features of your products and services, you need to take responsibility for closing the sale. In an NLP training, I have often heard sales professionals saying, “I was so close, but……”. So, working through the negotiation funnel to close the sale requires concentration and sensory acuity to pick up on the client’s language. As we negotiate down to close the sale, we stand the risk of losing rapport. Ever so slowly and in tandem with the client’s rhythm, asking for the sale is an intuitive call. “Would you like to place the order now?” must only happen, when you get the feeling that the time is right. It is an art to hone in on that intuitive feeling, something that is sharpened at an NLP course. To sum it up, you cannot avoid the sales process if you want to sell your products and services successfully. Learn how to do it effectively and boost your business. Practising these techniques will save you time and energy. It will give you the confidence to strategise, build rapport, handle objections and close sales like a pro.
Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. A large part of our work at VIA Frontiers is committed to education. We are passionate about helping individuals attain self-management tools, to improve efficiencies and ultimately lead a happy life. The blogs I have written below are testimony to this.
Every blog will add value to the reader and give insights for free. How does an individual shift their focus for a different posture in life that will bring them grace, satisfaction and a life they love. Happy reading! Workplace conflict is normal. In fact, arguments, disagreements and misunderstandings are to be expected when you put a group of people together in any context. It’s all part of communication problems at work or life for that matter. Of course, it’s also normal that we find conflict rather unpleasant and seek to avoid it as far as possible. But that’s being unrealistic. Rather than wish for no arguments, it’s more helpful to accept that conflict will occur now and again. How you handle it, is what matters more. The good news is learning how to resolve conflict in the workplace gives us tools which become handy in our personal lives too. It is valuable to look at conflicts or arguments as useful and as a sign of engagement. It shows that people care. That’s a positive sign compared to apathy, where people feel anything goes. It is also an opportunity to improve teamwork in the workplace. It would augur well to equip yourself with some techniques on how to be a good team leader. This will boost confidence with the team and reduce stress when conflict arises. Here are four ways to improve communication problems at work:
1. Content Reframing This is a very efficient technique to apply when you feel stuck in an argument. I’m sure you recall moments of digging in and standing your ground, not wanting to give in, feeling so strongly about whatever ideology you believed in. Reframing will empower you by changing the meaning of the argument into something useful. It’s natural to become defensive when you’re in the thick of an argument but this just blows it out of proportion. It’s more useful to shift your focus. It helps clear the head and resolve conflict in the workplace faster. For example, if your team is arguing about the approach to be taken for a particular project. 2. Build Rapport The world revolves around relationships, at work, at home or in social settings. Lack of communication is the root cause of most communication problems at work. The feeling of being on the same wavelength with someone is called rapport. When you’re in rapport with co-workers there is mutual understanding, trust and empathy. Communication is made easy. Wouldn’t it be great to learn how to resolve conflict in the workplace? Then, build better relationships? People who attend NLP for work courses often report that they see a significant improvement in this area, not just at work but in their personal lives too! Having empathy for your colleagues and understanding their position enables you to see other perspectives. Participants in my NLP program never fail to be amazed by the immediate shift they experience by stepping into another’s shoes. You can resolve conflict in the workplace by learning how to read non-verbal communication cues from the person you are communicating with. A hint is to look for what they are doing rather than what they are saying. It is observing unconscious actions that will boost your skills and set you up for success on how to be a good team leader. 3. Manage Your Emotions An NLP for work program will set you up for life. It will teach you one of the most powerful tools, i.e. how to be well-versed with managing your emotional state. And being knowledgeable about how other peoples’ emotions work. For example, when you are faced with an angry colleague or boss and you fly off the handle too, the situation will surely go downhill. The intelligent alternative is to acknowledge his or her emotion and then respond with empathy. Anger is just an expression of some other issue - fear, perceived injustice or lack of rapport, contribute to communication problems at work. So, before you react, step into their world, understand where they are coming from and then respond. When you respect your co-workers view of life, which is probably different to yours, arguments are significantly reduced. 4. Listen Actively Listening actively is an invaluable skill in any situation, be it professional or personal. It establishes rapport and reveals what the other person needs which helps improve teamwork in the workplace. For example, dealing with a team that argues all the time can be challenging. It’s a sign of serious communication problems at work. It’s crucial to give team members the time and space to vent their frustration, disappointment or unhappiness. One way of learning how to be a good team leader is to provide them a safe outlet to freely express their feelings. It’s important not to interrupt them. Or worse, listen with the intention of rebutting what they’re saying. Nod at appropriate moments to indicate you understand what they’re saying. This gives them the assurance that you’re listening. And finally, ask questions to clarify anything you don’t understand after they have fully explained a problem. In conclusion, every working person finds themselves in an argument now and then. Disagreements are part and parcel of the workplace. But we have choices too. We can learn how to resolve conflict in the workplace faster and more efficiently, by attending an NLP for work program. You can go a step further and even learn to reduce arguments through clearer communication with the people in your life. Learning to navigate the minefield of human interaction will certainly make life smoother all around. This is one of the major benefits of NLP for work. Signing up for an NLP for work program is a life changing experience. Why live in fear of arguments at work? Empower yourself and your teams with tools to build rapport and manage emotions with the right NLP training! Covid-19 struck the world and crippled it in a matter of months. Overnight, we are now expected to operate in different ways of living and working. The crux is HOW ARE YOU COPING as a leader? What changes have you made to allow for this new normal that has hit? Are you worried about how you are going to increase employee engagement to increase productivity in the workplace? It is not an easy time to be steering the ship. With tough decisions ahead to retrench, re-skill and strategise for choppy and uncertain waters ahead, the list has to be reinvented. For a leader to do a 360 turnaround, attend to communication problems and improve teamwork at the same time, there has to be a high level of behavioural flexibility. Learning tools from an NLP for work course for instance could be a good place to start. Managing teams to increase productivity in the workplace has become a different ballgame because the workplace has shifted and displaced itself to a different landscape. So, what has escalated in importance, booting out old priorities? One resounding voice is EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Your ability to relate, communicate and emote has become of paramount importance. Employees working from home and at the workplace need to learn a new way of pulling resources together and keep the connection within teams, to improve teamwork. Here are some tips to increase employee engagement in virtual meetings; • With the workplace displaced, there is a high chance that communication is not as seamless as it used to be. Operating from a place of honesty and humility is a good place to start. • Have empathy rather than judgment when things go wrong. Allow for employees to be struggling with the current situation too. Everyone takes a different amount of time to come to grips with what has happened. • Be open to ask for ideas as everyone is exposed to different facets of work and may have suggestions and insights into how to do things more efficiently. This also leads to an increase in employee engagement as everyone is given a chance to contribute. • Amp up your trust factor and allow for freedom of expression. Assume that everyone has the highest positive intention and is working efficiently to increase productivity in the workplace. • Communicate with updates as soon as the meeting begins. This will give all team members an opportunity to feel like communication is open and transparent. • Engage team members to contribute in the meeting so they feel connected to the objectives of the team and communication problems decline. These points cited don’t only apply to virtual meetings. They are holy grail for leading in post-Covid times. Calibrating progress more often not only gives the employee a sense that you are there on the project with them, it also keeps them on track. This certainly increases employee engagement as the sense of belonging is heightened and an employee will give their all, to improve teamwork. Connection with team mates is fundamental to success today. Tools shared at an NLP for work course address precisely this. It teaches leaders and employees how to improve teamwork by deepening their relationship with self. While it is important to be driven by outcomes, amping up observation skills to know when an employee is struggling also helps in ironing out communication problems in the workplace. A simple question “how are you?” gives a leader great mileage and opens the door to understanding issues the employee is contending with at the time. Taking a step further, a leader would do well to find out their team members’ reinforcers.
Ask yourself “what is a reward that this employee loves?” Some reinforcers could be: • Offering them coaching or mentoring • Giving them a higher-level piece of work as training for the next level • Making them a project lead This is definitely a surefire way to Increase productivity in the workplace. Employees feel rewarded and that is the first premise of performance management – to reward behaviour that you want. There is no doubt that this is one of the toughest times to be a leader and manager. Having experienced that situations can change overnight, the most important skill to have is the need to be flexible and resilient. Heightening skills as a coach at an NLP for work course, would give tremendous benefit to increase employee engagement. The deeper you go into the mindset of your employees, the more you understand what makes them tick. This is the gold nugget that will Increase productivity in the workplace, reduce communication problems and improve teamwork. Leaders need to install strategies for their people to heighten their compassion score and deepen engagement with each other. Most often, it is about self-change that removes blockages and negative beliefs that start the conversation. These types of courses like NLP for work could Increase productivity in the workplace easily especially when done in the organization, as everyone is on board having learnt the same tools. It might seem counter productive to be talking about how to improve career growth in the current environment. People may have lost their jobs, had to change jobs or are just hanging on to the jobs they have. The bad news can become overwhelming if we do not consciously choose to stop giving it too much attention. Rather than dwelling on what you cannot control, why not use this time to actively look at how you can better yourself at work or perhaps even secure more fulfilling work. In fact this is the perfect time to focus on learning new skills, re-evaluate your career development or even go all the way to change careers. Sometimes a crisis is the very catalyst that gives us a much-needed boost to lead us to a brand new career. If you are lucky enough to be in the right job and you are happy where you are, it is the perfect time to upgrade yourself in preparation for further career development. So what is career growth? It may appear that the terms career growth and career development are used interchangeably, but they are really two different processes. It is useful to know the difference and it certainly pays to address them equally, to get the best possible outcome i.e. the most successful version of you. Career growth is all about moving up the corporate ladder, focusing on set goals and being strategic while you are at it. Career development involves honing your skills and talent, making qualitative changes that are transformative, and becoming an expert in your field. The focus is on the “how” of achieving such development. NLP for career development and career growth offers a great perspective on areas that might be lacking. It highlights gaps which then assist in setting career goals for you to work towards. These are four areas I have chosen to give you the best leverage. 1. Evaluate Your State I cannot emphasise enough, the value of exploring and acknowledging where you stand right now in terms of your career development. Becoming aware of your internal emotional condition, or what is known as state in NLP, allows you to be results-focused and achieve what you set out to. It is the norm for a significant percentage of employees to be on auto pilot. From day-to-day getting on with the task at hand, without much reflection. With rarely an insight on what it all means, it is living direction-less with no purpose in sight. An NLP coach could help gain crucial insights on states of mind in relation to your career. Do you feel heavy when you think about going to work? Is there an overwhelming pressure that pounds in your head? Do you feel that your office life is colourless? Is your internal dialogue saying that what you do is meaningless? Becoming aware of your state is already half the battle won. You cannot fix something if you do not know it needs fixing. So hiring an NLP coach to accurately diagnose what is going on with your state is well worth the time and effort. It saves you stress and time. It allows you to start from a definite point. Once you gain this insight, the rest is just a matter of using the right tools to switch to more helpful states of mind. 2. Examine your core values If you are someone with a clear understanding of your core values, give yourself a pat on the back. Sadly, a large percentage of people go through their entire life, not giving their values a second thought. This is detrimental because known or unknown, our core values drive our behaviour. Often, conflicts within your career could be due to a misalignment of core values. I recall a friend who had the belief that banks were only out to get people’s money. Despite achieving a high position within the industry she was very unhappy. Examining her values, she found that her core value of freedom was in conflict with rigid terms of contracts that did not give people choices. Reflect upon your core values and check if they are aligned with your career. There is a long list and here are some common ones - reliability, loyalty, authenticity, commitment, open-mindedness, fairness, consistency and honesty. If you do not know how to go about it, attend an NLP course. You will have the experience of eliciting your core values, to understand them in greater depth. Not only will it greatly improve career growth, it will also be invaluable in your personal life. 3. Build your flexibility muscle The most successful people are the ones with the greatest behavioural flexibility. This is a brilliant NLP success belief. If world leaders could practise this, there would be fewer conflicts. Just imagine what it could do for you, in your career. Being flexible is not about compromising your values or just going along with the crowd. It is about looking at a situation and determining behaviours that will serve you well. It is about changing your behaviour to adapt to the situation at hand. Done with the right intent, it highlights more choices on how to respond and helps create better rapport at the work place. So for example, if you are at a cross roads in your career path, be open to other paths. If you have taken action towards a goal which failed, find another way of getting there. Behavioural flexibility is inter-related to states and core values. You may have come across a bossy manager, manipulative supervisor or timid colleague. These are all labels earned, from set ways of thinking and core values that drive their behaviour. If you are open to exploring an NLP course to learn more about how you can improve career growth, that is behavioural flexibility in operation.
4. Take charge Do you take responsibility for your career growth and career development or have you left it to your organisation? Do you blame your boss or colleagues for everything that goes wrong? Or do you accept the part that you played in the situation? In other words, are you actively managing your career growth or leaving it to the forces at play? When you are taking charge of your career, you accept responsibility for whatever happens and cause results. When you are at effect, you do not initiate anything and have the tendency to blame others. If you want to feel empowered at work (or life in general for that matter), be at the cause of your career development and growth. Do not be at the mercy of others, for you will be disappointed. One of my NLP practitioners not only found ways to get a raise, she also knew how to come to an arrangement with her boss for flexible hours and change terms of her contract. All with this one success belief! A huge win don't you think? So when you walk into your office next, ponder over this. Do you want to be in charge of your internal state, live by your core values and have more choices for you to improve career growth? Or would you rather leave it to chance? Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. If there is one trait that most people are after, it is confidence. What goes with confidence is competence which many fail to recognise. Coming from a space of being a subject matter expert in changing mindsets, I can say for sure that it is much easier to access confidence than most people think. So, if you are in the wrong job you are obviously going to lack competence in it. This is a big sign to speak to HR or your boss. Ask for a job move into something that makes your heart sing. Something that comes naturally to you. There is nothing worse than dragging your feet in to work daily and detesting every minute of it. It could also be that you once had confidence and it has waned due to a bad boss who has put you down continually. Being human, there is a high tendency to believe the boss and allow self-confidence to seep out of you. If you resonate with this, fear not. In this article I will highlight some thoughts from a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) perspective, of how to be confident at work. These are self-management tools that I teach at an NLP for work course. As NLP is used for creating a future, a big part of tools shared, centre around managing states of mind for different contexts. Why you may wonder? Well, if you are able to change your state, you then change behaviour. Most organisations focus on markers to improve productivity as that obviously comes from heightened motivation and increases revenue. When employees know how to be confident at work, they automatically improve productivity and feel good about creating a future that they want. Here are some tips to be confident at work;
Confidence is a fundamental trait that impacts every aspect of life. From something immediate like securing a job to a more long term goal like creating a future that you want. With such tremendous impact, it is fundamental to learn skills of how to be confident at work. These skills are central to;
To accelerate your search for these skills, an NLP for work online course would provide the nuts and bolts of how to be confident at work. While many feel that it is a long hard road, it really isn’t. Working with the whole person helps clear emotional blockages that are the hindrance to be confident at work. One links to the other hence the individual is able to improve productivity, creating a future that they want. Like a domino effect, everything sits at the source, and once dismantled, has the effect of unfolding building blocks to re-organise and shape for better results. As an individual gains confidence, they also begin to deepen their sense of self and therefore their identity. This is crucial to creating a future that is successful. High achievers know where they are going and use critical skills to make things happen. In my work with organisations, I have taught NLP for work skills to high achieving teams. To see their success catapult is the greatest sense of fulfilment anyone could have. What did it take? Just learning some tools on how to manage their daily states of mind, setting goals on their future timelines and eradicating negative emotions from the past. Easily done in a classroom setting or online. Why wouldn’t you do it if the rewards are high and you could learn how to mobilise the whole domino effect - how to be confident at work to improve productivity and then have access to creating a future you want? Sounds like a good deal to me! Engaging a business coach has become a norm over the last decade. The coaching industry has evolved into much more than just hiring someone to solve problems. Business coaches are hired for a range of purposes, from helping clients step outside their comfort zones, to holding them accountable when they’re not performing. Apart from being valued for customised one-on-one mentoring and counseling, a business coach is also expected to provide unbiased perspectives on the client’s business. A business coach who has been an entrepreneur in the past or still runs a viable business, would of course have more credibility with clients. It is a natural progression for successful business owners to want to share their expertise. If you’re considering becoming a professional business coach, avail yourself to attend a coach training not only to learn coaching tools but also to meet other coaches in the industry. Let’s look at the three following most important requirements that need to be fulfilled as well. Do you have what it takes? If you are an individual who is passionate about empowering others to seek solutions for their business dilemmas, you are on the right track. A willingness to share your expertise generously is a must. Your success as a coach depends on your client’s achievement of success. This is why attending a coach course is invaluable, to learn formal tools that are transferrable across to clients. Having business experience does lend credibility. But qualities such as being an empathetic listener, having emotional intelligence or possessing strong intuition gives you the edge. In order to become a successful business coach, you would need to put your ego aside and play an advisory role to help clients explore what's best for their business. Another crucial area is your networking skills which are fundamental to success. Sharing with other coaches at a coach course for instance, could give you insights and knowledge to populate and expand your mind. The exchange of stories and ideas is important for your role to operate as a business coach who comes across experienced. Consistent networking also brings you clients. I found my first client this way and realised then, the importance and power of personal branding. Being a business coach after all, is a personal business. If you are able to make meaningful connections as a result of attending networking events, that’s your sales done for the day. One way to enhance these qualities is to attend an NLP coaching course or a coach course run by an entrepreneur, who has credibility in the business world and runs-on-the-board to prove their worth. Invest in Credentials In addition to business expertise, it is highly recommended that you invest in a coach course, to acquire credentials and learn the art and structure of effective coaching. Coach training will certainly put you on the fast track in this profession. Most clients would prefer to work with a business coach who is certified by a recognised body. Certification would indicate that you have undergone rigorous training plus the required hours of coach experience, set by the certifying organisation. It would also indicate that you have demonstrated the required level of skills in applying the core competencies of coaching. Find Your Niche A business coach who specialises in a specific area of running a business, such as sales & marketing, organisational behaviour or performance management, is seen as more of an asset, compared to a general business coach. Being a generalist in the beginning of your coaching career is acceptable, but over time it is recommended that you find a niche based on your strengths. For example, if your strength lies in identifying weak links in the sales process and resolving them, market your niche accordingly.
This is where attending an NLP coaching course will help you identify your strengths and teach you how to match it with a lucrative niche. Summing up, it's a natural progression to share your expertise to help others achieve business success. It is even more rewarding to share your expertise in a structured and efficient manner. This will not only help others achieve the outcomes they desire but also grow your career as a business coach. And if you're already in the line, why not enhance your skills and give yourself a leading edge by learning the art of professional coaching through a coach course. Taking your business coaching skills further with an NLP coaching course, you could blitz it way ahead of your competitors, to help your clients prepare their mindset for business ahead. Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. Lack of communication is a major factor that causes relationships to break down. Whether it be family relationships or ones at work, these have massive implications on results. At work, dis-harmony causes conflict which makes it hard to focus and produce results. On the personal front, people separate, to the detriment of family unity. So how do we address communication problems in the workplace? One very efficient way is to attend an Neuro Linguistic Programming for success at work course, as it is filled with communication tools that are easily applied in the workplace. This accelerates the learning curve and you hit the ground running, immediately. Some aspects of communication that you will learn at an NLP online course: 1. Building rapport Understanding how you process through the five senses gives a big picture view of your preferences. If you are more visual, matching the person you are communicating with, helps them feel comfortable with you. 2. Stepping into another persons’ shoes A fundamental factor in effective communication in the workplace, is to be able to empathise with the other person. Often when we see another’s point of view, much of the resentment we have held for the other person falls away. 3. Language of influence We use language to focus our attention. If we are high achievers we use a certain structure of big picture language. A different structure of language is used for negotiation in reaching an outcome. Understanding these styles of language are also part of an NLP online course and make all the difference to heightening effective communication in the workplace. With migration of the business world to the online space, communication problems in the workplace could easily escalate. Not having face-to-face interaction removes a big part of communication and heightens the possibility of conflict. Post-Covid 19 Approach 1. Structure It is ever so important to learn structure of anything you would like to master. To understand how the mind works is an essential part of progress, for this is where you replicate your talent to others in the workplace. What do I mean by structure? At an NLP for success at work course, you will learn the art of delivering a message. It isn’t only in the words that you use, in fact the right tonality gives way to a far better outcome. This is only one side of effective communication in the workplace. 2. Listening power The other large component is listening power. We have two ears and one mouth to be used in that proportion. Listen for what is not being said, to diagnose communication problems in the workplace. Often the problem lies beneath the surface and needs to be unravelled, for a solutions-focused approach. 3. Exercise professionalism In the years that I was an employee working in large corporates, I had a very strong philosophy of leaving my personal and professional life separate. This continued into my years as an entrepreneur and I am the better for it. I built credibility and colleagues took me seriously. The NLP for success at work course helped me tremendously in tweaking my style of communication to suit the people I was interacting with. 4. Keep the face-to-face meetings We are human at the end of the day and we need socialisation. With most of our communication now online, we must realise that many communication problems in the workplace stem from this. If you have the authority to call the shots, decide to bring your team in to the office, at least once or twice a week. This human connection accounts for a lot and reinforces team members’ sense of belonging. 5. Transparency is key
The last thing you want is for your team to find out about something relevant to them, before you have updated them. If you keep communication rolling, the open nature of downloads will deepen belief in you and the system in place. Trust is then installed and this is probably the ultimate aim of achieving effective communication in the workplace. Once you have established this, you have everything. 6. Feedback loop Ensure that the feedback loop is active and works. In many ways your ability to learn is based on receiving feedback. Living in a silo where you are not connecting or communicating with others will make you myopic and unable to relate to others. Ego and stubborn headedness are also setbacks to effective communication in the workplace. There is no value in this, as colleagues disengage from you and problems like conflict begin to sow their seeds. You will find many NLP online courses in the marketplace today. Simply put, I would recommend you go for any NLP-based course as the tools you learn will blow your mind away. Regardless of role in the company, these tools will help you resolve communication problems at work. Highly applicable to the workplace, you will be able to use them immediately. Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. As Sandy moved along with her coaching business she realised the importance of collating data. From age, gender, marital status to career and many other dimensions that she felt would give her deeper insights into trends.
Specialising in helping people in relationships break through mental blocks, she began to notice valuable gender-related data that was beginning to show trends. She felt these patterns of behaviour would help her accelerate coaching results. This was the birth of Rapid Success Coaching! Sandy began to garner her intuition and data mined trends. Men who signed up for coaching were few and far between. They usually turned up when their relationships were at the end of their tether. Much like her client Richard whose wife left and said she would never return unless he saw a coach. On arrival to her practice that first day, Sandy observed his physiology which was hunched. He did not make much eye contact. She felt he was like fish out of water. This would not have been his preference if he had a choice. The coaching room was set up deliberately to calm and relax clients. Soft hues of fabric draped the sofa and pastel-coloured cushions softened the space. It was indeed amazing to see Richard’s level of comfort escalate in a mere session. It wasn’t what he thought it would be. Sandy explained that she would not be giving him any advice, rather leave him to make his own choices once she had worked through processes with him. She used language that he liked and resonated with. As an engineer his lack of communication was merely a resultant of low understanding in the field of how the mind worked. Most of his thoughts were based on therapy in the past that he had seen family and friends succumb to. He did admit to Sandy in their first session that he was less expressive than his wife. She shared her feelings readily with him but even though he felt things, he found it hard to verbalise. He preferred to just think that the negative feelings would go away but they didn’t. Sandy immediately set up their next session to clear the anger and rage that stemmed from Richard’s past. It had resided in him for long enough and was choking his ability to express. After all, the mind and body were connected. Every thought became a feeling that impacted the body in a negative way. Like a clogged drain, that eventually blocks a pipe. For now it was just his throat that was blocked but over time if this continued, it could be the very cause of a heart attack. Richard listened with great intent. His annual health markers were starting to show up on the decline. Sandy was already hitting a nerve. As Sandy continued to calibrate all the issues Richard wanted to address during these sessions, she also noted that men had a strong ego that stemmed from competitiveness. This merely occurred because men found it hard to empathise. She had a process for that too. Sandy made a note to do that in another session. This would give Richard the bandwidth of emotions every human being is entitled to. Having a choice to operate from trust to control or empathy to authoritarianism, these were lovely options to have. In fact just thinking about it gave Richard a feeling of freedom as the band of emotions had widened. Sandy did explain that this would be a phenomenal result that many people in his circle of influence would notice and to be prepared for it. What a change that would make? To be complimented rather than put down. He had a reputation for blowing his handle at small things at work and of course this spilled over in his relationship. A big plus of Rapid Success Coaching is that Richard was being guided to his intuition, something that many men were trained not to do. The training he received as an engineer was to ensure that things had to make sense. Decisions from the head were king. Sometimes though heart decisions while not linear were right. Attracting exponential results they were the best decisions. It was a matter of trusting self and learn how to do this artfully. A total departure from how he operated today. He felt elated. He had found Sandy who was process-driven. She understood context and stayed out of his content, the privacy of his life. Needless to say Richard transformed himself in a matter of five coaching sessions. Having cleared his past he decided to sign up for an online Zoom course that focused on the future – Create Your Future Now. It was time to design a future that he loved and that included his spouse. His relationship was skidding down a slippery slope but he caught it in the nick of time and was now skiing to success. O what a feeling! Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information. As interviews with key decision makers ensued, Sylvia and Bala were sharpening their view of strategy they needed to employ. Gathering the team over a drink they liked to keep things informal. Hunkering down with flip charts and I-pads to discuss findings from their numerous interviews, this would pave the way for the entire Culture Alignment program.
Overall their job was to help employees understand their operating system;
All food for thought that would leave them reflective for some part and raring to go at other times. Real life stories of success stories would be the centre of discussion. Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, the man who defied all odds and shattered his physical limitations, sentenced to five years imprisonment for culpable homicide. Tried for the murder of his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkemp this was a widely publicised case. As the case went on and his life was laid bare, a striking paradox surfaced from this man’s public persona. It appeared that for all his superhuman feats, he was also a very vulnerable and insecure man. The sad thing was that many people commented on his ‘aggressive and reckless behaviour’, unfortunately after the fact. They also made observations of his pattern of ‘possessiveness and control’ over Reeva and previous girlfriends. It was obvious that unconscious patterns of behavior were driving him. The worst part? He didn’t know what they were. Suffice to say that metaphors like this would be enough to open the door of employees to the workings of the unconscious mind. Many human tragedies stem from this type of emotional programming. This was just one which happened to get huge coverage in the media. From a more human, practical and day-to-day perspective, we as a society could avert such negative endings by getting to know ourselves better and healing from these occurrences. This of course seen by corporate people is a result at the extreme end of the scale. Consequences produced by corporate people probably rest at a more moderate level. But then again we never know. Cases of ultra horrible bosses who abuse their people emotionally over years which may not sound as bad but have a hugely negative impact on employees. This is where Sylvia and her team were going to make a massive difference. All trained in Neuro Linguistic Programming, a model effective for interrupting emotional programs, they were set to make a difference. With many years of corporate coaching experience they could easily spot patterns and mental programming in people. A truly valuable resource to have, inherent also in leaders and parents, this ability to recognize patterns of at the workplace was fundamental. Change tools would then eliminate these patterns swiftly and replace them with new, more empowering ones. Most people did not realise their operating system, let alone examine if it was helping or hindering them. A boss dictator, a timid colleague who can’t say “No”, a friend who never offers to pay the bill or a parent who claims to know everything. They all had one thing in common. They were driven to behave in a certain way by some belief, idea or value which most likely was installed at a very young age at school or in the family. The dictator boss could have internalised a belief that if he / she was not strict, people would take advantage of him. The timid co-worker could have learnt to say “Yes” to requests because his Mum did that. The friend who never offered to pay a bill could have come from a family tight with money. It was no surprise that they were subjected to parents’ conditioning! There was no escape! From birth, everyone was bombarded with well-meaning albeit erroneous conditioning from parents, teachers, society, religion, culture. It was time to be accountable and face up to these patterns. The faster the better for then the future was ahead and the sky was the limit. The power lay in being aware of these patterns. It was easier than most people thought. Sylvia and team got such a buzz when they saw people turn around results right in front of them. They had been down this path. Today they were fueled by fulfilment, satisfaction and contributing to others. The question for each employee was this. Do you live in a set routine where your programmes control you or are you aware that the choice is yours to make good decisions and live the life you want? Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers established in Sydney in 2002. She is a corporate NLP trainer and consults in creating effective people in the Asia Pacific Region. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat – Turn Your Luck Around to Realise Opportunities – launched in major bookstores in Singapore on the 23rd October 2014. Go to www.viafrontiers.com or email [email protected] for more information. Sara started to feel uplifted. It was coming to the end of a year when the world stopped for a pandemic. Living life in normalcy had been a luxury. Those who had life turned upside down were in strife at the new landscape they were facing. Many worked from home. Sara knew though that her winning mindset would have her do anything and everything to make things happen. She was an adventurer at heart who took on challenges in life as they appeared.
She had lost her job in the pandemic and had to find options to reinvent herself. She realised many aspects of her life needed to be refreshed. She charged on with acquiring self management skills. Zoom courses made it easy to upskill from home. These would augur well to heighten her behavioural flexibility and give her adaptive capabilities for whatever eventuated. It would also help her journey down a path to self-actualization. Coaching resonated with her. She could see the value of being coached. It would accelerate her journey to clarity. She also realised the fulfilment of being a coach. Living life helping others step into their personal power must be the most gratifying feeling, she thought to herself. So she hired an NLP coach and signed up for an online NLP course “Create Your Future Now” at the same time. She wanted someone who would teach her how to accelerate outcomes with a winning mindset and learn models fast through a course. While most people thought change was a long and arduous process, Sara’s NLP coach begged to differ. The best part about NLP coaching Sara thought, would be to work fast via her 5 senses. She was told these processes produced profound results. Now after a mere 4 weeks, she came out on the other side and saw the world through different lenses. Abundant options and possibilities were in front of her. She had learnt how to create from nothing. The mind map that she produced at the end of the course would be a metaphor is guardian to her journey. She would continue her NLP journey through to the Practitioner course to add to her repertoire of tools she had already acquired. Her relationships at home and work that had been under the spotlight, made a turnaround after she stepped into her NLP coaching mindset. Many aspects of her life were cleaned out so it was a short path to deciphering what she would focus on in 2022. She was establishing her business and would be ready to see coaching clients as soon as the year began. Her winning mindset got her here fast. She realised many of her friends would have the big question lurking in the forefront of their minds.What to change next year! She knew her friend Deborah was still in a quandary as many others in their cohort. They were still wondering what to do in 2022 having not done much in the pandemic. In a way Sara felt losing her job was a blessing in disguise as it forced her to look at the future with discernment and urgency. More than anything relationships had changed. Working from home and social distancing had pushed people apart. This was not a natural way to be. Human beings needed the connection. Many were struggling internally and didn’t know where to turn. Having now acquired coaching skills Sara felt on top of the world. She had self management tools and was confident too about wearing her new hat as a coach. An idea struck her! Perhaps she could help her friends gain clarity for 2022. She sent an email out about her offer to do some group coaching sessions. Would anyone be interested? A few hands went up. So she set on her way to take the group through steps that would clear the way for decisions. Zoom sessions from home made it so convenient for everyone to attend; THE SET UP Sara briefed the group in their first session. This phase would involve diagnosing where they were currently, in their life, individually. What did their life look like now? Sharing a few self management diagnostic tools she helped them identify gaps. She could see relationships were a big gap with most. CLEARING MIND COBWEBS Next Sara explained that unless past negativity was cleared, it would not augur well to focus on the future. This was a fundamental part in accessing a winning mindset. She helped the group identify their blockages. Whether it was negative self-beliefs like “I am not good enough” or fear and anxiety, they flushed it out. RE-DIRECTING THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND Most people were unfamiliar with their unconscious. Questions popped up. What was it? How did it work? Were there ways to maximise its use? Sara began by having everyone set goals. This was the way to re-focus the mind to what they really wanted. She then facilitated a process to install these goals in their unconscious mind. ACCELERATING RESULTS Now that they were ready to blitz their performance, Sara shared many self management processes they could use to signal their unconscious mind to success. Most important was for them to use their 5 senses and imagine that the outcomes had already manifested. It all seemed easy enough having these mental NLP models. In fact as weeks went by each of them were beginning to experience changes. They were clear as to what they would focus on and doubt fell on the wayside. They had stepped into a winning mindset. The few weeks of group NLP coaching had given them a forum to discuss their progress as they journeyed on different roads together. There was so much power in having buddies to challenge and be challenged. They had each other to fall back on. Sara had done them a good deed. They were living life now excited at the prospect of 2022 approaching. “Bring it on” was their posture, rather contrary to how they had begun. Working from home was a concept that was considered a no-no for many non-technology companies, until Covid-19 hit. The year 2020 was phenomenal in forcing a mindset change to many ways of operating, one of them being the whole idea of working from home...
Hearing first-hand from employees that their company revenue metrics surged despite the workforce working from home, the truth homed in. It was evident that with less travel time and expenses, employees had improved work productivity. Further to that, workers reported that they were well rested hence felt reduced stress and hopefully on the way to a healthy life. While many were resistant to a mindset change in the past, especially when organisations organised corporate trainings, the great re-set was proof that change happens fast when the need arises. So, being open to new ways of operating is all that is needed, to lead a directed life towards reduced stress and improved work productivity. If you are one who has the option to continue working from home, good for you. As a Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) Trainer, I say this with my hand on my heart. Understanding how to make profound change easily and fast is what I help people do. The only thing I look for is that the person is open to learning new things and come to the fore of their own accord, without any pressure from family or Colleagues. So what I share in this article is from an NLP perspective. In many ways these tips will help direct your mind to great results like reduced stress and improved work productivity. Healthy Work-life Balance Tips for Working From Home (WFH); 1. Keep the connection with others It is an important time to relate and communicate with colleagues so keep the corridor of conversation open. Human beings need the emotional connection to balance IQ, EQ and SQ. Don’t feel guilty to pick up the phone and have a chat to a colleague when you need a break. However you do need rules around how long you chat for. This refresher is important for reduced stress. 2. Set daily rules based on your Circadian rhythms If you are a morning person, schedule activities that require your greatest focus. Working with your natural energy patterns will yield improved work productivity. Observe your patterns and plan your week based on this. Do this so you create work-life balance which leads to a healthy life. You will see results within a few weeks. 3. Create time for yourself Working from home can get serious so it is fundamental that you build space in your schedule for some personal time. Whether to hang on the phone with a friend or listen to music, this is rejuvenates energy. When we are joyous we feel good. This cycle allows for energy to top up and give you a refreshed feeling. Laughter is the best medicine. An old adage that still holds true which leads to reduced stress. 4. Choose a practice you love To create work-life balance we must rejuvenate from the mind, body, spirit angles. A physical exercise regime to swim or jog at a certain time of day, augurs well for the unconscious mind to engage rigorously. From the spiritual dimension, whether prayer or meditation are your choices, that is up to you. These are important practices to have a sustainable and healthy life. 5. Anchor your workspace When working from home, this is probably the most important point to generate improved productivity. Your unconscious mind is an obedient mind. If you give her orders, she will know what you want. So, give her orders by working from the same place daily. Write proposals in one part of your home and take calls in another. Do the same activity in the same place every day. 6. Be outcome driven Set goals for yourself daily and weekly. Acknowledge small wins that encourage you to achieve even more. This is how you strive to achieve a mindset change. Directing your unconscious mind is gravely important. It forces you to focus and this is where resilience is built. When working from home this is a fundamental practice to set and achieve work-life balance. I hope you realise now that the unconscious mind is fundamentally where a mindset change occurs. Knowing how to work it to the fullest, yields reduced stress hence a healthy life in the long run. With mental health eroding globally, many people suffer from anxiety that is exacerbated further by working from home. A work-life balance is easily achieved if you implement some of the tips I have shared. ![]() Spending time on an activity you enjoy has the potential to reduce anxiety and improve mental health overall. Research shows that people with hobbies are less likely to suffer from stress, low mood, and depression. Think about it. When you are having a good time, engaged in activities that you enjoy, you feel happier and more relaxed. There is little or no need for stress management as endorphins are produced in your body which promote positive feelings. A hobby which is usually something you choose to do outside of your daily “have to” routine is a great way to spend your spare time. Finding a hobby could do any one of the following as it did in this sequence for me; Find new friends in an environment outside your normal context In my mind it is highly recommended to engage in a hobby that helps me meet new people. When I migrated to Sydney I set out to create as many hobbies as possible. The idea was to meet people from different walks of life. Some were enjoyable and others weren’t but what it certainly did for me was help me meet people who lived in different parts of Sydney and who worked at many different jobs. I learnt so much from these people and joined activities which made me refocus my mind out of the stress of having just moved countries, to enjoying my new life. This re-direction of focus is what helps your brain engage in enjoyment and reduce stress with hobbies. Unwind from a daily routine I was a banker when I migrated to Sydney. Days were stressful and intense. I had a new job in a new organisation in a new country. From learning how things were done to establishing new relationships. I found a new friend at the bank who was also single. She lived in Manly which is a beach suburb. As in new friendships the excitement of spending time together was definitely an activity I looked forward to. A quick drive to her place, dinner and a three hour walk by the beach would change my state of mind, leaving me totally relaxed at the end of the night. From smelling the salty air to feeling the cold water at my feet. Learn a new skill As months went by and I delved in more hobbies, I gravitated more to things I had never done before. I especially felt a deep need to get out of my left brain (intellectual side) to my right brain (artistic side). As luck had it, one of my girlfriends was a good dancer. I loved music and this got me interested in learning a new style of dancing called Ceroc. I found myself a dance partner. We went dancing every Tuesday and Thursday from 7pm for 3 hours. I still recall how stressed I used to feel when I first arrived at the dance hall and how relaxed I felt as I left at the end of the night. My ability to reduce anxiety was certainly fundamental to heighten productivity at work. Challenge you to deepen a current practice an interesting aspect of my life beyond banking was that I felt a calling to meditation. This I found out unexpectedly as I one day stumbled across a sign that read “free meditation” This journey began with art meditation and opening channels of intuition. After many years of going deeper with a variety of different aspects of meditation, I ventured into the ten day silent retreat-style meditation. I met some of my best friends there and learnt how to bypass jet lag, reduce anxiety and improve mental health. A wonderful, very pronounced side effect that everyone at work noticed was that my performance at work improved. While I did not target explicitly to reduce stress with hobbies, that was what exactly happened. Most organisations view stress management from a serious angle yet the opposite posture needs to be taken. Teams that are happy experience motivation to perform. Their focus is not on how to reduce anxiety or improve mental health, but more to enjoy what they are doing. In fact if you interview an entrepreneur or business owner, you will find that their heightened resilience and “never say die” attitude is cast in stone. They are focused singly on winning not on failing. They also value a balance in life so having fun and playing are just as important as work. More than anything, entrepreneurs have made work out of their hobby. I often hear them say “I am being paid for my hobby” which is a cool concept as their level of enjoyment is immense and they definitely know how to reduce anxiety with hobbies. This is what employees need to understand if they would like to heighten productivity. Having a hobby eradicates the need for stress management and reduces anxiety, not the other way around. Diagnosis, the starting point of everything. When done well, we are able to chart steps forward. As an NLP Coach and Trainer, I find this the most important step in helping my clients.
This is where experience comes in. Akin to a doctor who diagnoses and prescribes medication, I understand a client’s mind and know exactly what they need. To have them settle in with comfort to the interaction, I get them to take a stab at their Wheel of Life. What are segments in their life that are important to them and if they were to dissect the Wheel, what percentage would they allocate to each segment? Are they in front of me because they have to make more progress in their career or relationships? How is it one segment has more success than another? These are simple yet profound questions that have clients dig deep for answers. It is also important to know where they are in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If they want to self-actualize at the highest level, how are they going to get there? What resources are needed and do they already know where the gaps are? Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) has many diagnostic tools that then progress a client to the next step of making the actual change. One of my clients was adamant that she could not be a success in life. Her teacher had alluded to that when she was 10 years old. At the time her results reflected it and she was totally convinced. It took a few sessions and webinars to have her realize that she had programed her mind to believe that. Removing her beliefs that limited her, she saw the future with new eyes for the first time in her life. The rest was history! As NLP works beyond conscious thinking, results are accelerated and clients access their inner selves for the first time. It is likened to an activation of sorts. Would you like to be activated? This is the start to create a life that you love…. John set his sights on being the CEO of a multinational company (MNC) someday. By the end of his career, he had planned for a successful retirement, one that would have him sitting loftily on financial stability.
He was now in Senior Leadership, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of an MNC, pretty close to his goals and pretty much on track. Like many others globally, he had not anticipated a pandemic and the chaos that came with it. His entire Operations team had to be re-hashed in so many ways. He could see some would have difficulty with the new style of working as their mindset and level of behavioural flexibility left much to be desired. He too knew that he would have to change in many ways especially as a leader. The mindset to cope with current and future issues. Most importantly, his leadership would have to withstand the future and be prepared for any eventuality. Thankful for the Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) courses he had done that set him apart from the rest! He had climbed the career ladder fast, learning self-management tools and operating from a high performer’s mindset. His ability to master NLP was a big factor in having him reach the success he had. His playground was the many companies he had worked for that gave him the opportunity to use influential language with his teams, to mostly understand other perspectives and resolve conflict. At the end of the day it was about not taking things personally and having the ability to negotiate between two parties to a desired outcome. John began to jot down things that were fundamentally crucial to creating a Leadership mindset for the future. What else would he need and what would he look for when recruiting a leader into his team? 1. Visionary While this term had been bandied about for decades, the true ability to see beyond and prepare for the worst was something that had not been fleshed out to the extent that was needed. A leader needed to be visionary and think critically, perhaps even imagine living in a simulated world of extremes, to be prepared for the worst case scenario. 2. Empathy The old days of authoritarianism were over and the ability to empathise by stepping into the other’s shoes, escalated in importance. Coaching for self-management was one such skill that many lacked. A leader needed to understand others’ perspectives in resolving situations and making decisions. 3. Flexibility The person with the greatest behavioural flexibility ended up being the winner. To up-skill and re-skill where needed, gave leadership the confidence to rotate and assign tasks as required. A leader needed to give employees job rotation roles as frequently as possible to acquaint themselves with working from different angles of the company. 4. Decision Making A good and fast decision maker arose from leaders who were connected to their intuition. They were focused and driven individuals with no internal conflict. A leader needed to have cleared out emotional and spiritual blockages to roam uncertainty with ease. John also realised that for all this to be steadfastly grounded in company culture, companies needed to be in businesses that were sustainable. The overall big picture of what Mother Earth needed would have to be the driving force. Inside of this if the needs of employees were taken into account and met, for instance the flexible leader who promoted employees as self-management advocates where work-life balance came naturally. John recalled a CEO he had worked for in his career changes. He was focused on making his people happy first. “When people are inherently happy” he said “they will also come to work happy and perform.” It was so many years ago that this insightful CEO had communicated his philosophy. He retained his people. They loved working at the company. They worked together as a team with transparency and a non-existent hierarchy. They played hard and worked hard! A big part was that they had installed a culture change using NLP tools as their main methodology. Employees became adept at self-management as many found it easy to master. NLP was after all a process-driven model which was highly applicable to Leadership and the workplace. Looking back on the last year and what he had been through, he was thankful for his mindset and desire to continuously learn. He was prepared for the future especially when it was his turn to be in that hot seat! Trevor had a big task ahead of him. The Board had approved his Human Resource proposal to implement a Culture Change project in the coming year. Even the mere thought of what it would entail gave Trevor the notion that it would be a full - on year. It was December and at year end he knew as HR Director of the company that his people had worked hard. He could not stress more the power of re-charging energy at year end. To throw caution to the wind and change gears in their life.
He wrote a memo out to all Heads of Department stressing the importance of taking a break at year end. Other parts of the human brain needed use. The over reliance on left brain activities would be yearning for some right brain activities. Get outdoors and play was the tone of his note. The company Christmas party organised would set the tone. It was time to dance, laugh, sing and play. The visual of a battery re-charging popped into Trevor’s head. The human mind was exactly like a battery. When the charge was strong, high performance was achieved. The capacity to re-charge self-confidence was innate and once done, would be available for use to the fullest. This state of mind in need of re-charging most often surfaced at year end and Trevor having run HR for more than 20 years was well aware of that. After 48 weeks of hard yakka, the remaining few were in need of a hunker down. Employees who did this produced consistency in performance. Trevor indicated some steps that came to mind. These could be easily implemented if people were interested; Get loads of sleep Counter to most thinking that sleep is a waste of time, this is one of the best healers. Sleep re-connects neurological pathways and repairs organs that have been working overtime. Sleep between 10pm to 2am is crucial as that is when the organ mechanic is hard at work. A good sleep regime is uninterrupted 7 to 8 hours daily. Learn how to meditate This is an opportune way to access downtime. Trevor was a Vipassana meditator. He attended a ten-day silent retreat that taught him the art of meditation. It was one of the best things he ever did. Meditation rejuvenated his energy levels and gave him peace of mind to sleep well and improve mental health. He started running when he had never been a runner. He didn’t suffer jet lag anymore despite the intense travel schedule he had. His productivity and self-confidence shot through the roof. Many such things emerged after he started practising meditation. He became a new person. Switch off internal dialogue Trevor found a big hurdle in his life in the past was his internal dialogue. His analytical mind that constantly talked to him. Stopping him from doing what his heart desired. He realised as long as he was having conversations with himself, he was not engaging with the outside world. Internal dialogue operated counter intuitive to improving productivity and tapping into self-confidence. Since becoming aware of this one component that blocked him from so many positive things he shared his experience with many who suffered negative self-image. Travel was a favourite of most. Leaving routine and familiarity behind to venture into new landscapes was a great way to use different parts of the brain. It was not for everyone though. Some preferred to go down to their favourite diner and meet friends. Whatever the case it was important to do what made the heart sing. If it got you excited that would augur well for a rest. He pondered over his life. Many things would change in the coming year. Once Neuro-Linguistic Programming was implemented company wide, this would create more managers as coaches. Companies like his that were intent on creating high performance teams were aware that NLP was an accelerated approach to achieving superior results. Trevor was expecting to see a fast turnaround in results once his people connected to the core of their being and tapped into their self-confidence. These were exciting times! One of the greatest life skills I learnt from my father was to choose my response especially in volatile situations. The old way was to keep silent and let things boil over.
Today, having done NLP programs and subsequently become an NLP Trainer, I realise so much of what I had to control in the past could have been done in a more efficient way. At the core of NLP sits one of the most powerful tools - how to be adept at managing your emotional state. Whatever the other person is spewing, you remain calm and confident. For example, when faced with an angry spouse and you fly off the handle, the situation doesn’t augur well for either party. The alternative is to fire off an anchor of calm so you are able to access empathy and rationale at the same time. Creating anchors are easy to do. Learning through “remembering a time when” you were calm, your neurology is able to access the feeling. Capturing that feeling is fundamental to the process of replication for use in the future. Many people are not aware of these feelings as they go through the day. As human beings we access hundreds of emotional states daily. Imagine if you could anchor fundamental states to be used again in the future when situations arise! You become the Master of that interaction as you dictate the communication. Awareness of states is everything! It is the basis of success! |
SYLVIA FERNANDES
Sylvia is a qualified Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Master Trainer. She started her business in Sydney and is now based in Singapore. Archives
February 2025
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