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.
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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;

• personal values were aligned to organization values
• able to tap into personal resilience and confidence
• goal oriented driven by passion and purpose
• disposition to thrive under pressure
• willingness to take feedback & improve

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.
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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;

• To install my goal on my future timeline so my unconscious knew exactly what I wanted. You get what you focus on so it was important to create my goal with tremendous clarity
  
• To listen to my intuition – anything that resonated with me helped me make my decision to attend that meeting even though I was resistant to do so, logically
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If you are a fatalist, I hope you are at least beginning to see that there is structure and there are specific tools that help you design a life that you love. I will be touching on these in future blogs.
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:

• How to build rapport
• Ways to manage conflict
• Language to handle objections
• Negotiation skills

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:
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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.
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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.