The Culture Alignment project was in design phase as Sylvia carved out different teams within the organization who had specific needs. She was working on high performers at every level of the organization - creating a mindset to blitz production and fast track their career path. 

She reminisced about her mum who was a housewife and a definite high performer though the term wasn’t used then. Some of the things she thought and said to her mum were laughable. Being a very sociable family they entertained frequently.

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​Ever wondered how to diagnose and attain the difference that makes the difference? Watching the Olympics made me focus on what determined a medalist from the rest. 
 
Apart from the physical, sports people are also proponents of lifelong learning. Taking feedback with every mistake to improve results is a common denominator for all who seek improvement.
 
Another component in operating from high performance, is the preference to employ coaches, as this certainly fast tracks the process. Not only does this require some level of self-reflection, specific information from the coach about how one operates in life also helps catapult people to the next level.
 
So important and not attended to in today’s world is a focus on creating habits that stick. Re-directing the brain from a less productive space to one that accelerates outcomes is the main tenet of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). 
 
For example, Senior Leaders may need exemplary presentation skills that are fundamental to their roles. Helping leaders like this create a state of mind that excludes stress or anxiety, rather focusing on being a charismatic presenter is what the NLP toolbox promises.
 
Once a coach is able to help the leader identify what is needed, the process needs to fit the leader. Once this feeling has clicked in for the leader, with minor tweaks, it takes practice beyond this to make it a state of mind that becomes natural.
 
Wearing the state, applying it to a lesser context (for instance a smaller audience) helps the leader feel comfortable with this new way of being. In a matter of weeks sometimes days, this begins to generate confidence in the leader.
 
As a Master Coach I have seen this fast turnaround in so many clients. It is exhilarating for coach and client. Succeeding beyond new boundaries has to be one of the best feelings anyone could ever experience.
 
Creating physical or mental anchors to trigger positive emotional states is probably the most powerful skill any human being could acquire. Learning to access resourceful states like confidence, relaxation, focus, on demand, could most certainly improve levels of productivity hence performance. 
What does it take? Experiencing an eight day program, totally immersed in the NLP Practitioner technology, learning processes that re-direct the mind. Now wouldn’t that be awesome?
 
Elevate your way of operating and access these gold nuggets that await.  
 

​Globally, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from depression. An astonishing statistic! A leading cause of disability worldwide and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease, depression and other mental health conditions are on the rise.
 
From experience as an NLP Master Coach, I feel we could do more to stem out this disease. The scary thing is that many people who are depressed don’t even know it. It seems to attack under the radar. It is at the end of the day, our responsibility to help ourselves, improving emotional wellness to inadvertently close the door on depression.

​The race is on and winners seem to be leaders who espouse ethics at the highest level. Employees are frustrated, for working hard has not produced the goods.
 
In my father’s days, it was enough to have a job. In fact people were thankful to the organization they worked for and gave their life for it. Today where there are choices, people are looking further afield, even compromising on salary to find a job they enjoy with a good boss at the top.
 
Seeing it from the employers’ perspective, employee engagement has become a top priority. So how does a leader change to be more influential with his people?
 
Steven Covey’s book Heart Centered Leadership definitely comes to mind. Authenticity sits at the heart of success. This plays out in obvious initiatives like investment in employees through continuous learning. It is kind of the statement “put your money where your mouth is” playing out.
 
Leaders have a responsibility to create a human culture where people come first. When looked after with this type of care, employees are willing to bend backwards for each other and the organization.
 
Empathetic leaders are sought after today. This permeates in the form of language spoken and actions towards employees. A small gesture I noticed one day as I was consulting in an organization, was how the CEO stopped to have a personal chat with one of her employees.
 
This carried a lot of mileage, fueled by the fact that the employee was chuffed by the CEO’s memory about her child’s illness. She mentioned this to colleagues but I could see her loyalty was sealed.
 
In my career when I was still an employee in a bank, I remember my boss reiterating that we were his first family, one that he spent most hours in a day with. He encouraged us to work in harmony with each other especially when things got tough.
We did! To this day I think back about him. What an excellent leader he was. It was such joy going to work every day. He had influenced us to high performance!   

​I was told the other day by a friend that life is just as good without goals. Most people who set goals are focused on what they want specifically. Those who say they don’t, could perhaps have a big picture idea of where they would like to be by a certain age.
 
As a specialist of the unconscious mind, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) provides tools for setting and achieving goals. What are we doing exactly? We are focusing the unconscious mind on what we want, represented in language of the five senses.
 
Individuals who do not set goals are not the masters of their destiny! The unconscious mind is obedient. It waits for instructions. If you know what you want, you are then able to create this in the five senses specifically.
 
This is but the tip of the iceberg in commanding your unconscious mind to go out and get it. The weaker conscious mind merely takes steps in line with this goal that has been set.
 
So, this dance between the conscious and unconscious minds is an art. Learning how to do this for better results is the way to go. Attending an NLP Practitioner Program leaves participants with the full array of pieces in the puzzle, of how to live life fully.
 
More than anything, finding an individual’s Life Path is of prime significance. By helping individuals clarify their objectives and create effective strategies for their lives, individuals can over time, continually apply NLP techniques to set new goals, overcome obstacles, staying focused on their personal and professional aspirations.
 
This is the way to do life easily. Eradicating internal conflict, an individual feels freedom in making swift, good decisions, the most basic life skill that is missing in many. Caught up in Life’s whirlwind as events happen quickly today, individuals are finding it harder to cope.
 
Another reason why thinking different has become imperative!
 
Think about it. If you had a clear mindset with tools to solve any problem and propel you towards your goals, wouldn’t that be awesome?
 
I took that step more than twenty years ago and have never looked back. Do life the easy way and you will know what loving the life you lead, means.
Elevating mental health and producing fabulous results in the end will leave you a happy and content individual.
 
Goal setting will happen so automatically, you will learn how to do it the way your unconscious mind understands. 

A client recently came to us looking especially weary. He was tired of having to motivate his employees. “Why can’t they be self-motivated?” he asked, frustrated.
 
Frankly, that is a question many leaders ask. However, instead of lamenting your employees lack of motivation, take steps to solve the problem. If a large number of your employees are waiting for your cue to perform better you probably have unresolved fundamental issues.
 
Moreover, you’re probably suffering from burnout from having to constantly propel your employees to action while managing other responsibilities. Clearly, this makes for an unhealthy work environment.
 
The solution lies in going back to basics. Start with these steps:
 
Elevate your employees’ mental states for purposeful execution of roles
 
Ask yourself why your employees are unmotivated. Chances are, they don’t feel as if they have a stake in the organisation’s success. This requires you to discover each person’s career objectives and aspirations. Once you’ve identified these, align them with the organisation’s goals. Being able to show congruence in terms of purpose will go a long way towards motivating employees and sustaining their motivation.
 
Connecting individual purpose with organisational purpose takes skill.
 
Firstly, break down your possibly lofty organisational purpose into actions that will make the purpose achievable. Too abstract a purpose can cause people to disengage.
 
Secondly, ask employees to think about the following questions:

1. What do I care about?
2. What am I skilled at?
3. Based on the answers to #1 and #2, how can I serve the organisation’s purpose on a day-to-day basis?
4. How does that fit with my own purpose?

Doing such an exercise will enable people to be self-motivated without the need for daily pep talks.

Cultivate healthier professional relationships to engender psychological safety
 
Many organisations engage in personality profiling, but most don’t use results from such tests constructively. The goal should be to meet people where they are, then take them on a journey to fulfil both their goals and the organisation’s goals.
 
In order to meet people where they are, leaders have to be skilled at building rapport and listening, among other things. Do you allow your employees to speak honestly without repercussions? Do you allow them to make mistakes and learn from them without career-destroying consequences?
 
Cultivating an environment where people feel psychologically safe not only elevates mental health and working relationships, but also performance. If people can be honest about problems, solving them becomes easier. They’ll feel like they have a stake in the organisation and can lead change even as individual contributors.