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!
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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! Following on from our blog about how to solve problems with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), a common corporate application is to model high performers. After all, the entire body of knowledge that is called NLP today, emerged from modelling high performers in the field of psychotherapy.
Today, we need to think different. We need to understand context of the environment we are in, the players we are up against and the resources needed to achieve our Vision. Whether in an organisation or personally, the ability to extract “excellence strategies” from a high performer with a view to transference to the team, is fundamental to success. Wouldn’t every senior leader want this? Isn’t this something a parent could teach their child? Setting ourselves apart from the masses is the key. Eliciting internal strategies of high performers is knowledge that most do not have. An NLP Practitioner Certification course is the starting point to learn the ropes. A lady in one of my programs found she had no internal dialogue when she was ready to close a deal. She was a high performer in sales. Others in the sales team elicited their closing strategies and realised that they could eliminate this aspect of what they did. True to form, team performance elevated to greater heights as soon as some of them amended their internal strategies. It was only one step that needed a change. Many said it was unbelievable. They wished they had learnt it before. Wouldn’t you want the same for your teams? Rapid success coaching emerged as a by-product of more than 30 years-experience in changing and aligning organisational cultures. The one thing organisations yearned for was change in a short timeframe.
As I worked through organisations in a top-down approach, I had the opportunity to understand how I could mesh processes within the Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) toolbox to create more impactful results. The Rapid Success Coaching model was brewing within me. I observed how employees turned around fast, given a few self-management tools. Like catching a tiger by its tail, managers found their teams flew to accelerated results. What underpinned this rapid transformation? I spoke to participants who met with this success. They were animated and eloquent in explaining their internal unblocking experience and were quick to add that NLP processes were at the source of this change. Little did they know that there were other modalities that I was working with too, that they were not aware of. I was adding to the Rapid Success Coaching model which essentially targets self-management. As a change facilitator my objective was to help individuals, departments and organisations make a change…..as graciously as possible, whatever it took. Most organisations were time poor. They were on the search for fast results. Being a quick processor myself, I had the methodology to empower leaders, coach managers and mobilise teams to higher levels of performance. And so Rapid Success Coaching using rapid success technology was born. More and more, leaders realised they needed help. Most worried and shied away from coaching in the beginning as they were concerned with having to divulge private and personal information. However, when informed that these self-management tools comprised a toolbox of facilitated processes like visualising and meditating, they were put at ease. In so many instances, leaders shared at the end of sessions how much they looked forward to the next one. When you master NLP as a coach and are able to use this as a fundamental transformation pillar, then add unique talents and expertise to the brew, this produces magic. The trick is to stay out of content which is noisy and only serves to distract from the issue at hand. As I worked through the context of a person’s experience, they knew what needed to be changed so they made the necessary changes. For instance, one leader felt his hands would involuntarily shake as he presented at the lectern. In a few processes he eradicated this and couldn’t imagine he had lived with that all his life. In fact that also led to other wonderful side effects like restful sleep at night and a feeling of relaxation, something he had not experienced in a long time. Hard to believe and feeling incredulous at the results he had achieved, this was the door that opened him to master NLP. In so many cases as Rapid Success Coaching goes beyond the boundaries of one’s mind, it has to be experienced to be believed. Annabelle’s story was classic. She was in bad relationships all her life. From parental to siblings and extended family. Then, she didn’t notice the pattern. Her finger always pointed outwards to others. They were to blame. Being locked at home with her partner during the Pandemic, her relationship was under the microscope. Issues highlighted were ones that had been staring her in the face for a long time. She was going crazy not knowing how to get her life sorted.
Having seen a Facebook post from a coach she responded. Sandy turned out to be a saving grace. She was trained in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) a model created by two geniuses who coded and structured how change occurred rapidly via the unconscious mind. Hailed as a magical intervention that worked well with the inner-self to attain better outcomes in life, the NLP toolbox contained more than 100 processes. Sandy singled out 5 of the most important NLP techniques that she felt helped her make a quick turnaround. She also felt others would benefit in the following ways, exactly the way she did. NLP techniques focused on deleting unhelpful programs, installing more generative ones in replacement. Three NLP Techniques That Transformed Annabelle’s Life: 1. Eliminate Unwanted Habits The Swish pattern was so useful for Annabelle as it helped her swish out unwanted habits and redirect her focus to healthier ones. All she had to do was push away pictures that she had formed for the former while bringing in the latter picture. Her coach Sandy had used this technique as Annabelle displayed compulsive / obsessive behaviours such as, nail biting, smoking, addiction to foods like sugary snacks. All of these had an impact on her self-esteem and as a result overflowed into her relationship. Annabelle felt a huge amount of stress release from doing this one technique. She was beginning to see the value of doing NLP coaching. 2. Elicit Values for Motivation Annabelle suffered greatly from a lack of motivation. She had no purpose to be alive hence she unconsciously sabotaged her relationships. Dragging her feet in life was not the way to live. She had reached her threshold. This was a sign to Sandy as an NLP coach that Annabelle needed to migrate to a new level of values. She elicited Annabelle’s values for life by asking “what’s important to you about life?” It was fundamental that Annabelle see the list that emerged. She learnt that because values were our deepest unconscious filter, it was important to understand and acknowledge the values that were driving her. This would then help her align her values internally and make decisions that propelled her to these. No wonder she was unhappy at work. She was in the wrong job. It was crystal clear to her, without any prodding from Sandy. She knew she had to make way to eventually leave. When values were aligned to work or personal life, people were comfortable, happy and in a natural state. It’s no secret that employees whose values were most aligned to the organisation became high performers. They were able tosee their role clearly and know how they contributed to the organisation’s overall results. 3. Identify Gaps in Strategies Annabelle had a horrible buying strategy that got her into trouble throughout her life. This was also linked to her compulsive behaviour. It was the bane of Annabelle’s life. It grated her spouse too, as credit card bills were often blown out of proportion when they could ill afford it. Sandy proceeded to elicit Annabelle’s buying strategy. She explained that strategies were a train of thoughts a person went through to make a decision or achieve a goal. These strategies were described using the five senses i.e. what you see, hear, smell, taste and feel. In other words, what they were after was a set of internal procedures that produce a specific outcome. So every time Annabelle was faced with a buying situation an NLP strategy elicitation could help her take a closer look at the chain of events leading to this decision. It would reveal a step that needed to be changed or removed to successfully walk away. Annabelle was thankful for the diagnosis as to what step of her strategy got her into trouble each time. She almost wanted to go out and try her new strategy. It was exciting to say the least. Sandy chose these techniques as they had a close relationship to the goals that Annabelle had worked through in her first session. The objective was to break the unconscious links between how Annabelle’s brain associated to her behaviours. In a matter of three sessions she was already feeling 80% better. She was not done yet but she was adamant that NLP could transform lives if only people cared to give it a chance. She did not have to divulge any private events to Sandy. That was the best part. All she did was tell Sandy what she wanted to eradicate and they worked on that. The NLP toolbox revealed coaching in a systematic and structured way. It was far from traditional. In fact the interaction with Sandy debunked all her myths about what sessions would be like. She loved every minute of them. It was rapid transformation at a totally different level! |
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
December 2024
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