I stumbled across my Life Path’s journey unknowingly. My heart raced as I heard my friend Geraldine’s voice filled with excitement and emotion. She was happy. I felt it. It would be good to have some of what she had too” I thought at the time. 

She had just completed a personal growth program. Needless to say I was roped in to experience this and others, some of which I loved. Others that did not resonate, I left behind. 

Beginning with the basics, I was a tough nut to crack. I had a strong mind, trained ferociously by my corporate experience as a banker. While it was a great foundation to operate from, it also didn’t allow for growth in the emotional and spiritual realms. There were expectations to be a certain way, operate from logic, casting aside my true self. 

The Rolls Royce of personal growth programs came last. I was introduced to Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) by my friend John who was a Practitioner from twenty years before. 

The biggest draw for me was that the entire NLP model comprised techniques for self-discovery with an extremely deep structure. I loved how it drew on process and context rather than content.

Exploring and understanding values, beliefs and behaviors I was able to disband with emotional blockages which surfaced in the form of beliefs I held from my upbringing. Little did I know that they were family beliefs that did not augur well for my current life. 

By clearing these and creating new, more effective beliefs, I supported my continuous growth. I could leave alone, the “content” of how these beliefs were installed. Private incidences could be left private. I did not need the who, where and when to make or facilitate change. 

Very accelerated in achieving results through increased emotional intelligence I found I understood and managed myself effectively. Empathy levels escalated and my ability to navigate complex social situations heightened. 

Being a person who loved change, I took to NLP like a duck to water. Working through certification as an NLP Trainer, I jumped to the other side and became a facilitator. Traveling across boundaries physical and emotional, to find clients who needed to make change. 

Today, I realise I found my Life Path through my personal growth journey. What do I have today that I did not have before? A life filled with Purpose and Passion. Did I think about personal growth in this way? A definite NO. 
In essence, my heart sang and pulled me towards my Life’s calling!
I urge you on this path too. If you feel there is something greater out there for you, scour the personal growth arena for anything that calls out to you. 
NLP skills provide a foundation for lifelong learning and personal evolution. Individuals are able to navigate the complexities of life with confidence, resilience, and a positive mindset. 
The adaptability and universality of NLP make it a valuable asset for long-term personal and professional success. 
If you would like to experience some of what I did, decide on a Path and begin the Journey. 

One of our clients recently said that he has observed greater engagement from his team as a result of taking concrete steps to be an effective mentor and coach. 
Indeed, studies show that coaching and mentoring can increase engagement, job satisfaction and morale, teamwork and even bench strength. 
Granted, some of the best mentoring and coaching experiences occur informally over coffee, in corridors, and chance interactions during the course of work. 

However, in order for these interactions to have the potential to be powerful, people in the organisation need to have a coaching and mentoring mindset. This could shift your organisational culture. Imagine people having candid coaching conversations across your organisation. 

To make this happen, ensure your people listen and communicate skilfully in order to be the best colleagues they can be. 
Comprehensive coaching and mentoring programmes can sensitise them to the following:

Identify opportunities for coaching
Learn how to recognise when a person is open to coaching. Here are some cues you can listen for: 

1. I need help with this.
   
2. Could I run some ideas by you?
   
3. I need help thinking things through. 

Help them master the basics of a good coaching conversation
Coaching isn’t about providing solutions. It’s about uncovering answers through inquiry, and exploration. Coaches know that the following are absolutely fundamental to a productive interaction.

1. Listen carefully
   
2. Respond thoughtfully by asking questions to draw out more insights, prompt reflection or to expand the person’s mental model
   
3. Resist imposing your own views and solutions

Ensure that mentoring programmes are structured 
Many organisations encourage mentorship without any structure. This results in interactions that often go nowhere. 

Start building a culture of mentorship by having structured programmes and providing guidance for fruitful mentoring relationships. Make it clear that mentoring topics could include discussions about purpose and skills, situational advice and giving and receiving constructive feedback. 

In the initial stages, you might have to hire experts to structure programmes and guides, but once a culture of mentoring takes hold, your people will need only minimal handholding. 

This post was co-written by Communications Strategist, Consultant and Coach, Bharati Jagdish.

Your corporate communications and human resources department might be regularly putting out announcements on DEI values and initiatives, but if employees don’t embody these values in their day-to-day interactions and business operations, your DEI efforts will most certainly fall flat. Most of all, your organisation will fail to leverage the power of DEI and lag behind competitors who’ve done so successfully.
 
If you’re still struggling, don’t worry. Just get up to speed. Many answers lie in behavioural change and communication to be equitable and inclusive in order to truly harness the power of diversity.
 
In our last post, we talked about the importance of actively calling out unconscious biases and using inclusive language. Here are more tips on truly making DEI work:
 
Walk the talk, engage intentionally to illustrate the value of inclusivity
Inclusive language must translate into concrete action. Dialogues that allow people from underrepresented groups to share their personal narratives shouldn’t end there. Be proactive in addressing the issues they raise and keep all employees informed of the steps you’ve taken to improve things.
Importantly, insights from dialogues should inform your business decisions.
For instance, what your introverted employees tell you about their preferences could determine product design for a particular customer base. Share how you’ve implemented these valuable insights. This shows people that their perspectives matter to the organisation and are positively contributing to the bottom line as well.
Speaking of introverts, ensure that you engage employees using communication techniques based on their preferred mode of communication. Not everyone is comfortable speaking up in a townhall. Some might prefer to send their questions electronically or merely fill out a survey. Your job is to make sure all channels are open and given equal attention.
 
Explain equity-centred policies, encourage empathy
To ensure a healthy workplace culture, everyone in the organisation must be on the same page when it comes to policies that support equity. Leadership must consistently communicate why certain policies are in place to help underrepresented groups level up. Crucially, communication needs to also convey how everyone benefits when DEI is effective. 
As part of this process, co-workers must be encouraged to participate in experiential exercises that allow them to empathise with underrepresented individuals.
Retention becomes easier with this egalitarian approach.
​
Be transparent and accountable
Successfully cultivating DEI requires leadership commitment. Leaders need to be transparent in terms of acknowledging systemic and unconscious biases, demonstrating empathy and committing to bridging the gaps between where the organisation is now and where it should be in the near future.
 
Being transparent on the DEI journey allows leaders to model a learning culture and also demonstrates a willingness to be held accountable.
 
Communicate consistently about how DEI is improving crucial aspects of the workplace - culture, mental health, talent attention and retention, business results. Go beyond numbers and tell true stories of employee experiences.
 
This post was co-written by Communications Strategist, Consultant and Coach, Bharati Jagdish.
 

​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:

1. Mindset shifts create a healthier culture of working with context and this leads to happier people who take charge. This reduces hours lost in sick leave, conflict resolution and demotivated staff who drag their feet getting things done. A case in point is the CEO who hired me to “make his people happy”. He felt that if his people were happy at work and at home, the rest would fall in place. It was a win-win situation all round. Within 6 months of conducting the NLP program, bottom line results started to spike and once the momentum began, there was no turning back.
   
2. The current workplace scenario not only requires producing exceptional performance but more importantly to behaviour and motivate your team to greater outcomes. An NLP course gives you the tools for effectiveness. NLP training would first teach you to identify the leverage points for making behaviour change. This sets the stage to solve problems and improve team effectiveness fast, working within the context of a person’s experience rather than getting into an endless “he said, she said” altercation.
3. Improving sales is at the heart of business generation and this is why many organisations who sign up for an NLP course always start with their sales force. When the sales force is put through the steps of learning how to build rapport, match language, negotiate effectively and motivate clients there’s no stopping the upward sales curve. Ideally, I would recommend that you learn NLP face-to-face but in the current Covid scenario I’ve changed my format to an NLP online course, blending components of pre-study in audio and book formats plus face-to- face, to pull it all together.
   

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?

​Looking back on my career as an employee I had the pleasure of working with many leaders. There were intermittent bad ones no doubt but in the main most were the reason I woke up in the morning to go to work.
 
When life as an employee ended, my entrepreneurial skills included sifting for good leaders. I knew good leadership from afar and knew that if they bought my services, they would be a pleasure to serve. 

​Looking back now as a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Trainer and business owner for 21 years, I know the traits that make a good leader. I attempt to explain these to you but they are by no means exhaustive. You could add to my discussion I am sure.
 
Self-Growth
 
A good leader has to believe in continuous learning for self, and others working in the team. This includes keeping current with the environment and what it calls out for. In today’s world, resilience and adaptive capabilities sound out as number one on the list.
 
Communication
 
Language verbal and non-verbal can make or break a leader. Learning language that is two-way and influencing far outweighs directive language, though in some instances the latter is called for and needed.
 
Spiritual Intelligence
 
Far greater than the power of academic excellence comes the ability to inspire, be passionate and purposeful. This requires guided expertise to tap into for a leader’s identity is dormant until activated.
 
Only once these are achieved is a leader truly able to develop people down the line effectively. The need to set up coaching infrastructures, giving managers the skills to coach and individuals the ability to self-manage.
 
A client situation comes to mind. Using NLP tools and techniques, everyone down the line were given coaching skills in tranches over a period of eight months or so.
 
It was striking to see how groups of people motivated themselves to achieve high performance. It was like lightning, how people awakened to their own sense of power.
 
The leader knew he had done his job, admitting to me that he could finally do his real work of taking the organization where it needed to go. He had stopped the flow of people into his office.
 
They were armed with applicable tools that heightened their performance and gave them edge over competitors. Wasn’t that what every leader should be doing?
 
Looking back as a consultant offering organisations’ services, I observed the following traits about leaders who hired me. They were;

• secure in themselves, willing to take the brunt of any fallout that eventuated
  
  
• keen on learning expertise from niche market providers who were operating in the external environment
  
  
• truly keen on developing their people, wanting their people to be happy

 
Unlike most organisations that hire trainers to fulfil a “tick the box” exercise, these clients culled all other training to make way for budgets and give their people life skills beyond work.
 
This to me was what leadership was about. Giving people skills to do the job then having them perform. I saw too many organisations do the exact opposite.
 
Once their Emotional & Spiritual Intelligences had sparked, they became unstoppable. My question is wouldn’t every organization want that?
 

• Coach, lead, relate, communicate
• Step into personal power driven by intuition

 
The action of leading a group of people or an organisation.” That's how the Oxford Dictionary defines leadership. In simple words, leadership is about taking risks and challenging the status quo. Leaders motivate others to achieve something new and better.

Neuro Linguistic Programming is an epistemology – a model of how we know what we know. Co-founded by a Professor of Linguistics, Dr. John Grinder and a computer scientist, Richard Bandler in the late 70’s, Neuro Linguistic Programming found its roots in psychotherapy.

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.

My journey to the field of NLP training took many years of learning from the school of hard knocks. I was a banker for 13 years, then migrated into the IT and HR industries.

Many cerebral people I know focus on so-called “smart” people, those who are able to whip out statistics, shedding light on situations. Move the conversation beyond to relationships and they are lost.
 
Yet for the last twenty plus years of consulting and facilitating, I have found the most successful leaders have amazing communication skills, way beyond their IQ sense of logic, facts and figures.
 
It represents the focus that families have when bringing up their children. Those who stress an all-rounded life from young become the winners, for they populate young minds with all parts of the child’s neurology, allowing for access to creativity and lateral thinking.
 
I grew up in the latter-type family and I have my father to thank. While he was a strict disciplinarian (one look from him meant a lot), we also had fantastic holidays as soon as school closed.
 
There was fun and laughter, worthy conversations and an openness to relationships. I recall a discussion about divorce that a close friend was going through. My father said it could happen to anyone for who knows what circumstances are hurled at you. No judgment just compassion is what people needed.
 
These I know today are words of wisdom. Having empathy and building a connection with others, serves to build and maintain healthy relationships. This becomes the foundation for success in all areas of life.
 
As an NLP Trainer today, I assist individuals and organisations to harness their strength towards making better decisions. First step is to always learn how to build rapport then foster effective communication by resolving conflict and promoting mutual understanding.
 
These skills allow for collaboration within families, departments and pull together to reinforce successful outcomes. I see competitive mindsets that scream “Me, myself, I” in many instances. This does not augur well for results as a whole.
 
NLP helps individuals understand communication styles which begins the journey of understanding the psychology of how people tick. People who learn this have an upper hand in negotiating results that they want.
 
Wouldn’t it be useful if you had this?

If there is one thing I have observed over the two decades of working with people to improve their effectiveness at work, it is that every single one of them (however senior) aspired to build self-confidence at work.

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.

The benefits of using NLP techniques are far reaching, bearing in mind there are more than a hundred processes that cater to a wide range of issues. In this article, I’d like to touch on how we are continuously changing maps in our minds and using language patterns that impact our performance. This, so you understand how we use NLP for better results. 

​

If you are a manager in the workplace today, it isn’t sufficient to produce exceptional performance. Today your bigger job is to understand behaviour and motivate your team to bigger outcomes.

My days of leading teams lie in the past. Stepping out of an employee mindset to an entrepreneur many years ago, my job today is to teach people how to be a good team leader.

The world we live in today requires problem solving skills more than ever. Nothing is static or predictable. In fact quite the opposite. Our landscape is changing, fast!
 
How does one migrate from an operational mindset as managers have, to one of being solution-focused? It is not possible via the conscious mind. I would turn blue telling someone to do a task better.
 
This is because all personal change occurs through the unconscious mind. While it sounds abstract, it is the exact opposite. Working through our senses – what we see, hear and feel, we are able to edit memories captured in a way that does not produce powerful results.
 
In a nutshell re-writing personal history is possible when you are trained in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). A genius model filled with process and structure, individuals transform to higher self-worth in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
 
Ordinary people become extraordinary! Operational minds are transformed to entrepreneurial minds. Possibilities are enormous and individuals begin to get a taste of success without help from authority figures.
 
NLP encourages this independent mindset and provides methods for effective problem-solving. Over time, individuals with NLP skills operate with openness and transparency, they become highly sought after.
 
Consistently approaching challenges with creativity, flexibility and a resourceful mindset, they seek mentors and become available to mentor as well. The learning bug captures their attention which takes them to a higher level of performance and success in the organisation.
 
All it takes is attending an NLP Practitioner Program that gives individuals tools to access their unconscious mind. Problems are not seen as problems. Challenges are taken on easily as answers that reside in the unconscious, are available in a format and structure, easy to access.
 
Why do individuals take time to attend this type of profound Program? Because they are not ready to take on the challenge of a new life that awaits. Those “called” to this have either had enough with bad results or know there is something better they are yet to find.
Either way, it is a Program that helps people move to a deeper dimension of SELF and IDENTITY that presents the source of all success.
 
For when we know who we are, we have found our Path.

The concept of achieving work-life balance is very personal and subjective as it is determined by so many variables;

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.

​

​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.