Creating Purpose-driven Leadership

​Conversations ensued with senior management as the culture alignment project was in its first phase of design. Sylvia and her team worked in their usual top-down approach. Making appointments to interview change agents at every level of the organization they were beginning to see a pattern.
 
Janice the organization CEO was keen to install purpose-driven leadership at all levels. Her belief was that every individual could unleash the leader within to achieve high performance in their domain. She had spotted a lot of talent in the organization. She felt all she needed to do was give her people tools to blitz it. 

​Hence the thought to hire Sylvia and her team. She had seen results herself when she went through a series of coaching sessions. Not knowing how to tap into her unconscious mind (which sounded very complicated) she realized on the contrary that it was actually a piece of cake.
 
If she could learn how to use her five senses fully to become a creative leader driven by her purpose, she wanted the same for all her people. The journey to finding her purpose was short and sharp. That is what she loved. She had a crisp and clear sense of purpose now. It would only be a few months before her people found the same.
 
Whole-hearted congruence, an alignment of the mind, body, spirit was what each employee would experience as a result of the training and coaching that Sylvia would drive through the organisation.  No advice given just a sharing of change tools.
 
Based on Sylvia’s vast experience in developing senior leaders in companies her curiosity would precipitate the question “Why have you registered for this course?” The common response would be “we have done everything in our lives and wonder what’s next?”
 
These were people who had achieved a lot in their lives and were at a dead end. A large question loomed over their heads “what is life really about?”
 
The Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner Program, they signed up for taught them how to tap into their identity. Conversations revolved around helping people find more meaning in their life. They were able to access deep, hidden resources in the wellspring of their internal self.
 
One participant described the program well. He said he had been to many programs but never found anything so valuable as it provided him with the complete jigsaw puzzle of life. He said he had always thought of a change in human behavior as difficult but now understood the building blocks of how to.
 
He further described that understanding each block and how each fit in to each other to create a variety of different models for specific results. He called these building blocks the search engine to a meaningful life.
 
Another participant who came from a manufacturing background called this program the 6 Sigma of People Development as the entire focus was on context, process and structure rather than content. Participants were able to work with the process of an experience.
 
Janice had experienced this. She knew that her people would soar after the culture alignment initiative took flight. Elegant and effective, all participants would enjoy the experience of utilizing models learnt and seeing individual plus team results.
 
Janice loved the program as she felt her whole coaching experience to be an enjoyable one. There were processes for every situation – dissolving conflict, building rapport and so on. The best part is that every employee would be able to focus on short processes that worked with the five senses – what they saw, heard, felt, smelt and tasted. It wasn’t rocket science!
 
A small change in the way pictures, sounds and feelings were stored made a huge impact on the end result. People cleared phobias they had lived with all their lives in 20 minutes.
 
One participant at the NLP Practitioner course had difficulty finishing all the food on her plate. She lived like this for years. After two spoons, she would leave the rest. She was extremely thin and wanted so badly to become normal again.
 
A high-powered executive in the banking and finance industry, she had all the money in the world and was not wanting of anything in her life. After one process in the program, she ate fully at the break immediately after. All participants clapped and she cried with joy. She said she had not felt so free in a long time.
 
Janice understood why NLP was hailed as highly efficient. She had experienced it. An easily-applied model for understanding and influencing human behavior, it worked fast and produced profound results.
 
Used more and more in the workplace, NLP created lasting behavioral change in individuals. It was even more powerful when embraced by all levels of an organization as it equipped employees with a common language. This was power!
 
Where trust had eroded the culture of organizations, pulling employees together in programs like this had the potential to unite teams and install trust again. Purpose-driven leaders emerged who were able to move their organization with a vision, knowing their people were raring to go.
 
As a bonus, NLP went beyond the leadership sphere, where participants gained amazing clarity in their personal and business objectives; sales delegates surpassed their targets; and managers reported great changes in previously confrontational situations.
 
At the end of the day it was all about purpose-driven leadership and that is where Janice was heading with her organization.
 
Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat. She has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region for the last 12 years and is currently based in Singapore. Go to www.viafrontiers.com for more information.