What Is NLP?
"Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."
Peter Drucker
Discover how to lift your vision to higher sights by using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), now seen as one of the most powerful communication tools available.
NLP is the study of personal excellence and modelling behaviours which create higher standards beyond people’s normal limitations. It provides some of the quickest and most effective techniques to create leadership excellence and can play an important part in your personal development and growth.
NLP can help you recognise what you want to change in yourself and provides tools for you to form better ‘programmes’ and responses that help you change your own and others behaviour.
Neuro-Linguistic-Programming has
been called “the art and science of personal excellence” and “the study of the
structure of subjective experience”. It helps us understand the difference
between what we do that produces mediocre results or failure, and what we do
that brings about success, or excellence. It addresses questions like “How do
I do what I do well?” “How could I do it better?” “How can I acquire the skills
I admire in others?”
Significantly, NLP is not confined to external observable behaviour, but includes the way we think – the mental processes that control all our experience and achievements. It deals with the whole structure of human experience – in effect what makes people tick – attempting to model the thought processes, feelings and beliefs that result in any behaviour. Especially, it is about communication – with yourself as well as others.
“Neuro” refers to our thinking, or perception – the brain processes and nervous system which form the basis of any behaviour. Specifically, if refers to the neurological processes of sensing – seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.
“Linguistic” refers to the language patterns which affect our understanding and upon which much communication is based. It is hard to imagine conscious thought without language – how often do we have conversations with ourselves, give ourselves advice, or a telling off?
“Programming” refers to the way we can organise and program our thoughts, including feelings and beliefs, to bring about desired changes in behaviour and outcome – much as we program a computer for specific tasks with appropriate software.
In NLP, success is not measured on the basis of adherence to a script or system, but according to whether what you do works. In any interpersonal communication, this means knowing “where the other person is coming from” – somehow bridging your different perspectives of the world. Understanding how the other person thinks and feels is vital in establishing the rapport upon which successful communication depends. It is a more effective basis for achieving your outcome that the most sophisticated communication system or carefully prepared presentation.
Communication
is to do with transferring understanding, from one person’s mind to someone
else’s. It starts with you and me rather than “them”. You may first have to
communicate with yourself; to know just what you want, and what effect your
desired outcome might have on other aspects of your work and life. Then you
have to get inside the other person’s mind – see things as they see them – so
that your communication will make sense to them. If it doesn’t, it is unlikely
to succeed, however clever the presentation.
The meaning of your communication is the response you get. NLP puts the responsibility for the outcome of a communication on the communicator. The first thing the communicator needs to be clear on is the outcome he/she wants. If what he/she does, doesn’t work, he/she needs to do something differently rather than blame the other person, by responding with comments such as “I can’t make it any clearer”, “he can’t have been paying attention”, “he got the wrong end of the stick”.
It is a precept of NLP that you cannot not communicate. You can upset someone without saying a word, or seemingly moving a muscle. Have a go at not having an effect on the people around you for an hour or so. You may be quieter than usual, take on a poker face, or cover yourself with a blanket, but you can be sure you will still communicate something to somebody.
NLP started
more than twenty years ago at the University of Santa Cruz in the USA. Its founders were John Grinder, who was an assistant professor of linguistics, and
Richard Bandler, who was then a student of psychology and mathematics, having a
particular interest in psychotherapy.
Their research ‘modelled’ three psychotherapists who were known internationally to achieve outstanding results in their work: Fritz Perls, an innovative psychotherapist and the founder of Gestalt therapy; Virginia Satir, an outstanding family
therapist who has been able to bring about resolutions of seemingly insurmountable relationship problems; and Milton Erickson, the world famous hypnotherapist, who has been described as the father of modern hypnotherapy.
Grinder and Bandler’s aim was to establish the patterns of communication behaviour used by successful therapists, which could then be passed on to others. Rather than a grand theory, the result of their early work was a model, which can be used for better communication, faster learning and personal achievement in any field. NLP has now advanced rapidly, in discovering patterns of success in outstanding people, and more widely, patterns of excellence in ordinary people in many fields.
The significance for you and me is that success strategies can be identified and emulated to bring about equivalent results in whatever area we are working. Because skills are transferable, you don’t need to depend on luck or the right parents. You can learn the knowledge and skills of personal excellence; this is the essence of NLP.
Have you
noticed how you can be really good at some things and not so good at other
things? Have you ever admired somebody else who seems to be much more skilled
at doing something than what you are? For example, you may admire another
person for:
· Leadership skills.
· Making decisions.
· Self- motivation.
· Managing money.
· Managing weight.
· Memorising names.
· Networking at social events.
· Selling and influencing skills.
There’s a whole host of skills and traits that can be admired, understood and replicated. You may find yourself asking “what makes this person so good at what he or she does?”. What can you see this person do or be that you would like to be more like? How are they successful? What can I do to manage my weight, money, presenting skills etc in a new way?
Have you considered your strategy for:
· Influencing.
· Motivating your team.
· Making decisions and problem solving.
· Energising yourself.
· Being creative.
· Managing your time.
· Listening.
What successful strategies do you have? Which strategies would you, your teams or your organisations like to improve upon?
Learning new or changing old strategies for the better, will change your perceptions and increase your performance.
Organisations may want to take best practice from other organisations where there is a skill, product, service or reputation that they would like to be known for, replicate or take on components that are viewed as beneficial to their organisation. To stay ahead, it is good for organisations to benchmark with other organisations. It’s good for organisations to learn where they can be and what they can do to be more successful.
To REGISTER or ENQUIRE, please contact us at:
NoLimits
Singapore Office
30 Cecil Street
Prudential Tower #14-00
Singapore 049712
Tel: +65 6232 2466
NoLimits
Hong Kong Office
1805 Wheelock House
20 Pedder Street Central
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2293 2316
Fax: +852 2293 2344
NoLimits
Australia Office
Level 34 AMP Centre
50 Bridge Street
Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Tel: +612 8216 0805
Fax: +612 9404 1888
NoLimits
Japan Office
Level 15 Cerulean Tower
26-1 Sakuragaoka-cho
Shibuya-ku,Tokyo 150-8512
Japan
Tel: +813
5456 5274
Fax:+813 5456 5511
NoLimits’ standard terms and conditions apply.
