Personal development and growth are extremely important to me. Recently, I had the opportunity to unlock a training budget through PHD’s Smart Fund (a training fund for top performers to pursue learning opportunities) to attend an intensive neurolinguistic programming (NLP) workshop. ) of 6 days led by Arabella Macpherson, a communications coach with over 10 years of experience.
Simply put, NLP explores the relationships between the way we think (neuro), how we communicate (linguistics), and our patterns of behavior and emotions (programs).
The idea is that by studying these relationships, people can adopt more effective ways of thinking, communicating, feeling and behaving.
NLP has a bad reputation and I rightly think of those who use it for their own gain. Used and taught in the right way, it can help speed up understanding of the brain and how to influence it for individual and collective benefit.
With the practice of specific techniques, communication and interactions with people can become more meaningful and successful.
For leaders of successful teams, there are two main challenges:
1. Dealing with people with strong personalities
2. Get people to act as a team and not as individuals
The techniques I learned in the intensive workshop taught me some gold nuggets. NLP works on both the conscious and subconscious level, which is why it is so effective.
In order to tap into the subconscious, techniques that an NLP practitioner might use include visualization, metaphors, stimulating and in-depth questioning techniques, and hypnosis.
Ultimately, NLP can be used to improve and maintain team performance. There are many NLP techniques that can be harnessed to improve team performance, I have shared two that can help in the following scenarios:
Scenario 1 – We’ve all been there at some point. A team member who is demotivated, cannot be disturbed, and negatively impacts the rest of the group by not respecting team values and infecting the team with negative behavior.
To be an intermediate manager, you must understand the motivation, the priorities and the behaviors of each one, how they function on a daily basis but especially under stress.
To become a more effective leader, you need to understand the personality types and basic team compositions. These change under stress.
It is important to have the ability to help team members understand their makeup, which in turn can empower team members to stick to the ‘Cause’ (accepting responsibility for results / actions).
Ineffective team members with negative behaviors are “on effect” where it’s always someone else’s fault. Having individuals with positive language models and empowering beliefs is key for high performance teams.
Scenario 2 – A team or individuals who do not understand what the goal is and how to achieve it. No one is motivated by ambiguity, without clear direction you will not end up with an efficient and successful team that is motivated and determined.
An effective leader must be able to communicate clearly and frequently. NLP emphasizes communication, due to the role of language in the thinking and decision-making process.
Teams and individuals function effectively when there is clear communication, clear goals, and an understanding of the goal.
There are five principles of success, although the best approach is always to break goals down into actionable chunks, this will help create the framework for success.
It also allows you to be successful by learning to focus on feedback as a way to improve yourself, not a sign of failure.
This approach will allow the group to refine individual and group actions and results until you collectively achieve the goal.
This information is just some of the many that can help with internal (team / company) alignment of values and goals. In turn, create a vision and ensure alignment of personal goals and values.
It helps build energy, motivation and momentum towards a common point of effort.
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