When coaching, I am always surprised by clients’ beliefs about the unknown. People often obsess about, and make huge efforts to avoid extremely unlikely outcomes. Yet their own past experience tells them that if something has created chaos in their lives, it has not been some huge threat they ...
Philosophy has for thousands of years, asked questions. Who are we? What makes us ‘tick’? What, if anything, can be done about the more painful aspects of human nature, and what is our purpose? So this week I wanted to blog this week on the often-confusing divide between coaching, ...
Last week I talked about four areas of ability, or ‘capability sets’, needed for successful leadership. These were: Operations (getting things done) Sales (dealing with people) Finance (dealing with money) ‘Pure’ leadership skills such as vision, optimism, decision-making and setting a personal example. Leadership: becoming a master In a ...
Today I want to look at the four qualities which are key for leadership, qualities that leaders need to bring to their work in each of the four areas: Thinking Sensing (energy) Feeling Vision Thinking is the world of the intellect, rational and dispassionate. Sensing is perhaps the hardest ...
Team coaching is growing increasingly popular. It can be used to facilitate the quick assembly of high-performing teams. It can be used to maintain the performance of existing teams: chemistry can change when individual members leave, or cynicism can develop when teams get ‘stuck’. It is of particular use ...
Can coaches help clients find inner peace? Often coaches are presented with a succession of issues that trouble their client – at work, at home; the list seems to be endless. It’s easy for both coach and client to start believing that there is an underlying ‘big issue’ driving ...
The model is particularly useful in testing whether a client has unwittingly trapped themselves in destructive thought patterns. How the Meta Model helps anxiety Clients are often extremely anxious, as if some major disaster is hurtling towards them. The Meta Model is often a great way to reveal the ...
Transactional Analysis drivers One useful aspect of this material is the Transactional Analysis concept of ‘drivers’. These are very powerful, deeply ingrained subconscious motivations that are picked up in early childhood. TA theorists believe there are five of these: ‘Hurry Up’ ‘Please People’ ‘Be Strong’ ‘Be Different’ ‘Be Perfect’ ...
One of the key roles of a coach is to help their client make significant decisions. Decision-making is a subject I’m fascinated by – I’ve written two books on the subject – as the reality is much more complex than most ‘experts’ claim. The decider is perpetually having to ...
One of the most challenging issues facing organisations today is the preservation of talent – ensuring that senior people keep up their energy and avoid burnout. Talented people don’t just perform roles; they identify with them: “I am a manager, a leader, an accountant, a designer”. Jobs as identity Their ...
I’ve just completed our 3 day How to Coach with NLP, TA and Mindfulness course, during which some interesting discussions took place about using coaching skills in the workplace. One topic that came up was the question of coaches wanting to be liked. Isn’t that an essential part of ...
The learning never stops Last week I spent some time with one of the people behind NLP, Stephen Gilligan, a man who worked closely with one of the great founders of the subject, Milton Erickson. You always learn when working with people like this. The reason for our contact ...
Confidence is a strange, ephemeral concept. We all want more of it or worry about not having enough of it – but what is it, exactly? NLP has a range of techniques to help us find out, and to boost what we find. How to regain self confidence The ...
NLP is full of techniques to use in the workplace, especially if one has managerial responsibility or is working as a consultant or HR professional. Modern management is largely about winning people round to your point of view. The old ‘command and control’ model taught on managers training courses ...
There seems to be a lot of anxiety around. The fashionable remedy for it is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which has become ‘official’ – you can get it on the NHS. CBT has been proven to deliver results, but I believe NLP offers both a tool that is just ...
As an expert NLP trainer, there’s one question that I’m often asked: “How do you become an NLP coach?” To which I say, everyone’s journey is different. But here’s my story I started out on a journey of personal discovery after finding myself stressed by running a business. This ...
Hypnosis is often seen as something done by an ‘expert’ to a ‘patient’. And, of course, this is often the case. Hypnotherapy has an excellent success rate in dealing with problems ranging from anxiety to giving up smoking. Hypnosis is a part of modern life In my view we ...
An NLP qualification looks good on a CV. No, it’s not an MBA from Harvard Business School, but it’s all part of showing yourself off to your best. To start with, it makes a clear statement that you take the business of developing yourself seriously. It sends out the ...
I’ve been ‘into’ NLP for fifteen years, during which time I’ve studied with most of its leading practitioners, taught the subject to thousands of people and used it to change my life, so I’m unlikely to answer “yes, NLP is rubbish!” However I (and other members of the NLP ...
The one-word answer to this question is ‘yes’. I’ve helped a number of clients to do this, some of whom have been heavy smokers. Using Robert Dilts’ model of the Logical Levels, we can look at smoking and the various ways it exerts a hold on the psyche. The ...
If you’re a teacher, or in charge of a department, you’ll know that you never stop looking for ways to help youngsters learn. At NLP School, we believe that neuro-linguistic programming can do just that. One set of ways, of course, has nothing to do with the classroom, but ...
Golf is a notoriously psychological sport. Fitness plays a part, of course, as do talent and plenty of practice, but in the end the business of knocking a little white ball into an only slightly larger hole in the ground up to 450 yards away is about mental attitude. ...
Hypnotherapy has a bad reputation. We’ve seen the old movies where a sinister Svengali-like figure, probably in a cloak, hypnotizes the heroine or hero in order to further their evil plans. The notion is tied up with deceit, manipulation, seizing control from innocent people and abusing the power. Up ...
There’s always something special about the first day of an NLP Practitioner course. Many people are a little scared – but fear and excitement are close cousins. Beneath that fear is a deep hope, that NLP will help them along their life journeys. Maybe some delegates are dealing with ...
We’re sold the story as kids: the working world offers us a career, which means a series of steps up a nice, clear ladder. Each step will bring more responsibility, more learning, a broadening of our horizons until, at the top, we can serenely gaze out over the world ...
In some circles, NLP has a bad reputation. It has become associated with slick vendors of snake-oil, who have a bag of tricks they use on the unwary to sell them things they do not want or need. Naturally, I’m sorry this has come about – though this reputation ...
At NLP School, we run a range of seminars, workshops and events based on NLP, the ‘art of modelling excellence.’ NLP Taster Day Are you curious about NLP? Our NLP Taster Day in Central London is created for people who like a no nonsense approach. Over the course of a working ...
As an NLP coach, it goes without saying that I think that the techniques, practices and principles of neuro-linguistic programming can change lives – in both a professional and personal context. But NLP is just one facet (albeit an important one) of a larger movement: life coaching. Let’s take ...
Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, you’re in some kind of state. Some of those states come and go in the instant, some last longer. Some are one-off, others habitual. Some can be ‘tailored’ for an activity. States can encompass all of the following: your physiology, your emotions, the ...
