NLP and Leadership In my many years of setting up and being associated with leadership development programs, I have become more convinced that Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is comprised of a broad range of tools that every good leader needs to have.

A quick Google search will throw up many different ideas, concepts and definitions of leadership. It is fair to say that a globally agreed definition of Leadership doesn\'t exist. In this context, it makes it difficult to understand what skills a leader should have.

In most explanations there is something about inspiring and motivating people towards a common goal. There is usually things about empathy with others and / or self awareness  about your impact on others.

We will focus on two areas  are critical for business leaders today. In no particular order .Good leaders need skills in these two broad areas:Managing Emotion,  and Persuasion and Influence. We will look at each in turn, why they are important and how an NLP mindset can help in each area.

Managing Emotions


I will restrict this section to just about managing your own emotions as, for me, the idea of managing other people and their emotions seem to fit better under persuasion and influencing skills.

There is some sort of growth, stretch or development involved with any well set goal. This means at some points on the journey, the team, either as individuals or as a whole team, will be stepping outside their comfort zone. Depending on the amount of stretch, conflict, tension and pressure comes with the territory of being a leader.

The last thing any team needs is a leader who caves in under pressure, falls apart when the task gets difficult or goes sick when there is conflict internally or externally with the team. Often a leader is required to support, defend or present the team in pressured circumstances. As such, being able to manage your emotions is an extremely useful tool in any leader\'s tool kit.

NLP has a wide range of tools to control or change your emotions very quickly. The NLP Businesses Practitioner will be able to teach  you  how you can develop a confident, resourceful emotional state in seconds and get the job done. Feel free to contact me or any of my graduates for more details.

One of the things I have noticed about managers and leaders is that they make mistakes. Generally the way that experienced and inexperienced leaders relate to their mistakes is wildly different. Some inexperienced leaders can become paralysed into inaction through the fear of making a mistake. Conversely good leader take mistakes as part of life, the learning process and use the lessons to improve results.

Just for a few moments spend some time thinking about your ideal version of a leader. Think of a typical situation where they would be under intense pressure. Consider how they would act and how they would relate to the mistakes they may make along the way. Then think about the results they would get from holding a relaxed but focused attitude towards their goals. Hold that thought as we will return to it towards the end of this article.

Influence and Persuasion


A key part of leadership has to be about selling the vision. Here NLP can also help considerably.

Firstly you need a well constructed vision that aligns with your values and has relevance to you. NLP has tools about building a vision that works in a practical, pragmatic but passionate way.

Then you need to understand the people you want to bring on board. You need to understand their motivations, drivers and values. You need to understand how they will benefit from buying into your vision and helping along the way.

Finally you will need the language and communication skills to be able to present all this back in a way that motivates, inspires and calls people to action. A huge part of NLP is all about how to do just this.

If you could capture and lead the imagination of others towards your goals would this make you a better leader?

If you could tap into people\'s unconscious minds and motivate them towards your goals where would you take them?

You can become a better leader through using some simple, NLP techniques.

The Business NLP Practitioner Certification  will give you the tools to motivate and lead people and give you the attitude and mindset to be able to lead as well as key accelerated learning tools to develop the skills quickly

Chris Adlam
chris@nlptransformation.co.za
Bookings
031 823 1446
Wendy Knowles
wendy@nlptransformation.co.za
021 8236575