NLP - Is it really the answer?

Sharon was sitting in the balcony sipping her customary evening coffee enjoying the beautiful Mumbai rains when suddenly the doorbell rang.

She welcomed Nina, her friend and mentor to join her for coffee. While munching those yummy ‘pakoras’, the conversation started drifting towards some challenges that Sharon’s organization was facing in terms of employee commitment, engagement and even basic communication within the organization and with clients externally.

For more than 10 years Nina had been mentoring executive teams of organizations using the NLP methodology and thought she could instill some food for thought in Sharon’s mind too.  

“Let me walk you through the NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) concept which might be the answer to 90% of your problems!” said Nina.

To start with, NLP is mainly an approach to understand how people organize their thoughts, feelings, language and behavior to produce the results that they do. It provides people with a methodology to model outstanding performances.

As a professional, at times you might struggle to meet the goals that you would have set for yourself. NLP helps you achieve these goals more efficiently. It’s actually fun to see how one can use unorthodox, yet effortless ways to improve their leadership skills and have more influence over others.

Some of our job roles demand skills like effective persuasion specially our colleagues who interact with clients / prospective clients directly. This methodology will help our colleagues read the verbal / non-verbal cues of all in the board room in order to respond in the most credible way. You would also know so many people around us who get a shiver down their spine when they have to deliver a presentation / when they indulge in public speaking. Well, NLP will help those individuals combat these anxieties also.  

Quite a few of us who are at managerial / leadership roles, engage in discussions with our team members day-in and day-out. There are times when we demonstrate behaviors without realizing how the other person might have felt.  NLP helps us monitor and control our behaviors in order to establish a win-win relationship with our team members.

NLP helps individuals unleash their potential by highlighting their skills which will enable them to deliver at their best of their ability.

The main objective of NLP is to reverse negative behaviors and habits. How an individual interprets their workplace has little to do with the actual working environment and more to do with the individual. Employees have completely different experiences at work, even though the work environment is the same for everyone. NLP makes employees aware that the problems they face at work are usually internal, not external. Making employees self-aware of their attitudes and behaviors is the first step towards a positive change.

In this era of technological advancement and stiff competition, one question that troubles leaders is how to achieve a competitive advantage to promote performance. Successful organizations realize that true competitive advantage lies in their people. NLP helps employees build business excellence in the organization.

Apart from the benefits that I have mentioned above, NLP actually has something for everyone. It not only helps in professional advancement, but also in personal mastery, relationships and fitness. It helps you build a positive rapport with all around you. It acts as a guide in turning negative conversations to positive ones and converting problems to solutions.

In short, NLP is the study of excellence and as Dr Richard Bandler (Co-creator of NLP) says, “A lot of people are ‘doing’ life and not ‘living’ life!

“Wow! This sounded so interesting! Can you also share the different concepts that are used to bring about this effectiveness through NLP?” Sharon was now super excited.

“Looks like I have given enough food for thought to you. Research a bit on NLP yourself and then let’s talk about this some other day.” Having said this, Nina turned on the T.V. and tuned into her favorite F.R.I.E.N.D.S. episodes.