What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming and how can introducing it into your business support help your teams in 2022? Is it?

the capacity to think differently, so you can create something remarkable and unique
the ability to make an impact quickly and effectively
the power to connect to people with empathy and warmth
the ability to generate positive change, even when there are fears and doubts
being prepared to take the necessary risks for long-term success
the mental resilience to overcome rejection and disappointment without losing hope and focus?

I would suggest that NLP is all the above and potentially much more.

What it is that you want to achieve this year?

Do you want to help your teams become happier and more resilient at work?
Are you hoping to design and develop a new way of approaching clients to generate greater success?
Are you trying to be more serious about your own career and become a high achiever?
Perhaps you want to develop team cohesion or just improve their personal impact in this new hybrid world?

Whatever your goal, NLP contains the tools that will help you and your business to achieve your 2022 vision. Think of NLP as a mental fitness programme – one that contains all the cognitive exercises for success. Like a personal trainer, it will take you through all the strategies you need to realise your business dreams.

Lets Explore Resilience Tips using NLP techniques

It is important to recognise that certain thoughts lead to certain emotions. Examples Include:

I’ve lost something = Sadness
Someone has done something to harm me = Anger
I’ve hurt somebody = Shame
I feel threatened by something = Fear

The benefit of understanding that these thoughts lead to these particular emotions is that by identifying the emotion we feel, we can understand what our subconscious thought processes may be. This may not be obvious otherwise, and it will help us to take the right action to address the problem.

Thinking Traps

Thinking traps are effectively assumptions about ourselves or the situation, made without examining the evidence, and are usually unhelpful. The signs that you are falling into one of the thinking traps include the use of phrases like ‘never’, ‘always’, and ‘I…they…’, for example:

“I just can’t change”
“I’ve never been able to do things like delegation”
“They’ve taken it away from me”

If you’re thinking that this language sounds very childish, you’re right – and that’s ok and normal – but often unhelpful.

You need to be alert to falling into one or more of these thinking traps when you are developing your beliefs about a situation because it could prevent you from acting effectively: in other words, thinking traps can prevent you from acting with resilience.

Improving Resilience Through NLP

Having considered the elements of resilience, and the process of responding to situations, it may now be helpful to talk about what we can do to help develop resilience.

There are quite a number of useful techniques here, including:

Gathering More Information

You want to engage the rational part of your brain in your decision-making about the situation. One of the best ways to do so is to actively gather more information on which to base your decision.

Example using the ABC method

Suppose that you feel that a colleague is ignoring you. Your immediate reaction might be self-doubt, frustration or even fear:

“They hate me! It must mean I’m useless! I’d better avoid them!” [A-B-C]
“They hate me!” A
“It must mean I’m useless!” B
“I’d better avoid them!” C

But pause for a moment and gather more information. They might be stressed so preoccupied. It might not be ignorance – they may be shy. It might be they have just recovered from Covid and keeping themselves to themselves. There are all kinds of reasons why you might not need to panic.

A crucial aspect of gathering more information is to think about alternative explanations for the situation.

Your brain, based on your experience and your belief system, will present you with what it considers to be the most obvious explanation. But, it may not be correct!

Thinking about alternatives, and then checking those against reality, perhaps by asking questions of others or looking something up, will help to ensure that you react appropriately to the situation.

Alternative Scenarios

We’re all prone to imagining the worst. Your boss asks to speak to you, and you immediately imagine that you’re about to be fired. You get ready to defend your recent performance…

…but when you enter her office, it turns out that she wants you to know that she’s pregnant and you’re in line to take over her responsibilities while she’s on maternity leave, with a consequent pay rise.

Imagining the worst is also called catastrophising, and it is surprisingly common. There is a very easy way to deal with it, which involves generating alternative scenarios in your head:

Imagine the worst – let your imagination run riot. What could have gone wrong? What might have happened?
Now think about the best possible outcomes. How good could it get?
Finally, think about the most likely outcomes – probably somewhere between the two. Make a plan for how you will respond to that.

These two strategies, gathering more information and looking for alternative scenarios, will help you to develop your resilience.

You will become more aware of what is going on around you, and inside your head (awareness). They will also help you to apply rational thinking to the situation, climbing out of any thinking traps into which you have fallen, and understanding and rationalising your emotional response to a situation.

Additional idea – Improving Resilience Through Reaching Out

No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… John Donne (English Poet)

There is no shame in asking for help. We all need help now and again, and many of us function much better when we are working with others. A good part of resilience is knowing when and how to ask others for help, reaching out to those with whom we have relationships to resolve the problems with support.

Take a look at our Resilience Programme examples to explore how you can ask for help by ‘reframing’ thoughts, rather than feeling that you are returning to ‘child’ status by doing so.

Conclusion

NLP is a multi-faceted capability. To face challenges and respond appropriately can require us to draw on all our resources, both internal and external, including our personal relationships.

The good news is that improving our resources can help to develop resilience, and there are many NLP techniques in which we can learn that can truly make a huge impact to your success in 2022 and beyond.