Sometimes keeping your business on a positive route can be difficult. Here, Lindsey Agness explains how to switch to a different approach in only twelve days using the NLP technique.
Many CEO's have yet to explore NLP as a method to improve business success, but having been a consultant for many years; I can safely say that it is by far the most results-focussed technology I have come across. NLP is all about consistent, long-term results that can be achieved fast. Follow the steps below and see how your approach to business changes in just twelve days!
Day One: Develop a winning state of mind
NLP gives us a different lens through which to perceive the world. This can be empowering for leaders and also those who interact with you. In NLP we often talk about 'acting as if' something is true. That enables you to 'try' something on and see how it feels. It also starts to develop new neural connections and unconscious habits, this will help you to appear and feel calmer, less stressed and more accepting to experiment with new ideas thus giving you a winning state of mind.
Day Two: Dare to be different!
A part of great leadership is the ability to not be afraid of being different. Being different opens more doors and helps you stand out from the crowd. By utilising NLP to re-programme your mindset to firstly identify what makes you unique and secondly to leverage your individuality you will be on your way to thought leadership.
Day Three: Improve your leadership skills and ability to inspire others
How do you behave as a leader? Do you generally look on the positive side of whatever happens at work or do you focus on the negatives and how to avoid taking the blame when things go wrong? In NLP this is called being either at CAUSE or at EFFECT of everything that goes on around us.
Day Four: Build a high performing team
In order to build a high performing team, you must ensure that you incorporate the following values into your team; shared vision, commitment, trust, communication, involvement, development structures and continuous improvement. A great NLP programme to try with your team is the Meta programme – this helps you to identify and familiarise yourself with your team members.
Day Five: Motivate and engage with staff
Motivation is a set of reasons for engaging in a particular human behaviour. There are some conditions that are to be met in order for you to be able to motivate someone the correct way. So in order to master motivation you must first discover; what is the motivating force, the stimulus, or the kind of influence you need to have in order to motivate your staff?
Day Six: Create innovative solutions to challenges
There's an old saying "There are no problems – only opportunities. "Too often we focus on problems and fail to see opportunities right in front of us. When you focus on your problems – when you only think of what is wrong – you will only see problems and fail to see opportunities and solutions.
You can use NLP to help curb negativity into positivity, thus clearing your mind and making room for innovative ideas.
Day Seven: Have courageous conversations
Being able to hold a courageous conversation is crucial when it comes to developing your staff or team. Being honest to individuals and teams is crucial in order for them to succeed. Try not to action anxiety, get rid of negative fantasies, and try to get rid of the fear of separation.
Day Eight: Understand the rules of the game to change the culture
Essentially these are unconscious rules of the organisation. It's what everyone learns when they join yet it's never taught. It's everything that operates behind the scenes and drives behaviour in the business.
These are not the conscious mission statements, values and behaviours rewarded at annual appraisal time. Instead, they are what everyone understands to be the way that things really get done (or not).
Day Nine: Utilise world-class communication skills
New customers, when they do appear, come via word of mouth and reputation rather than costly advertising and competition. In the public sector, where all large contracts have to go to competition, our strategy at The Change Corporation has been to build relationships to ensure that we are invited to tender for admission onto preferred supplier lists. This reduces the complexity of the competition and improves our chances of success considerably.
Day Ten: Differentiate yourself with your clients
Differentiating yourself with your clients is important to gaining new clients and keeping existing ones. Influencing with integrity is one way to keep customers happy whilst making your business stand out. Once you know how to clarify your own desires (or outcomes) you can use the same techniques to clarify the outcomes of any other party involved in the communication.
Achieving that party's outcome while you achieve your own is what I call influencing with integrity.
Day Eleven: Become a relaxed and excellent presenter
Spend a few moments before your next presentation practising these steps. It only takes a few moments:
Put any other thoughts or issues out of your mind.
Now get physiologically comfortable.
Get your breathing under control.
Now put your awareness inside of yourself for a few moments.
Bring your awareness back outside into the room and find a spot on the wall to focus on.
Notice that you can see every small movement that your audience makes whilst in this state.
Notice that you can make eye contact with individuals whilst remaining in peripheral vision.
Now begin
Day Twelve: Consistently exceed your client's expectations
It's very hard to keep on exceeding customer expectations. This is because customer expectations are constantly going up and up. With every good experience your customer has at one of your competitors, their benchmark of good service levels increases.
So your competitor's actions have just as much of an inflationary effect on customer expectations as your own.
