Articles
These are excerts from our many NLP and coaching articles. To read more, simply enter your name and email address in the boxes provided.
The Emergence of Wisdom
From our own experience we know some people are wiser than others. Also that a few organizations show wisdom in the systems they put in place and the way they work.
Some people are experts but that doesn’t make them wise. Wisdom is not the same as expertise or even mastery.
Wisdom is forged in the crucible of experience – and what we make of our experience. It gives us some understanding of what it means to be alive and what matters. It sees the bigger picture.
Coaching and NLP
by Jan M. Elfline
Coaching is one of the fastest growing new professions. What is the appeal? Recent issues of Newsweek, Money Magazine and the Wall Street Journal urge professionals to avail themselves of the services of a personal coach. Why?
Dedicated athletes use coaches to increase their focus and to provide support, structure, and ongoing accountability to prepare them for win/lose competitions. Organizations and individuals who hire coaches are interested in having, being, and doing their best, not settling for less. We humans have a deep need to grow and develop, to actualize our potential. We want to “go for the gold” in the game of life.
What specifically is coaching?
One Professional Coaches Association defines coaching as “an ongoing relationship which focuses on clients taking action toward the realization of their vision, goals or desires. Coaching uses a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build the client’s level of awareness and responsibility, and provides the client with structure, support and feedback.” How is that different from existing professions? Like counseling, it is client-centered and individual. Like consulting, it is outcome oriented,dealing in visions and actions.
The major difference between masterful training, counseling, therapy, consulting or mentoring and masterful coaching can be described quite simply. The coach does not have answers. The coach does not provide expertise. A coach operates from the presupposition that the client (player) has all the resources, including the ability to discover and utilize resources.
How does coaching work?
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The Five Steps
The 5 Steps to successful NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS AND GOAL SETTING
- GET CLEAR ABOUT PRECISELY WHAT YOU WANT - NOT WHAT YOU DON’T WANT.
Many people set New Year Resolutions such as “I don’t want to be so fat” or “I don’t want to smoke anymore.” But these resolutions are focusing on what you don’t want - not what you do want. If someone says to you “Don’t think of a red aeroplane” you have to imagine a red plane for your brain to process the idea. So a resolution such as “I want to stop eating chocolate” simply leads you back to the thought of chocolate. Your resolution should be stated in the positive: eg “I want to improve my health by eating fruit when I’m hungry and jogging for half an hour, three times a week.”
How to tips: Start thinking in terms of what you want, not what you don’t want. This is step one in taking control of your brain. Learning how to formulate what you’re going for is vital.
- BE SPECIFIC - NOT VAGUE
“I want to be thinner” may be a great idea but it is somewhat vague for a great New Year Resolution. If you were to set this as a resolution, and then lost half a pound, your brain may feel that you have achieved your goal - and it could then propel you back to the chocolate! You need to be as clear and specific as possible. If necessary, also give yourself clear deadlines. “I want to weigh 11 stone by 1 May” is a very specific goal and gives your brain clear instructions.
How to tips: Being specific is a learnable skill. Too often we’re less than clear with ourselves and others. The result is frequently disappointment or bad feeling. The set of NLP tools known as the ‘Meta Model’ can change all this very quickly and easily. For Business applications, see chapter four of Practical NLP for Managers
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Master Practitioner Training
We ask Ian McDermott some of the questions that you’ve been asking about the ITS Master Practitioner training.
Why would someone who has reached Practitioner level want to take the next step to Master Practitioner, which is obviously a significant investment both in time and finances?
Because once you know what is possible you’d be crazy to stop so soon! After Practitioner you now know what is possible. Now you can really start addressing beliefs and identity level issues. All the material is new and there’s a lot of it.
So much of what the ITS Master Practitioner programme is about is working at these higher logical levels to ensure that you can make real and lasting change be it personally, professionally, or with an individual or inside an organisation.
There has been a lot of material generated in the last 25 years. Master Practitioner programmes vary enormously in their content. I’m not sure people actually realise just how different those programmes can be. I think that if you want to be able to use what has been developed beyond Practitioner level and have a focus that is systemic i.e. you’re looking at the whole system rather than just trying to change one little symptom - you’ll find that certain advanced NLP material becomes obviously essential if you are going to achieve very much.
That’s been my focus in putting this programme together. My particular obsession is with the practical applications of NLP and I can think of nothing more practical than being able to make systemic interventions that produce lasting beneficial change, for individuals and organisations. The ITS Master Practitioner programme gives you the tools to do this.
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Manage Yourself, Manage Your Life
There’s a limit to what you can control
First, though, it is important to sort out exactly what we mean when we talk about managing your life and exercising control over what happens to you and around you. It’s certainly not a matter of getting caught up in the Dictator’s Fallacy, the maddening Mussolini-like belief that just a bit more power and a bit more control over other people and external events would give you security, happiness and everything you could wish for. There are a great many external factors bearing on your life and your work which are beyond all human control. People who keep swearing at the weather for not being kinder to them have problems that are more than just meteorological.
This book is not about managing the totally unmanageable or controlling things that, by their nature, are not amenable to control. But it is concerned with breaking some of the links that are often assumed to be set in concrete between events that are beyond our control and our reactions to them, which could, potentially, be controlled and managed.
If Lisa acts in a certain way and we say that Lisa infuriates Mark, it is important to understand that what is going on is not a simple matter of cause and effect. Saying that Lisa infuriates Mark is not the same as saying that Lisa tickles Mark, or hits him, or picks him up by the scruff of his neck, whirls him three times round her head and throws him across the room. These are actions she does to him. When she infuriates him, that is not strictly something she does to him. She acts; he reacts. But there is not an unbreakable chain of cause and effect here.
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Benefits of NLP in your professional life
Here are some of the ways that your professional life may benefit from NLP training.
OUTCOMES/GOALS
Many people are not happy in their professional life, yet when you ask them what they really want in a career, they are not sure. Becoming clear on what you want from your work is essential, if that work is going to be fulfilling for you.
Equally, within an organisation, having clear outcomes for yourself, your team and the organisation is vital. NLP has been used to great benefit by large and small organisations to make sure that everyone has shared goals and is moving in the same direction.
RELATIONSHIPS/COMMUNICATIONS
Many organisations pay lip service to the importance of communication skills. Yet, if we think of highly successful colleagues and managers, is it not true that their ability to communicate, influence and motivate is one of the keys to their success.
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The Psychology of Money, Prosperity and Abundance
By Kris Hallbom and Armand D’Alo
What stops people from succeeding financially and having abundance in their life? The answer is generally focused around the belief that financial success is not a possibility. Many people create various barriers that keep them from having abundance.
If you have limiting beliefs about money at an unconscious level, it will be difficult to move though financial limitations because your unconscious mind will hamper your efforts to succeed. This is why some people end up living from paycheck to paycheck their whole life—at some level they don’t believe that they’re capable of doing better.
Even though there is a positive intention behind their financial barriers, many people don’t recognize what those intentions are. Then there are those who know at some level what the positive intention is, yet they still don’t know how to get through obstacles.
At a conscious level, most people think they’re doing everything possible to achieve their goals. However, there still might be some unconscious part of them that doesn’t believe they can obtain success. The more a person avoids that unconscious part, the more obstacles will continue to show up in their every day life. That’s the way the mind works.
For example, think of the people you know who read all of the think and grow rich books, attend financial seminars, say daily affirmations, and still have money problems. All of these things that they’re doing are worthwhile, yet they often don’t get to the “core” of their issue which usually involves some type of limiting belief.
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Real Leadership
By Ian McDermott
If you were to ask the average man or woman in the street what makes a good leader, the majority, I think, would put forward qualities such as strength, determination, courage and, for many, ruthlessness. If you were to ask how many people demonstrate such qualities, our fictitious survey group might cite Napoleon, Wellington, Margaret Thatcher and some leaders of industry such as Richard Branson. Leadership is perceived as being in short supply. We are, so many believe, crying out for leadership. (One of the arguments put forward for grammar schools has been that they would produce the next generation of military and industrial leaders).
But while the word 'leader' usually conjures up the picture of someone like JFK, we are all leaders at certain times - and not just in special circumstances. A parent needs to lead his or her children. A partner within a relationship will, if the relationship is to be balanced and work, have times of being the leader and other times of being led. Even though leadership may not be a full time occupation, we will all have moments when others look to us for direction, guidance and support.
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Manage Yourself, Manage Your Life - Extracts
A NEW SENSE OF CONTROL
How to make the most of yourself and your circumstances
Life is yours to make sense of and its value is the sense you choose to make. - Jean-Paul Sartre
Why manage?
Because you can do more, live more, be more. Because it’s more fun. Because you owe it to yourself to be the author of your own life story. Because work and business are a waste of time if they don’t give you what you need. Because you could be happier. And healthier. And richer.
How many reasons do you need?
Because it’s better to be the doer than the done. Because life’s more interesting than drifting. Because other people will always tell you what you’re supposed to be doing, but only you know what you must do. Because families don’t always work in your favour. Because bad luck happens. Because you deserve the chance to show what you can do. Because you don’t want to be blaming other people.
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ITS - The Global Prespective
We speak to Director of Training Ian McDermott about the global impact of NLP.
When you started ITS you used the word International as part of the name of the organisation. Now, sixteen years on, you are putting on Global trainings and have books published across the world. Was the International aspect of NLP planned from the start?
Absolutely...........it seemed to me then - and I still think it is the case now -that part of the magic of NLP is its universality: The ways of understanding human experience that it offers us and the technologies for change that have been generated out of that way of thinking seem to be almost universally applicable. Yet at the same time, my experience has been that teaching NLP in different countries, in Italy or Denmark or the US, is a different experience to say working with English people. This is important because although the tools seem to be universal, each nationality brings its own distinctive flavour and understanding. When I founded ITS in 1988, it seemed to me that if NLP was to achieve its potential, it would necessarily have to be more than just a local experience. I imagined people, sometimes trainers, sometimes course practitioners, from lots of different countries coming together to enjoy what NLP had to offer. My hope was that ITS could be part of this process and help make it happen.
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Ten Essential Strategies for Turning Vision Into Action
by Ian McDermott
- Start being who you really are
Those rare individuals who create lives which are the embodiment of their dreams and visions are at home in themselves and on the planet. At the times when you are turning your Vision into Action, you will be ‘being you.’ So by contrast, it can be really useful to look at the times when you are not ‘being you’ to be clear about when this is happening and how you are selling yourself short.
You can then use the tools of NLP and the skills of Coaching to make any changes in these areas that will make the journey from Vision into Action, easier, faster and more rewarding.
- Decide how much your Vision matters
Turning your Vision into Action should not be a struggle. There may be obstacles to overcome. (See 8. ‘Decide - Are You Willing to Pay the Price’). But those who achieve are driven by a strong desire to take Action. The strength of this desire is directly related to how much your Vision matters to you. To put it another way, if your Vision does not matter deeply to you, is it any surprise to find yourself un-motivated to take the Action?
So if taking Action is a problem for you, you may want to go back and check the Vision. Maybe the Vision requires fine tuning. Perhaps it’s time for a new Vision. Either way, a Vision that matters deeply to you is a pre-requisite for significant Action.
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