What is NLP and what can it do for you?

The use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a powerful approach that will help you in four essential areas in how you communicate, motivate, and manage others (and yourself) in your work - as well as being of invaluable help to you in your personal life.


The four pillars of NLP are building rapport, using your sensory awareness, developing well-formed outcomes, and behavioural flexibility.

All four pillars of NLP are guaranteed to supplement your existing management and leadership skills.

How you establish and build a relationship with others – and yourself – is called ‘rapport’.

Rapport is not just about mimicking people, nor is it about always agreeing with other people. Once you are in rapport, you will find that it makes an important difference in how you get on with others as well as how they perceive you. You will always have more positive relationships when you are in rapport with others.

There are a number of guiding principles in building rapport as well as techniques that work every time. Have you ever noticed what you take in when you go into a strange office or someone else’s home for the first time? Do you notice the colours, the sounds, the smells? What impression do they create?

How you use your sensory awareness – sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell – will make your world a richer place and make you more aware of your interaction with others and their surroundings – and vice versa!

When you start talking to someone about NLP, you’ll hear lots of references to ‘outcomes’.

What this means is that NLP techniques will help you to focus on what you want from life rather than what you don’t want, as well as giving you a set of tools to work out for yourself how to achieve your outcomes. The principles of an outcome focus will also help you develop options and decide on the best way forward for you, whether it’s a project at work, a social get-together, or deciding on your game plan for the rest of your career. Outcome techniques are incredibly powerful and will give you an edge in how you plan ahead as well as equip you with all you need to know to achieve your goals at work and in life.

The final pillar is this – if you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. In other words, being flexible in your behaviour is the key to achieving what you need. With a flexible approach to how you behave with other people, you and your teams will be able to adapt and lead change more effectively than ever before – guaranteed!