“The quality of your communication shapes the quality of your life. Every cell in your being aligns with what you declare.”
― Niurka
For the unversed, NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a tool that uses different sensory techniques to change a person’s thoughts and actions to achieve the desired outcome. In simpler terms, it enables and empowers us to understand how our brain (neuro) works. NLP processes the words we use (linguistic) and helps us determine how they can impact our past, present, and future. Do you find that interesting?
In this week’s webinar, Master Coaches Cindy Muthukaruppan and Prakash Rao talked about the world of NLP and how the tools and techniques it uses, can be applied to coaching. They explored and demonstrated the various tools and techniques available to help us initiate effective life changes.
How NLP works in Coaching
As Prakash demonstrated in the webinar, the strength of NLP lies in noticing the finer details that the client shares. As coaches, we are able to discern what the client is doing by observing their gaze, movements, and overall body language. Did that spark a thought? Well, it’s true. Watch the webinar to see how Prakash and Cindy explore that with an example. When used effectively along with the ICF’s core competencies, NLP becomes an additional lens that helps us see and observe at a deeper level.
Relationship between the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ level
I found this part interesting. In the webinar, they discussed how the being of the person determines the doing of the person. In short, who we are, directly impacts what we do and how we do it. So for the client to design their own goals and actions, it is important for them to understand their values, purpose, and identity. Wondering how NLP helps with that? It makes it easier to unpack and explore these by using different modalities and techniques. The underlying idea is to navigate different logical levels while painting a clearer picture for the client, leading to a well-defined action or goal.
Tools and techniques
As coaches, we all are aware of how powerful metaphors can be. One of the techniques shared during the webinar was David Grove’s Clean Language, which can be used to help the client define metaphors better. The more defined the metaphor, the easier it becomes for the client to express themselves. When this is backed with capability questions like how it will look, or what will you do, it can create wonders for our clients.
Map of the World
“Any single person’s viewpoint will have blind spots caused by their habitual ways of perceiving the world, their perceptual filters…How can we shift our perceptions to get outside our own limited worldview?”
― John Seymour
So much of our information is perceived and collected through our senses. But an interesting fact is that the first step after collecting information is deletion. Yes, you read that right. Prakash elaborated that this is done to collect data and generalize, which is the second step. The last step is distortion, where we add meaning to the information we have.
The meaning we denote is highly influenced by the environment and our identity. Prakash explained this wonderfully comparing a doctor and an average human dealing with a person bleeding profusely. Even though the situation is the same, our backgrounds determine how we react and what meaning we associate with it, in any given situation.
Needless to say, these are my thoughts after the due process of deletion, generalization, and distortion. I would encourage you to watch this webinar to know more about NLP and the many interesting techniques it uses with regard to its relationship with coaching..Do watch or listen to it and share your thoughts with us in the comments below or on Coachnook.
To know more about Prakash’s NLP program, click here.
