Coaching Thought | The Benefits of Coaching

'Coaching Thoughts' are extracts of books that might be of interest to coaches (and many others). This ‘Coaching Thought’ comes from the professional services book: How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life: How to Get Ahead in Professional Services. It gives a number of powerful reasons for having a coach for those interested in becoming partner.

“Coaching provides benefits by:

1. Helping people achieve sustainable levels of performance, particularly leadership capability;
2. Improving people’s interpersonal skills and correcting blind spots in their behaviour towards others;
3. Providing focus and accountability;
4. Increasing knowledge transfer for high performers and exceptional managers;
5. Turning around under-performance;"

Read more from this: Coaching Thought

New Workshops | NLP Practitioners and Master Practitioners

When you've completed your practitioner and master practitioner accreditation you learned new set of skills and attitudes that will set you up for the rest of your life.

However while some of the skills will be with you for all time, some really benefit from continual practice.

We've developed a series of 4 highly affordable 1-day workshops to help you maintain and build on the skills that you need to practice.

Attendance is limited to 12 delegates and restricted to NLP practitioners and master practitioners

See more: NLP workshops
  

NLP Training Forum

Interested in NLP and performance improvement? We've recently relaunched the NLP training forum, which has a vast  range of podcasts and interviews on Business Development, Coaching, Cold Calling, Change Management, Leadership, Networking and training + a lot more.

Read more: Forum NLP

NLP Training Guide 2012

Just released. New for 2012 24 page NLP Training and Certification Guide. Read before you choose your training. See NLP Training Guide.

What is NLP?

NLP is the exploration of how we think, communicate and change - so that we can model, replicate and improve performance. NLP's core competencies are about:

1. Attitudes that produce results

2. Modelling

3. Techniques, so we can transfer the results of the above

It's not NLP that's important it's what we do with it.


NLP is different from other personal development approaches in that:

1. It is modelled from individuals who were experts and geniuses at helping others change

2. It takes into account how we connect to the world through our sensory experience and how we store and change that experience through using our minds and bodies

3. It is highly effective at connecting conscious and unconscious resources, leading to individuals connecting to their ‘untapped potential.’ NLP combines logical, sensory, emotional and intuitive thinking to enable your clients to reach theirs goals more easily.

While NLP has some really strong business applications, practicing NLP also leads to personal freedom.

Are there ethical considerations in using NLP?

The more we practice NLP skills the more able we are to influence people. I'm going to suggest that that gives us a responsibility to use our skills to lead both ourselves and those that we interact with in a useful direction, and to be aware of the impact we may have.


The definition of what is a useful direction is of course a very personal decision, and it’s worth investing our time in advance to ensure we are congruent with the stance we take.

It is also worth remembering that we've all learnt at some level to be aware when someone is trying to manipulate us in a way that isn't aligned with our beliefs and values - and normally we resist it strongly.

Anyone who uses these skills in way that isn't ethical is likely to get the full force of that resistance. Conversely, If we use these skills to help people achieve what's important to them we are likely to get their genuine thanks.

What makes a good NLP coach and mentor

While the very best coaching and mentoring depends on the strength of the relationship between the client and the coach or mentor, and therefore depends on the specific context, we have found the following list to be a useful guide as to what makes a good coach and mentor:


• A curiosity about helping people solve their own problems

• In control of their own goals, not simply serving their clients

• Life experience

• Business experience

• Ability to 'shut up' and give the client room to think

• Ability to suspend ego, albeit temporarily

• Developed their own models from other coaches, mentors and clients

• Formal accreditation

• Practice, practice, practice

• Feedback, feedback, feedback

• Feedback against results, rather than what people say at the time

Good training and coaching enable you to significantly 'build on' and 'amplify' what you're already good at and therefore training is an important part of the mix in becoming a good coach or mentor.