Change is a key part of life, and it’s certainly a key part of business. It’s a constant, and the only thing you can be certain of is that it’s going to happen. The way you deal with change is important if you’re going to make that change a success. We’ve done a lot of work looking at different ideas around change and have come up with a process that works really well. In this chapter, we’ll introduce you to that process.

In this chapter we’ll look at developing a strategy for change, and what you need to consider when implementing change in an organisation. What’s the impact the change is going to have on your organisation? What’s the purpose of the change and what are you hoping to achieve? We’ll answer these questions, along with lots more, in this session.

Once you’ve got a strategy in place, you need to sell this change to your team and get them to buy in. If they’re bought in, implementing this change will be easy – if they’re not, you’ll struggle and you likely won’t achieve everything you’re hoping to. In this chapter we’ll look at ensuring your team is on board, and your change is a success.

Here are some useful sessions on effective communication that will help you get your organisation on-side.

Now that you’ve learned effective ways to manage change, why not try another of our Toolkit courses?

For more support dealing with change on a business and personal level, have a look at our Evolve or Die course. It’ll walk you through the process of taking your life or business to the next level and give you useful exercises and a fail-safe timeline for achieving your goals.

Before you get started, download the course manual here. You can print it out, and make your own notes on the pages, or download as a PDF.

Thanks for joining me on this Managing Difficult Conversations course. We all have to have difficult conversations at some point in our personal and working lives, and being confident in doing so will enable you to handle them effectively, and create a better eventual outcome. In this introduction we’ll look at why it’s important to get comfortable having difficult conversations, and outline the process we’ll be using.

Good communication starts with building rapport. In this session, we’ll look at what rapport is, why it’s so important, and how you can build it with anyone.

How do you get the most out of a difficult conversation? Active listening. Whether you’re the on the giving or the receiving end, being an active listener will help you get through a difficult conversation without conflict – and with a good outcome at the end.

Understanding the value of asking questions is essential in all types of interactions, but especially when having a difficult conversation. In this chapter we’ll look at the different types of questions, and how you can use them to get the best results.

When you’re having a difficult conversation with someone, it can be really helpful to put yourself in their shoes, to understand how they’re thinking and feeling so that you can approach the conversation with empathy and understand their point of view. This exercise helps you get into that mindset, as well as providing a framework you can use to help the person you’re having the conversation with understand your or others’ point of view.

It’s important to approach a difficult conversation with confidence, with respect for yourself and others – that’s assertiveness. In this chapter we’ll look at how to be assertive (and what assertiveness isn’t).

Generally speaking people don’t know if they are doing well or doing badly if you don’t tell them – that’s why feedback is so important. Giving feedback in a structured way, thinking through how the receiver might react and how you’ll respond to that, can go a long way to ensuring your conversation is positive and productive for everyone involved.

A clear process for goal setting will give your conversation a path for a good outcome: it’s a really useful skill to have, and this particular process is an almost failsafe method for ensuring that you achieve the goals you set.

Delegation is a useful tool for resolving all kinds of work-related issues (stress, feeling overwhelmed, low productivity etc), so knowing how to delegate effectively is an essential skill. In this chapter we’ll look at the process of delegation with an example of an effective delegation plan.

Now that you’ve learned how to manage difficult conversations really well, you might like to look at our other Toolkit courses: try our Mentor’s Toolkit or our Stress Management Toolkit.

If you’d like to go more in-depth and learn to change your behaviour to get the most out of your life, or work towards big personal or professional goals, have a look at the NLP Business Practitioner course. The Business Practitioner is a group course that runs over 10 two-hour sessions, and will help you understand the way you and others think and behave, so you can get the most out of every interaction.

Thanks for joining me on The Mentor’s Toolkit. In the introduction we’ll look at what being a mentor really means, the difference between being a coach, counsellor and mentor, and some processes to help you become a more effective mentor.

In this chapter, we’ll look at the difference between active and passive listening, and how you can use active listening to help you become a supportive mentor.

One of the best ways of getting information from people is asking questions. In this chapter, we’ll learn how to use questions effectively, in the right situations, to help the person you’re mentoring.

As a mentor, you’ll often be required to help the person you’re mentoring set and achieve goals. In this session, we’ll look at some useful processes for goal setting.

Establishing a good connection between yourself and the person you’re mentoring will help you – and them – get the most out of the work you do together. That’s where rapport comes in: in this session, we’ll look at the importance of rapport and how to build it effectively.

Lots of people find giving feedback difficult, and often we tend to give more negative feedback than positive. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to deliver feedback in a structured way.

Telling stories is a really effective way to get your point across, or to lead someone you’re mentoring to a conclusion without being too direct. In this chapter we’ll look at using metaphor, or story-telling, to make you a more effective mentor.

Now that you’ve learned how to become a great mentor, you might like to try our Professional Coach Course.

If you’d like to go more in-depth and learn to change your behaviour to get the most out of your life, or work towards big personal or professional goals, have a look at the NLP Business Practitioner course. The Business Practitioner is a group course that runs over 10 two-hour sessions, and will help you understand the way you and others think and behave, so you can get the most out of every interaction.

In this chapter I’ll provide you with some useful tools to help you as you complete the NLP Business Practitioner course.

Click here to download the course manual, with notes on each of the course chapters and exercises for you to complete.

Here you can download the Learning Log. Use this to record your learning throughout the course: which NLP techniques you’ve put into practice and how you found the process.

The ANKI App is a really useful tool for learning course information; use it to create flashcards and test yourself. Here’s how it works.

In this first chapter, we’ll look at the background of NLP: what it is, how it works, and how you can use it to help you become a better communicator and get better at what you do.

Conscious and Unconscious

In this session we’ll look at the difference between the conscious and unconscious mind, and how this understanding can empower you to take control of your thoughts and actions. What are some actions you carry out unconsciously? How could bringing these into your conscious mind help you?

Next, we’ll look at the difference between perception and reality. We’ll examine the way our background and other factors affect the way we perceive situations: why do some people have different interpretations of the same situation? How can that understanding help us become a more compassionate, empathetic and effective leader?

Understanding Perception and Reality

In this chapter we’ll look at the belief systems loop, and how beliefs affect behaviour. When you understand the beliefs that underpin someone’s behaviour, you can more easily empathise with them, negotiate more easily and build better rapport.

In this session, we’ll look at effective communication, and how to do it well.

Now we’re going to look at some of the key processes that are fundamental to NLP that are essential to communicating and influencing well; including pacing and leading and rapport.

Being able to understand your team’s drivers, challenges and needs is really important when it comes to good leadership. In this video, we’ll look at some tools for putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and how that can inform the way you work as a leader.

Representational systems are the way we interpret the world and our experiences inside our head: you remember the way a memory felt, smelled, looked or sounded. When you can work out other people’s representational systems, you can find the best way to communicate them using their rep system.

In this chapter, we’ll build on what we learned in the chapter on Representational Systems, and how you can use eye accessing cues to understand which Rep Systems an individual tends towards.

The presuppositions of NLP are the concepts that form the core of NLP: they are a set of beliefs that allow us to understand people, empathise, and build rapport.

Being able to set, and more importantly, achieve your goals is essential in getting where you want to be. In this chapter I’ll give you an exercise that’s proven incredibly effective when it comes to achieving your goals on time.

Being able to ‘put yourself in someone else’s shoes’ is an essential skill when it comes to understanding the person you’re negotiating with. This exercise will help you do that effectively, whether it’s your audience, a colleague, a friend or a business associate.

Next we’ll look at the NLP technique anchoring. This is a useful way to access a desirable state at any time, whether that’s feeling calm when you’re stressed, feeling confident if you’re about to give a presentation, or feeling resourceful when you need to.

In this chapter, we’ll expand on what we learned about representational systems, and how we can use submodalities to change attitudes to various activities and processes.

Have you ever said something to someone, only to have them completely misunderstand what you meant? In this chapter we’ll look at why that happens, and how we can use this knowledge to communicate clearly with others.

In this session I’ll introduce you to the Meta Model, a language pattern model designed to help you challenge non-specific language and understand what people really mean when you’re talking to them, to give you a better outcome in all your interactions.

Now we’re going to look at the Milton Model, another language pattern. The Milton Model provides a way to use non-specific language to allow you to be more persuasive and lead the person you’re talking to towards a desirable outcome – or just to get someone to see a different side to an argument.

Telling stories is one of the most powerful ways to keep your audience engaged and to speak persuasively. In this chapter we’ll look at how you can use metaphors, or stories, to their best effect.

In this session we’ll look at chunking. You can either chunk up, into bigger ideas or more abstract concepts, or chunk down into detail. You can use this technique to influence people’s choices – here’s how.

In NLP, we model the processes successful people use to achieve the things they want. In this session, we’ll look at how that process works, and how you can model the behaviour of people who are successful at what you’re trying to achieve. It’s also a great way of influencing someone’s buying process.

Now that you’ve completed the NLP Business Practitioner course, you might like to move on to the NLP Master Practitioner course. The Master Practitioner course is designed to develop the concepts and techniques you learned in this course further: you’ll learn how to put these ideas into practice and how to get real results from the things you’ve learned. The Master Practitioner course is where lots of our delegates see real change happen in their lives; if you’ve got big plans or goals (career or personal), this course will help you get there.

You can also have a look at our shorter, more targeted courses on topics like Time Management, Stress Management or Having Difficult Conversations.

Thanks for joining me on my Professional Coach Course. In this video we’ll start by looking at exactly what a coach is, and what a coach does: how you can facilitate lasting change in your coaching clients and help them achieve their goals.

Here you can download the course manual: you can either keep it as a PDF to read on your computer or tablet, or print it out.

In this chapter we’ll start by looking at some of the core concepts of NLP, and how you can use them to become an effective and successful coach.

The Presuppositions of NLP

Values

Roger’s Core Conditions

In this chapter you can download some useful examples of the documentation you’ll need to get started: a sample Coaching Contract and a sample Intake Questionnaire.

In this chapter we’ll look at some of the essential skills required for working as a coach: building rapport, active listening and asking constructive questions.

Rapport

Active Listening

Question Types

Challenging – The Meta Model

In this chapter, we’ll cover some really useful tools to have in your coaching toolbox. These are exercises you can use with coaching clients to help them set goals (and achieve them), uncover and unpick habits that aren’t serving them, or access a particular state (like feeling calm and confident).

Goal Setting and Well-Formed Outcomes

Strategies

What is Anchoring?

Setting an Anchor

Metaphors

Perceptual Positions

The GROW Model

Being a coach is a really important and fulfilling job – and that means that there are certain responsibilities that come along with the role. In this chapter we’ll break down those responsibilities and how you can make sure you’re fulfilling them.

Now that you’ve learned the essentials to becoming a professional coach, you might like to join one of our more involved courses, like the NLP Business Practitioner (or the Personal Transformation course, if you’ve already completed the Personal Growth or Business Practitioner course). The Business Practitioner or Personal Growth courses are designed to help you achieve the life you want: you’ll set goals (professional or personal) and learn how to achieve them, learn new techniques that really work for communicating and interacting with others, among lots of other useful tools.

If you would like to try a shorter, more focused course, have a look at our Stress Management Toolkit, Resilience Toolkit and Time Management Toolkit.

An introduction to this leadership course. We’ll be focusing on leading teams in a flexible working/hybrid working/remote working environment, but the course is suitable for anyone in a leadership role.

Before we get started, download and fill in this Leadership Questionnaire, designed to help you understand your leadership style.

In this session we’ll look at some examples of great leadership, what makes them good leaders, and how you can model those behaviours yourself to get the same results.

In this chapter we’ll look at some leadership theories, such as situational leadership and action-centred leadership, and how you can use these ideas to become a better, more effective leader.

Do you know the difference between management and leadership? We’ll compare ‘management behaviour’ and ‘leadership behaviour’, and how understanding the distinction can help you manage your team.

One of the things the pandemic taught us was that it is possible to lead a team effectively while working remotely. In this chapter, we’ll look at the difference between leading face-to-face and leading remotely, and some top tips for anyone leading a remote team.

In this session, we’ll look at goal-setting and a helpful process for setting goals and achieving them.

In this video, we’re exploring transactional vs transformational leadership. We’ll look at some of the assumptions commonly made about leadership, and how to lead in a transformational way.

How would you define an effective team? What makes a team? In this chapter, we’ll look at what you can do to develop an effective team that’s productive, happy and easier to lead.

In this video, we’ll look at team roles (including Belbin roles), and how to balance a team in the most effective way.

Being able to understand your team’s drivers, challenges and needs is really important when it comes to good leadership. In this video, we’ll look at some tools for putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and how that can inform the way you work as a leader.

Next we’re going to look at the way our background and other factors affect the way we perceive situations: why do some people have different interpretations of the same situation? How can that understanding help us become a more compassionate, empathetic and effective leader?

In this video, we’ll explore the idea that people are essentially motivated in two ways: either towards (goal-focused), or away from. We’ll look at how you can use this concept to motivate your team.

In this session we’ll look at another motivation theory: McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. Before starting the video, download and fill out the ‘Assumptions About People at Work’ questionnaire.

Next, we’ll look at another motivation theory: Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation. Before you get started, download and fill in the questionnaire on Motivation Factors.

Learning to give feedback effectively is an essential part of being a good leader. In this video, we’ll look at feedback, why it’s important, and the benefits.

In this video, I’ll show you something really useful: how to give negative feedback in a non-judgmental, structured way.

In this chapter, we’ll look at delegation. What is it, how to decide who to delegate to, how to effectively delegate and a useful exercise for practicing this skill.

In the final session of this course, we’re going to look at effective communication, and how to do it well.

Now that you’ve learned how to become an effective leader, whether that’s face-to-face or remotely, you might like to try one of our Toolkit courses. The Toolkit courses are short, focused courses on topics like Presenting & Public Speaking, Stress Management, and Prioritising Your Workload.

If you’d like to go more in-depth and learn to change your behaviour to get the most out of your life, or work towards big personal or professional goals, have a look at the NLP Business Practitioner course. The Business Practitioner is a group course that runs over 10 two-hour sessions, and will help you understand the way you and others think and behave, so you can get the most out of every interaction.