Learn This To Develop An Even Greater Competitive Advantage

by Bill Granda

Since 1991, as consultant, business coach, and advisor with Paradigm Associates, Bill Granda has been helping businesses and individuals improve their ability to overcome obstacles and get results. He engages with key players and teams, particularly those in or approaching important transitions, to develop and execute practical business and transition strategies. Clients have found him especially helpful when they recognize they have to do something different, but don't know exactly what that is, or they know what is needed but aren't sure how to best get it done. Many of his clients are closely-held and family businesses, non-profits, and professional firm owners who put a premium on professional competence and really helping their clients.

Learning is an everyday process. Although we're no longer "students" who attends class in a formal school, that doesn't mean we cease to learn, does it? In the business world, if we want to succeed common sense dictates that we must never stop growing. And growth comes from the desire to learn and better oneself.

As we begin a new year, what better way to hit the ground running than to take inventory of our own personal and professional development! What are your goals for growth in 2006? It's important to know how you, as an individual, learn; it's also necessary to learn how other people learn so that you can effectively communicate with them.

For example, have you ever attended a training seminar that you thought was informational and useful, yet when you got back to the office, you really didn't know how to apply what you had learned? Instead, you went back to conducting your business the same old way.

Perhaps the problem was that the trainer didn't speak your language. Let me explain-everyone learns differently. There are no cookie cutter approaches to learning, however, people usually learn in one of four modalities:

• Visual-many people are visual. They learn by seeing. They need to actually see how something is done in order to comprehend it.
  
  
• Auditory-others learn by hearing. They can hear something explained once or twice and have full understanding.
  
  
• Kinesthetic-these folks learn best through touch or by feeling. Artists and creative people are usually kinesthetic.
  
  
• Auditory digital-while auditory-based, these people learn best when they can memorize by steps, procedures, and sequences. In other words, information makes sense to them when they sequentially or logically process it. This is a growing segment of the population today.
  
  

While we are dominant in one of these areas, there is always overlap. No one is completely one or the other. If you attend one-on-one training, it's easy for the trainer to determine how you learn. A person who says, "Yes, I see what you mean," is a visual person. If you say, "I hear what you're saying," you learn by hearing. However, in a large training seminar, a good trainer will try to present the information in all four modalities in order to reach as many participants as possible. Bottom line-it's all about communication. To most effectively communicate with co-workers, management, and clients, you need to understand how they are wired and then develop a rapport with the person or persons you are interacting with.

One of the greatest and most exciting breakthroughs in communication in the past 30 years has been the development of a communication and rapport-building tool called Neuro Linguistic Programming. It was developed in the early 1970's by Richard Bandler, Ph.D., an information scientist, and John Grinder, Ph.D., a linguist. It examines the relationships between thought, communication and behavior.

NLP is a methodology for modeling human excellence. It allows you to explore how people organize their thinking processes, beliefs and behaviors so that their skills and capabilities can be replicated in particular areas. Those skills and capabilities can then be transferred to others, including your self.

NLP is based on a technique called "human modeling." For example, when you talk to a client, you look at their eyes-are their pupils dilated? How about their shoulders-are they slumping forward or straight back? Their legs-if they are crossed, how are they crossed? What about their hands-are they folded? Holding their chin? All these observances tell you something about that person. You can tell if they are open and friendly, non-approachable, shut-down, interested, bored, etc. It's all nonverbal communication. In fact, more than 50 percent of our interactions are nonverbal.

Okay, now, you have an idea of your client's body language. As an insurance representative, you meet with your client. During your meeting you observe his body, even down to the rhythm of his breathing and you begin to replicate or model it. If the person is sitting with his legs crossed and his hands folded, you do the same. When the client moves his arms or legs into another position, you follow. If he leans forward and shifts his weight to one side and picks up his pen, you do the exact same. You become an exact mirror-like image of him so that you can get a better sense of how he is feeling. It is totally congruent with the concept of being an "assistant buyer" and being on their side of the table. As you are "modeling" the client, he begins thinking to himself that he likes you. Why? Because when he looks at you, he sees a mirror image of himself. You move the way he moves. Before you know it, he will subconsciously begin modeling you. If you sit back in your chair, he'll sit back. What you're doing is developing a nonverbal rapport with that client. You are coming together in sync. The result? Most likely, you will close the deal because your client can identify with you. The bottom line is that we do business with people we like; people who are like us. It's not a scientific term, but I call it the "likeability factor." Money will not change hands as easily, whether it's in Macy's, the car dealership or in a client's home, if the other person doesn't like you.

Of course, NLP involves behavioral changes. Sound training techniques can do a lot to encourage the development of positive behavior changes. In order to achieve improved results, your staff needs to behave differently. It's easier to change behavior in a way that can be sustained when people have clear goals to focus on.

NLP can also be applied to internal business communications. If you are tackling an insurance problem with a co-worker who typically gets overwhelmed with details, that person will likely "shut down," deeming the task monumental and nearly impossible. Using NLP, "chunking down" is important to get the results needed without a confrontation between two or more different personalities and styles. If you break down the parts of the project into "baby steps" and bridge them together, the project will look easier to handle. In this example, the person who introduces "chunking down" is able to diffuse a tense situation, one that could easily lead to problems of "I did all the work" or, "They have unrealistic expectations." By bridging and neutralizing the project with communications based on NLP, everyone works together for a common goal and feels good, not overwhelmed and blaming. A true team effort.

As one year blends into a new one, goals and accomplishments are usually being listed and reviewed, both at home and in the office. The news always has the "Top 10 Best Movies of the Year" or the "Best Places to Live in 2005" and so and on. There seems to be a list for everyone and everything.

It's time for each of us to make our own Top 10 List. What did you accomplish in 2005? What do you want to accomplish in 2006? Both organizational and personal goals are vital to the success of any business. It creates a double win-for both the organization and the people in it. Conversely, if company goals don't match an employees' goals or vice versa, there will be a disconnect.

At Paradigm, we ask clients to analyze their own situation and performance, both personally and professionally then set goals in the areas that are the most meaningful to them. This typically leads to improved organizational results. This gives the firm the financial wherewithal to improve compensation, working conditions, and other benefits. In turn, this gives individual participants the financial resources to achieve even more of their own personal goals and objectives, which usually increases their motivation to perform even better professionally. Continuous improvement can be self-sustaining; it becomes a way of life at the firm.

But remember, goals should be specific. If you say, "My goal is to make a lot of money," what exactly does that mean? Define "a lot." A better goal would be "I'm going to make $100,000 this year." They also should be achievable, measurable and time sensitive.br>
Skills and knowledge are another important component. They are probably the easiest to obtain and while they are important, skills and knowledge alone are not sufficient. Through the years, we have noticed that many companies have sent staff to various courses in soft skills areas without seeing any noticeable improvement in bottom line results. We found the missing component was attitude. Again, it goes back to NLP and neutralizing our communications and our minds.

Attitude is a multiplier of skills and knowledge that directly influences the goals people set and achieve. They will directly determine, in many cases, whether people:

• Turn a problem into an opportunity, or succumb to it;
  
  
• Behave in ways that benefit the entire organization, or maintain fiefdoms;
  
  
• Expand the customer base and the services provided, or allow atrophy to set in; or
  
  
• Diligently look for continuous improvement, or remain satisfied with the status quo
  
  Our attitudes, of course, are based on our values and beliefs. Research tells us the great majority of the attitudes we still carry with us today were developed when we were between the ages of newborn and five years. During that period of life, we were not judging what information we would accept and reject, but like sponges, we accepted it as given. We were open, joyful, and eager to learn and do.
  
  Nearly 77 percent of what we learned as infants and young children was negative. That leaves only about 23 percent of what we were told was positive. Among the first words that kids understand, along with "Mom" and "Dad," is "no." The "no's" then become more sophisticated "don'ts." The result is that many of us grow up in a negative environment that colors our self-image. Some people call it society's poisoning of our minds.
  
  For example, if you were always told as a child that you would never amount to anything, then guess what? As an adult, you've probably gone through life bouncing from one low-paying job to another, if you're employed at all. You may be very intelligent, but you don't even know it because you've bought into someone else's belief, a false belief, that you're not worth much.
  
  The danger is that false beliefs can build invisible walls that prevent people from reaching their potential. They cause people to repeatedly run up against the same obstacles in life. It's a vicious wheel that keeps spinning. The result is that many people are literally sleepwalking through life. They have victim mentalities and are convinced they cannot learn new things or change their fate. The key is to first recognize these false beliefs, then cancel them and replace them with positive, constructive self-thoughts. Change your attitude. Our communication is all based on our attitudes. It all comes back to NLP.
  
  If you have a poor self-image, you need to evaluate and probably change your attitude. Instead of being negative and seeing your self as defeated, see yourself as successful. This is where NLP can help. Find someone or a group of people who have excelled in sales, for instance, and model your thought patterns and behaviors after theirs. We're not talking about cloning here!
  
  NLP allows a person to develop his/her individuality. Skill in detecting and using patterns is the key to having many choices to choose from. If you model a group of excellent salespeople, you can build models of their range of expertise while allowing for individuality. Instead of having one way of thinking, you can have many approaches to any outcome in the appropriate context where you want to have that outcome.
  
  Not only will you grow personally and professionally, but your business will thrive as well. So, as we move forward into the New Year, the opportunities for change and growth are boundless. It just may be the time to learn and apply new training techniques to re-train your thought patterns and sharpen those communication skills!