In yesterday’s article I discussed the different thinking patterns that we each use. By this time in the development of your learning about NLP techniques you ought to have a clear notion of your own most typical thinking pattern. If you’ve not yet done this you must finish reading now and do the homework advocated in the last article. You will never be in a position to understand other people’s thinking patterns if you cannot understand your own.
Now you need to start studying other human being’s thinking patterns. Most particularly you are required to pay attention to the thinking patterns utilized by those whom you most want to influence.
This is a skill of closely watching and listening intently. You need to sharpen up your listening talents so that you can clearly hear the variations between someone who employs a visual thinking pattern and someone who uses a feeling thinking pattern.
It helps to study the body language of the different sorts of people. They can often present you with behavioural clues by the body language that they’ve a tendency to use.
As an example someone that is Auditory may have a tendency to lean forward with one ear cocked in order to hear better, or she may cup her hand behind her ear.
Someone that is Visual may stare at you very intently when listening, or she may draw mind maps to help herself to have some understanding of your meaning.
A Feeling person may smile a lot or encourage you to express your thoughts warmly. They may also gesticulate emotionally when making a point.
Once you’ve observed some body language clues about another person’s thinking pattern listen more closely for other verbal clues until you are sure you have them pigeonholed.
Today you should study two individuals whom you wish to influence and classify them. In my next article I am going to show you how to do this.
As an NLP Practitioner my mission is, “to enable you to make changes in your thinking, your feelings and your behaviour that will make your performance excellent both at work and in your personal life”. I get results for the employees of major companies like Dell, Yves St.Laurent, J&J, RBI, GM and P&O through business coaching using NLP Techniques.
