Читать книгу Leading With NLP: Essential Leadership Skills for Influencing and Managing People - Joseph O’Connor - Страница 14

A leader’s influence comes from the relationship they create with their followers. How we represent that relationship in our minds determines what we think of leaders, how we respond to them and what sort of relationship we in turn create with others when we become leaders.

Use this exercise to explore how you think about leaders and how you see yourself as a leader.

Think of one or more people you respect as leaders.

Make a picture of them in your mind’s eye. Imagine people around them whom they influence and who follow them.

When you think of these leaders in your imagination, where do you see them – in front of you, behind you or to the side?

In your mental picture, is the leader a long way in front, in the middle distance or a short way in front of the other people?

Is the leader larger, smaller or the same size as the people they are leading?

Are they above, below or on the same level as the people they are leading?

Does the leader seem more vivid, colourful or ‘larger than life’ than the followers?

If another person were to look at your picture, without knowing any of the people in it, how would they know which person was the leader?

How vivid is the picture?

Does it have colour?

Does it have movement?

Now listen for any sounds in your mental tableau. Are there voices?

Imagine the leader speaking. What quality does their voice have?

Now listen to the other people speaking.

What quality do their voices have?

Is there a particular voice quality that marks out the leader?

If a stranger were to listen to the voices without seeing the scene, would they be able to tell which voice was the leader’s?

Now, keeping the rest of the picture the same, see yourself in the company of these leaders.

Make yourself the same size and distance as the leaders and put yourself in the same position relative to the other people as the leaders.

What does it feel like to see yourself standing there as a leader?

Adjust the picture until it feels comfortable.

Now step into the picture, be in your body, in the group of leaders, looking out through your own eyes at the people around who are following.

How do you feel there?