When interacting with others, you are using interpersonal skills. Throughout your life, you have been developing these skills with varying degrees of success. Sometimes, connecting and communicating effectively with others feels effortless and natural. However, there are moments when you might feel like a stranger from another world, struggling to express your thoughts and intentions clearly. It may be time to enhance your interpersonal skills if you often feel awkward, out of control, or completely lost during interactions.
Strong interpersonal skills are essential if you want to make a positive impression, appear knowledgeable, exude confidence, or build genuine connections with others.
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) offers specific techniques that can help you improve your interpersonal skills. For example:
Matching and Mirroring – This is the process of using your physiology, voice, and words to create similarity with the person you are communicating with. People tend to like those who are like themselves, and when you observe individuals who have a good rapport, you’ll notice they seem to “speak the same language” or move in sync. This usually happens unconsciously, but you can learn to use these processes to your advantage by understanding how these processes work.
Satir Categories – These refer to the natural physiological poses you adopt during communication. You may have noticed that some people use their hands a lot when they speak, but what messages are your gestures and posture sending to those you’re talking to? Others will often respond to you in ways that align with the unconscious signals you’re giving off. For example, you can expect others to react defensively if you appear aggressive.
Eliminating Significant Emotional Incidents – Past experiences that have negatively impacted your confidence can influence your behaviour. For instance, being humiliated by a teacher at school might lead to feeling uneasy around authority figures later in life. This can create challenges when you need to communicate confidently with your boss or others in positions of authority. NLP provides techniques to help you reframe old events, allowing you to change your emotional response to those memories and move forward with greater confidence.
By Gemma Bailey
www.hypnotherapyandnlp.co.uk