What if communication is at the heart of your success?

This week in the UK, Chief Mouser, Larry the Downing Street Cat outlasts four prime ministers. Larry’s purr-fected message continues to go viral whilst his most recent housemate is accused of having the communication skills and charisma of a stapler!

So, what are the secrets of Larry’s success?

Firstly, he mirrors the hustle and bustle of the reporters moving swiftly to get their best shot before he takes the lead. Then, owning his stage, he maintains rapport as he waits until we all breathe in unison. Only when we’re all paying attention does he make it clear that he’s here to stay.

This week, a “Conservatory man” quickly lost rapport with me because when I asked about the benefits of an aluminium conservatory, he naively said that PVC is cheaper, so really I should go for that!

It took me a few years to learn to speak the same language as my husband, which may not be surprising when I tell you that he’s a Geordie!

On one occasion, I returned home super enthusiastic to tell Dave about how our neighbour had redesigned her home, that had previously a replica of our own. I was desperate for Dave to be impressed, so that we could do the same.

“You should see what they’ve done at number 5…Imagine what we can achieve if we knock through this wall to create a new dining space and move the utility into the garage. Let me illustrate how we can create more light and better storage, and then you can picture what I mean.” With that, I drew a quick sketch and waited for his reaction, only to be met with a frown!

A presupposition of NLP, is that “The meaning of your communication is the response you get.” Dave’s frown was far from the response I wanted! As a Neuro-Linguistic Programmer, I later realised that NLP Representational Systems are a great way forward…

A few days later, we were coming back from a walk and the neighbours were out gardening. As we got chatting, I recalled, “I’ve been telling Dave all about your ‘new’ house and was wondering if we can pop in so that he can get a feel for what we can do.”

Moments later, we were inside and finally the penny dropped…

“Wow!” said Dave. “It feels so spacious. We can do this! I get a sense, you can really relax in here.”

Needless to say, our house now has a newly redesigned ground floor and as you may have guessed, we’re ready to replace the conservatory.

Unfortunately, for the “Conservatory man”, he didn’t even realise he’d offended me. Whatever would Larry the Cat have to say about that? Let’s hope that Larry’s new housemate can hold an audience as well as Larry. If not, maybe Larry will recommend NLP!

My invitation to you this week, is to start to notice the sensory words you hear in conversation [like those in bold above] and know that people like people who are like them, and when you speak in the same representation or sensory system, you’ll make better sense to them.

Follow the link below if you’re keen for great communication to be at the heart of your success.