LEADERSHIP AND THE FIELD OF NEURO-SEMANTICS

In Neuro-Semantics we train leadership skills, we coach people to access and activate their leadership, we consult for grooming of leadership at all levels, and we practice leadership. We even have several who have made leadership their speciality and niche. Ah, yes, the practicing of leadership, the using of what we teach as we apply to ourselves so that we also can create a team of leaders providing vision, direction, inspiration, and problem-solving for the future of Neuro-Semantics.

I began this focus years ago, first as a reaction to the lack of leadership in NLP and, second, as a commitment to creating and grooming leaders for truly taking NLP to a higher level. The lack of leadership in NLP hardly needs comment. The two founders have never talked or acted like leaders. They never provided vision for the development of a set of values or a mission for the field of NLP and so, from the beginning, they never created a community. I like the two things that Robert Dilts once said: “NLP was created by two madmen modeling three wild individualists.” And, “NLP was given birth by Bandler and Grinder, but they never stayed around to father the movement.” (These are not exact quotes, but the best I recall from memory.)

In the field of NLP, neither of the original co-developers have never created a Conference, and have never attended any of the Conferences, or even been intimately involved in any of the NLP Associations. They have never taken the lead to provide guidance to those coming up along with them or behind them. They never spent time grooming leaders, they never even took the time or trouble to acknowledge the first generation of leaders like Robert Dilts, Steve Andreas, Wyatt Woodsmall, or any of those of those original NLP groups that co-developed NLP along with them. Actually, they seem (seem to me) to even do the opposite, like in the discounting of Frank Pucelik and others.

As an aside story, after I developed the Meta-States Model which the IANLPT organization (International Association of NLP Trainers) immediately recognized and honored as “the most significant contribution to NLP in 1995,” I put a paper on Meta-States Model in the book, The Spirit of NLP (published 1997) which I dedicated to Richard Bandler. That same year, when a German Publisher, Junferman Press, wanted to publish Dragon Slaying, Richard tried to stop it claiming that Meta-States was his intellectual property. He did this through Brahm who managed his San Francisco “First Institute.” I had to provide proof to demonstrate that I invented Meta-States, which I did. So much for acknowledging, validating, and grooming next-generation leaders.

Reacting to the lack of leadership development in NLP, early on I decided that we in Neuro-

Semantics would not make that mistake, but that we would intentionally and consciously learn how to groom leaders and developers and welcome them into a team of leaders. But it took me years to figure out how to do that. One of my first attempts was a group of people I called together that I designated, “The Dreamers.” I figured that we had to get some visionary people together to dream the future that we would then create. Of course, I now realize I was asking for trouble by naming the group as I did! Ultimately all that came out of that group was talk, and more talk, and more talk, then talk about the talk!

Then in 2004 I surveyed the field of Neuro-Semantics and called eight people together who were actually doing things, training Neuro-Semantic NLP, certifying people, and making a difference. I called them together to come to the Gold Coast in Australia to co-lead the Trainers’ Training (NSTT). And that was the beginning of The Leadership Team. But even then, I soon discovered that my own pendulum had swung from dreamers to doers. That led me to realize that I needed to create a balanced set of leadership criteria. And that’s how the Neuro-Semantic Leadership Criteria came about: 3 qualities for being a leader and 4 qualities describing what a leader does. (See on www.neurosemantics.com).

Then from 2004 to 2010 the Leadership Team grew, changed, and evolved. Then in 2010 I called them to San Francisco for a five-day intensive Leadership Summit where we experienced the intimacy of co-coaching and after getting deeply acquainted we begin to truly collaborate as visionary leaders taking action to lead this field, movement, and community. It was there that we planned for our every-other-year Neuro-Semantic Conferences and set out to create a series of training tracks— focusing on various Neuro-Semantic Diplomas.

Then three weeks ago, the Leadership Team came together for the next experience for leadership development as Colin Cox and I put eleven of them through Presentation University. This intensive and advanced Trainers’ Training is a prerequisite for the Master Trainer Track and also a proto-type for the next generation program for Advance NSTT and for offering for Corporate Leaders. (More about that later.) Afterwards we had another Leadership Summit, this time at my home and worked through numerous leadership decisions (which also will be described more fully later to the Trainers egroup and the Meta-Coach egroup).

Next came the First International Neuro-Semantic Conference (which I wrote about last week). Sixty-eight passionate people about Neuro-Semantic NLP gathered in my home town of GJ (Grand Junction) Colorado for the inaugural Conference and to experience 20 workshops by the Leadership Team and other Neuro-Semantic Trainers including Bob Bodenhamer, co-founder with me of the ISNS.

We also installed two new members of the Leadership Team— Femke Stuut from the Netherlands who is now living in the USA and training the Meta-Coach pathway trainings and coaching as a Meta-Coach in Nevada and Alan Fayter who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand as a Trainer and Meta-Coach and who has been doing “earthquake recovery” there.

Several have asked, “How large will you let the Leadership Team grow to?” The answer is that

we will be developing Leadership Teams for all of the training tracks. Currently Colin Cox and myself are in charge of the Training Track and the Master Trainer pathway. Tim Goodenough is in charge of Neuro-Semantics applied to sports. Cheryl Lucas, as president of the MCF this year and Germaine Rediger are leading out in the area of Meta-Coaching. I’m in charge of the Self- Actualization track. Eventually, the current team will be heading up other tracks, for example Cheryl Lucas and Carey Jooste will be leading the Health and Fitness track.

In other words, there is a lot of room for growth in terms of leadership. And it all begins at the local area: we currently have 30 individuals who are Regional Directors (RD) for the MCF (Meta-Coach Foundation) Chapters and some 50 to 60 chapters. This is an area where we could easily have 100 RD worldwide this year and 500 in a few years. We also have leadership roles at the level of the Institutes of Neuro-Semantics around the world. To step up to leadership at this level and any other level, you have to learn to think beyond yourself and think in terms of collaborating, creating cooperative association, and looking for and grooming others to be leaders.

Why? Because a leader is a person who brings out the best in others and who creates other leaders. Self-Actualizing Leaders don’t create followers, they create leaders! They search for and call forth the gifts and skills and abilities of others so that they can contribute their insights, voices, and inspiration.

Where will all of this go? I don’t know. When will it end? I hope, never! Leadership development and grooming for any growing, continuing rejuvenating organization is a never- ending adventure. We need leaders at all levels and we need leaders in every area. I hope that you might want to be a part of the adventure with us. To your self-actualizing leadership!