Has a new employee ever passed you up for a promotion? How can it be, you ask yourself, that the new upstart was promoted when everyone else in the company tells you that you deserved the promotion? The new employee did not have your track record for success, did not have the necessary credentials, and wasn't even close to matching your company loyalty?
Frustrated with the lack of answers, you attempt to obtain answers from management, which only causes additional frustration because they cannot explain it logically. Perturbed and discouraged you resort back to your old patterns of long work hours and hard work, in the hopes that one day all your hard work will be noticed, while you watch the new employee move up the company ladder with ease.
What do these "fast-tracking" employees have that gets them promotions, allows them to negotiate obstacles with ease, and charms the boss into giving them whatever they want? Do these employees hypnotize their supervisors by waving a watch in front of his or her eyes? Well, in a way...yes! A few employees have learned the subtle communication methods that cause their supervisors to be suggestible and receptive to direction-without waving a watch in front of their eyes.
The subtle communication skills that fast-tracking employees create do not affect their supervisors on the conscious level as much as they affect their supervisors on the unconscious level. Need proof that fast-tracking employees can influence their supervisors on the unconscious level? If the opportunity arises, simply ask a supervisor who has just given an employee a promotion, a raise, or special role within the company their rationale for their decision. If the supervisor can give you three good reasons for his decision, he probably has not been influenced at the unconscious level. However, if he cannot give you bona fide reasons for his decision or gets mad at you for questioning his judgment-it is likely that the employee unconsciously influenced him.
Want to learn what these fast-tracking employees know about unconscious communication? Then check into Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. They combined different theories of language and neurology to form methods that have the potential to influence people at the unconscious level. I have summarized a few of the many techniques that NLP has developed.
1.) Rapport: Building rapport with your supervisor is more than talking about the same movie you saw over the weekend. Rapport building includes matching all your supervisor's body posture, energy levels, humor, styles, and gestures. It can also include matching breathing, voice tone, and language patterns. At the advanced levels it also includes matching values, beliefs, and objectives. Matching is not mimicking your supervisor's behavior, matching involves adopting similar patterns into your own style so that they appear natural versus mimicked.
One of NLP's theories is that the mind and body are all part of the same system; therefore, if you match your supervisor's verbal and non-verbal communication patterns, you are matching his or her thinking patterns-the highest form of rapport that you can establish.
Rapport is extremely important in business because business decisions are rarely reached on the value of technical merit, instead business decisions are developed in terms of relationships that have rapport.
2.) Pace: After you have matched enough of your supervisor's verbal and nonverbal communication, it's time to engage in pacing. Pacing is the process in which the nature of the communication changes from listening, to agreeing, to leading. Make sure that you have established your rapport before you attempt to lead a conversation.
3.) Outcome: After you have established your rapport and paced your supervisor to the point that you are leading the conversation, it is time to sell your manager on your compelling outcome. I am using the word "outcome" and purposely avoiding words such as "idea," "request," or "suggestion." It is important that you sell the outcome of what you want before you request what you want.
If you want to sell someone a $40,000 luxury car, you don't sell him the car you sell him on the benefits he will gain by owning the car. This sales technique will also work for you with your supervisor. Talk about the compelling outcomes before you talk with the supervisor about what you are requesting. A compelling outcome must be presented with energy, enthusiasm, and passion. Also, a compelling outcome is a win/win outcome for you, the supervisor, and the company.
4.) Anchor: Anchoring involves placing a positive feeling into your supervisor's memory about you. We all have people in our workplaces that cause us to cringe each time we see them or come into contact with them in meetings. People who cause us to wince have created a negative emotion anchored in our unconscious memory. As a fast-tracking employee, you cannot afford to create a negative emotion in your supervisor's memory. Therefore, if you do not obtain what you want from your supervisor-make sure you leave the meeting with a positive emotion anchored into your supervisor's unconscious memory.
The above four methods should help you to hypnotize your supervisor without using a watch on a string.
Happy Working,
Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com
