6 NLP Techniques to Use for Meetings and Interviews

In a competitive employment market, it's important to know how to advertise yourself successfully. Your resume and references are great for showcasing your abilities, but you can also use your body language to increase your chances of obtaining the job. Learning about neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can help you succeed in one-on-one situations, such as interviews or meetings. In this article, we explore what NLP techniques are, list their benefits, and describe how to use six effective NLP techniques for meetings and interviews.

What are NLP techniques?

NLP techniques refer to psychological tools that examine how human brains process information. Richard Bandler and John Grinder pioneered the concept in the 1970s. Since then, several experts have built on NLP. These techniques employ action-based strategies to assist individuals in changing their mental habits positively. They focus on the premise that your reality, including your words and actions, emerges via your experiences, values, emotions, and beliefs. By grasping this concept, you may exert control over perceptions and alter how you perceive and react to people and events.

Benefits of neuro-linguistic programming techniques

NLP methods may help you build your confidence and portray a positive picture of yourself. You may use these tactics to establish a connection with someone during a discussion and enhance your persuasive abilities. These abilities are critical in scenarios such as job interviews and manager performance appraisals. They may help you develop a more positive attitude about your profession and increase your confidence in your talents. Additionally, you may use NLP approaches to enhance your interactions with colleagues, resulting in a more productive and happy work environment.

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6 common neuro-linguistic programming techniques

Neuro-linguistic programming techniques may have many labels, depending on sponsored programs and studies. The following are six regularly used NLP approaches to interviewing:

1. Anchoring

Anchoring is a method in which you identify a physical act, word, or experience with a mood or emotion. Once you've established that link, you perform the corresponding activity anytime you want to reproduce those experiences or emotions. For instance, you may equate the phrase "excellent job" with a sense of calmness. You may be nervous before a meeting with your supervisor to discuss your performance. Repeat the phrases to yourself before the encounter to feel calmer instantly. You can also brighten your mood if you're unhappy. To establish a link between an emotion and a physical action:

1. Determine the emotion you want to replicate.

2. Choose an action or word which might create that emotion. It can be an act you perform on yourself, such as tugging an earlobe, squeezing a finger, or internally repeating a phrase or word.

3. Recall a moment when you felt relaxed and happy. For anchoring to operate, it's important for the memory to be vivid.

4. Begin the activity when you experience a negative emotion and stop when the sensation subsides. This results in the elicitation of a neurological stimulus-response because of your activity.

5. Repeat the action five times to connect the action to the feeling. You may boost the strength of the experience by using many memories that are either equally or more powerful than the previous one.

6. Utilize this strategy whenever you want to improve your mood.

2. Dissociation

Dissociation might assist you in coping with unpleasant emotions that may develop in specific circumstances. It helps you to examine your sentiments objectively and to analyze the issue objectively and analytically. For instance, if interviews cause you anxiety, dissociation might help you detach your emotions from the interview situation and feel more relaxed. To practise dissociation:

1. Recall a time when you had unpleasant emotions.

2. Imagine floating outside your body and seeing the memory from afar, maybe on the screen of a television or movie theatre. You may become an outsider.

3. Observe how your emotions shift as you adopt a more objective perspective on the event.

4. Imagine yourself floating and seeing your body float to amplify the impact. Fundamentally, you're looking at yourself, and this twofold disassociation may help eradicate any residual unpleasant emotions associated with an event.

3. Reframing

Reframing enables you to choose a negative event and reframe it in a positive light. There are several reframe techniques, including content and context reframes. Content reframing enables you to examine the situation's context and understand it from a better perspective. For instance, your supervisor may limit your work hours. Rather than concentrating on the time and money you've lost, consider the time you've gained and can use to be with family or look for a better career.

Contextual reframing enables you to perceive a potentially bad circumstance in a positive way. This enables you to recognize how an experience that seems to be harmful may really be beneficial in certain situations. For instance, you may have a tendency to associate only potential faults with situations. This might hinder the development of relationships or the completion of tasks.

4. Rapport

Rapport is a term that refers to the process of establishing a connection between you and the person with whom you are speaking. When used softly and correctly, it may elicit favourable emotions from the other person. You may employ rapport during a job interview or during a complex talk with your supervisor or a colleague. The concept of rapport is that individuals instinctively gravitate toward others who are similar to them.

To establish rapport, listen to the other person's tone of voice. Observe their head movement, their body language or gestures, and the words they seem to choose. Then, during the discussion, you replicate these identical motions, gestures, and sentences. If you're subtle in your mirroring, you may establish a relationship with the other person, which may make them feel more relaxed with you.

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5. Pattern interruption

Pattern interruption may disrupt negative behaviour, deescalate difficult situations, or appeal to someone during a sales call. The approach focuses on the idea that your conscious mind begins whatever you do regularly, but then your unconscious mind ends the activity. If you interrupt your unconscious, it loses control and leaves you open to suggestions. This is the moment at which you can alter the pattern. The outcome might be as simple as compelling someone to listen to you or as profound as altering your conduct. To use pattern disruption:

1. Notice a trend, whether it's how people react to your product presentation or a behaviour you want to modify in yourself.

2. Make a significant adjustment during the usual behaviour. For instance, you may ask a consumer or do an activity unrelated to the habit you're attempting to change.

3. Repeat this procedure each time you notice the pattern.

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6. Belief change

The belief change technique may assist you in transforming a negative, confining belief into a good, empowering one. Limiting beliefs are those that you believe restrict you from engaging in an activity that you might otherwise enjoy. For instance, you may assume that you might never be successful in your career. This mindset may prevent you from requesting promotions or volunteering for career-advancing initiatives. There are many strategies to overcome a limiting belief.

One technique is to question your assumptions or fundamental beliefs about that view. By using the preceding example, you're assuming that you know the future and think you can't succeed. You use that fact to reduce your confidence in your limiting belief. You're aware that you cannot see into the future. Another technique is to use visualization to weaken your limiting thought and strengthen a chosen positive belief. To do this, you can follow these steps:

1. Think of a belief you don't yet hold but may like to, such as "I can succeed in my job."

2. Think of a belief you know is true, such as "My coffee is wet."

3. Think of a belief that you don't care whether it's true, perhaps an event you read or heard about in the news.

4. Think about each belief and imagine a picture, a sound, or a feeling that goes with each one. Watch the size of the picture, listen to the volume of the noise, or feel the intensity of the feeling.

5. Associate the belief you want to hold with the picture, sound, or feeling that goes with a belief about which you don't care.

6. Move that belief to the picture, sound, or feeling that goes with the belief you know to be true. This can strengthen your conviction about that belief you want to hold.