| Suzi Smith |
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| Judith deLozier |
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| Martha Lane Fox |
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Annette Gordon Reed |
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Take Control of Your Life
Oh dear, it's all doom and gloom at the moment but things aren't all bad: a female poet laureate? Black woman wins Pulitzer history prize, retrieving an invisible woman. My main recommendation is to avoid the news, papers or TV. These are great times for entrepreneurs, and for finding opportunities. I'm not just doing a Pollyanna. This month celebrates one of the female founding members of NLP. One of the greatest gifts NLP has is to find the opportunity in disaster. I went to hear Suzi Smith last month, whose advice was simple: be proactive, don't wait for things to befall you; be travelling along your own path. She reminded us of the circle of excellence: gathering up all your resources and talents to strengthen your resolve.  |
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Badge of Honour
Recently interviewing one of my inspirational women in the city, she makes the point. "If you are good enough to get to the top of your profession, you will inevitably have some hard times. It may be that you're tested because you are a woman, or there may be a disaster in your profession, as with Sue Thexton when the dot com bubble burst:
"My business went from $120million to $65million in one year. If you can manage this level of adversity you become stronger, and you learn so much. You also learn who your friends are, and people's strengths and weaknesses. Turning the business round and growing it back to beyond $120m was my greatest achievement and Macromedia recognized that." Sue Thexton interview with ChrisTrainers.
This time is the making of you. It is a time when you see things clearly. Your see yourself clearly, and know what you have to do. It may be that you are the wrong person in the wrong job. Or you may rise above it, finding friends and strengths you didn't know you had. Wear it like a badge of honour. You've won the right. |
NLP - What Is It?
Not all my readers will be familiar with NLP. It is language turning thought into action. It recognises the body and mind as a system, so one influences the other. In both medical and philosophical terms how you feel sets the agenda for how and who you'll be. The NLP philosophy is the foundation of my coaching and training programmes, but I found as an educator I had used many of the techniques over the years, without knowing their names, or them being recognised, by the educational establishment. Professor Susan Greenfield has experiments to show that where the brain only rehearses learning, it grows and strengthens neurons, so as to affect the well-being of the person. This links to both the psychosomatic disease, and the potential to have an input into your health, longevity, and avoidance of brain deterioration. As she says, "Use it or lose it." Joseph O'Connor and Ian McDermott have written one of the best and clearest introductions to NLP, called just that. Back to top |
Introducing Judith deLozier
This month we are connecting with Judith deLozier, who was in on the birth of NLP. In fact they used to meet in her house. She was married to John Grinder, and co-authored Turtles All the Way Down, but has since gone on to develop some of the key concepts. For me the highlight is the generative collaboration. I see this as being very much a feature of the female culture. Collaboration, not competition. Working in partnership and creating a third intangible entity, which evolves out of the communication between the between the two creative people. Last month we spoke of the competition between the two originators, two men unable to put away their competitive egos. Luckily since then many practitioners of generosity have come along, both men and women. The most generous act was that of Judith deLozier and Robert Dilts in making the NLP encyclopaedia free on the web.
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Short Excerpt from Judith deLozier
There is a slightly longer excerpt in the archive.
If you could choose 3 role models?
a) My mom:
She was only educated to the 10th grade (age 14) but she was an avid learner, she read constantly, I was always going to the library and bringing back a big pile of books for her. Her qualities were infinite patience. Her second quality was that she never gossiped. This is her spirituality and compassion. Her third quality was that she was strong as hell.
b) The nun on wheels:
I went to a tiny catholic school, in which 8 grades were in three rooms. I was about 6 so I was tiny looking up at this nun. This Sister was a large woman tall with the black robes, down to the ground, it seemed like she moved on skates or something. She expected you to bring your best; she called it out of you.
c) The 3rd role model, a man, was Dr Professor Noel King: He was my inspiration; he was awakening me to my mission. Intellectually, he stimulated my thinking clearly. In all conversation I was heard and seen by him. But above all he was 155% on my side. What is a metaphor for you? The dance. But it does imply a partner. Sometimes it's clumsy. Also you can get toes stepped on in a relationship. I see the metaphor applying to my life's work as an ascending spiral. (for more detail see archive extract). Back to top |
Women-Of-The-Year Lecture
As an alumnus of the WOY I attended the lecture at the Royal Institution given by Baroness Greenfield, with Martha Lane Fox, among others on the panel. Martha "twittered" to find out what people thought. She is a strong supporter of Technology as enabling peoples' choices and widening their knowledge base. Baroness Greenfield has for some time been asking if we should pay attention and research the effect on the malleable growing brain. To oversimplify, if young people, whose brain is still growing, spends all day, every day on social network or gaming, how will their brains develop? This is very much a question of female/male culture. Its often interpreted that Prof Greenfield is anti the technology, and that the social interaction is of a wider sphere of people if not face to face with real as opposed to virtual friends. (I guess I' m talking to my virtual friends right now!) So you can imagine the debate was fairly lively. My personal interest is in the programmers, as I fear that too much of developing technology is dominated by a particular group in society, the extreme male brain as defined by Baron Cohen, and that's including female geeks. A Chinese alumnus told us that Chinese sudden interest in pianos, is because using all ten fingers develops the brain, so texting thumbs against touch typists! Interesting idea. I wonder if that has been researched. Baroness Greenfields research has shown that just thinking about practicing can considerably develop the brain's memory centers, so not practicing human interaction, will lead to atrophy if social networking or gaming is all waking hours. I wanted a link to Professor Greenfield's book ID. But this title is priceless. Imagine Stephen Hawkins "the boy who sees stars." "The girl." you couldn't make it up. Click here for more information. |
| Black Woman Wins Pulitzer Prize for History
I've been invited to some exciting conferences this month, but for me the most important is the "Same Gender, Different Race," being held at Credit Suisse, Women-in-Finance. To explore how women and especially black women, conquer the city, and take leadership positions, using their difference, their skills, experience and knowledge.
A most exciting discovery this month: An astounding invisibility: Sarah Hemmings.
She lived with, and was owned by, Thomas Jefferson one of the fathers of the Declaration of Independence.
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company).
He fathered a whole line of children, with his black slave sister-in-law, when she was just 15. Written out of history, she has been finally restored by Annette Gordon Reed and validated by DNA tests. More of this later. But surely it applies to this month's pre-supposition: society failed to recognize that Sarah Hemmings existed or that she was involved with Jefferson. As a black woman she was written out of history.
People respond to their map of reality, not reality itself
NLP is the art of changing this map.
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As ever, go well in the world and remember that you have all the resources you need.
If you are receiving this news-sheet for the first time, it entitles you to one Free Coaching Session, Business or Personal, OR a free seminar for your staff on Leadership and/or Diversity for your Business, or topic of your choice.
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| Christina
Woman on a Mission
To inspire, delight and empower.
Motivational speaker, NLP Master Practitioner, Counsellor and Coach
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