Up On The Catwalk

Somebody who can copy can do. Leonardo de Vinci.

Modelling is the process of observing and mapping the successful behaviours of other people in order to apply them to ourselves and others. It is a very effective way to achieve your goals and it allows you to copy or 'model' the people who can do what you would like to do or those who have the skills, strategies and tactics that you would like to have. There are endless things that you can model and if you want to be a great parent, a better golfer, more confident at presentations, stay in good health etc., find out exactly what it is that the best people and the experts do. Once you know that, you can imitate or model them to help you get similar results.

There are a number of key elements involved in modelling. The first element is physiology. This focuses on the typical behaviours that a person engages in when they do what they do well. The second area to consider is the person's beliefs and values. The final area are the strategies that people have for doing things. These refer to the order and sequence of what each person does inside their head when they do something and they usually consist of making internal pictures, hearing internal sounds or voices (oftentimes talking to yourself) and checking how they feel in some regular sequence. Some of these strategies are conscious but many of them are non-conscious. If you want to model the rugby kicking skills of a Johnny Wilkinson or Ronan O' Gara, then you will obviously pay more attention to the area of physiology. On the other hand, if your goal is to model the great sales people, you will probably concentrate more on the strategies that they use when they are in the process. Modelling therefore, will first of all mean paying close attention to what is happening.

So what kinds of things will you want to focus on when you are observing a person's typical behaviours or physiology? Here is an example of some questions that you can ask yourself if, let's say for example, you want to observe a person's presentation skills.

• How are they standing, sitting or moving?
• How do they carry themselves?
  
• How close are they to their audience?
  
• What facial expressions do they use?
• How do they make eye contact?
• How do they use gestures?
  
• What kind of gestures do they make?
  
• How big are they?
  
• Do they move their hands a lot?
  
• How often do they move them?
  
• In what way do they speak?
  
• How fast/loudly do they speak?
  
• Do you notice anything about the rhythm of their speech?
  
• What do you notice about their intonation?
• How are they breathing?
  
• Do they make any noises that are not actually words?
  
• Do they touch anything?
  
• What?
  
• How?
  
• Where?
• How are they using their visual aids?
• Is there any language that they typically use that helps them to be effective?
  
• How are they dressed?
• How do they deal with questions?
  
• What other things do you notice?

On the other hand, you will also want to take into consideration a person's beliefs and values. Here is a short video of Michael Flatley from Lord of the Dance talking about what it means for him to prepare for and deliver excellent performance.

One of the pioneers of NLP, Robert Dilts, did a study of the healing patterns of Jesus Christ and with the information that was available from the Biblical sources, saw a pattern of strategies that Jesus would typically use. It appears that when Jesus was doing his healing, there were certain consistencies that happened in the order and sequence of things that he stepped through. Jesus would first of all touch the person (something that the other healers of the day did not do), he would then look up and finally he would sigh and the person would be healed. When you look at successful people in business such as Richard Branson you will also find that they tend to have quite clearly defined strategies that they use to get their consistent results.

So now it's your turn to get up on the catwalk!

Make it a great week, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus