Coaching with NLP For Dummies®

Tackling Interference from Gremlins

Gremlins are the aspects of people's identities that may get in the way of their natural resourcefulness by playing havoc with their emotional states. Gremlins hold you back from action or criticise what you do. They're like little pesky goblins who dance around and make mischief, nagging at your clients and amplifying their insecurities.

Gremlins play on your emotions in a negative way and take on various forms. The following sections look at three examples of gremlins that often pop up.

• The peacekeeper gremlin avoids confrontation at any cost.
• The perfectionist gremlin is impossible to please because perfection is unattainable.
• The procrastinator gremlin wants to put off today's task until tomorrow.

Many other gremlins are out there, so keep watch for them in coaching conversations and point them out to your clients if you sense a gremlin is lurking. While some coaching models get rid of the gremlins, the NLP approach is to honour them as an important part of your identity. When you treat gremlins as offering valuable information, you can gain wisdom from their gifts. I prefer to treat them as inner team members who bring a different quality to my clients' goals. Clients can take gremlins out of their boxes when needed and keep them in place if not invited. In Chapter 19, I look at integrating different parts of a person's identity, noticing ...