The language of business

success…and failure

What the words you use are really saying

Steven Gerrard unconsciously predicted England’s disastrous World Cup defeat by Germany a day before the match kicked off. In the England team press conference on Saturday evening, the team captain said, “We have to make sure we play well and have no regrets afterwards.”

In those few words he revealed a telling presupposition of defeat. Had he been presupposing a win, the concept of “having no regrets” would not have arisen.

The sentence passed largely unnoticed amongst the PR spun “positive” team talk -  but Gerrard’s comment suggests the players hadn’t fully bought into the “positivity”, making it impossible for them to adopt it at a deep level and execute the changes necessary in delivering a winning performance.

The words and language we use are part of the surface structure that reveals the thoughts and beliefs unconsciously influencing our speech, behaviour, actions and responses – we call it the deep structure. When we understand what our language reveals, and how the words we use influence our own destiny, we can begin to make subtle changes that create deep impact on the performance of ourselves and those around us.

Presuppositions: A Linguistic assumption

Next time you want to re-negotiate payment terms on an invoice, instead of asking, “Can we amend payment terms?” to which the answer is either “yes” or “no”, try asking, “How easy would it be to amend payment terms?”


How easy is a presupposition of “easiness” – if your supplier accepts the linguistic assumption in their response, the probability of re-negotiating payment terms is dramatically increased.

‘Linguistics’ is the middle name of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), originally developed in the 1970s by Richard Bandler, a psychology under-graduate and John Grinder, a Professor of linguistics at the University of Santa Cruz in California.

Setting out to model excellence in the fields of psychotherapy, counselling and psychiatry, both men recognised the structure of language as a keystone to the success of top communicators. The result was a content-free model of communication excellence that can be applied to any field of endeavour and has particular effectiveness as the language of successful businesses and their people.

The language patterns of NLP can be applied to any area for maximum impact; such as sales, telesales, HR, marketing, coaching, top-level negotiations, conflict resolution, employee communications, motivational speaking, speech-writing and many other activities.

Complex Equivalence: When two things are seen as being synonymous.

•    If a colleague complains, “My manager is always asking me questions, he doesn’t trust me.” Your colleague has created a direct association between the manager “asking questions” and “not trusting” them and is now unable to appreciate any other possibilities. Ask them, “How does your manager asking you questions mean he doesn’t trust you?”


Your colleague has to access the deep structure of their sentence to provide a more detailed response, which gives you more information to help them consider alternative possibilities.

•    Use Complex Equivalences in your marketing to create positive associations, “Buying your tyres from us means you will have years of safe driving.”

The initial language models in NLP are seen by many as coming from opposite ends of the communication spectrum. The Milton Model, named after Milton Erickson, the renowned psychiatrist whose model of excellence provided much of the foundations of NLP, contains 24 language patterns of influence and persuasion and is often used in speeches or marketing communications or team rallying messages to create a desired state in the listener or reader.

“I know you are concerned [Mind Read] about job security, and it’s okay to feel like that [Lost Performative] because you have grasped the situation in which our organisation finds itself [Cause and Effect], which means [Complex Equivalence] we can build an ambitious action plan before getting our profit line back on track [Presupposition of a before/after completion of the action].”

The Meta Model contains 12 language patterns that seek to reveal the deep structure of the speaker, facilitating a response that strikes directly at the heart of the matter and communicates in a way that resonates deeply with the core message. This is particularly useful in team-meetings, interviewing, negotiation and objection-handling.

Cause-Effect: Where cause is wrongly put outside self.


A Sales Executive complains, “Our Operations department makes me frustrated.” Respond by saying, “How does what the Operations dept does cause you to choose to feel frustrated?”


Comparative Deletion: A comparison made without specifying with whom or what it is made.


A sales prospect says, “That’s expensive.” Respond with, “In comparison to what, specifically?” You will learn more about their objection, and your competitor.


Nominalisation: Process words being presented as nouns.


In an organisational conflict, one party says of the other, “We don’t have any communication,” you can get the conflict-resolution process moving again by responding, “how would you like to be communicating?”

The above examples are only a few of the simplistic and effective linguistic patterns taught on our specialist Business NLP Academy courses that have direct application in the business world. There are many, many other elements applicable to the language of unconscious influence and performance.

Do not think about a giant egg landing on your computer screen as you read this.

It’s too late – you did anyway. This is because of how your brain processes. To not think about a giant egg landing on your computer, you have to first create the thought and then instruct yourself not to think it, by which time it is too late. Your focus of attention is unwittingly on the very thing you wanted to avoid. When imagining an outcome, neurological pathways are set up to create self-fulfilling actions and behaviours.

This has its uses and its disadvantages. For deep influence on teams, colleagues and employees, messages and images can be layered in to your audience in such a way that they cannot help but respond. On the flip side, be aware of the unconscious messages and images you are layering in.

Could it be that the world talked itself from Credit Crunch into Recession? Businesses and individuals altered their activities to prepare for tough financial times, in doing so, buying patterns changed, trading dropped and the outcome was – tough financial times.

In business, as in any activity, it is much more powerful to place a focus on the desired outcome, rather than the outcome you are looking to avoid. In doing so, you are preparing the neurology of your colleagues and team-mates to create the thought-patterns, actions and behaviours of achievement and success, as opposed to the thought-patterns, actions and behaviours of under-achievement and failure.

Somebody needs to tell Fabio.

In summary, be aware of the words you, your colleagues and your business choose to express yourselves. What do those words reveal about you and your organisation? Are the words you choose getting the best out of your team? Are you getting the best out of yourself? What unconscious messages are you really giving yourself, your business and your customers? And what messages do you want to be giving?

As a final thought, it is estimated that the words we use constitute only 7% of all communication. The rest comes from how we say it, and what else our physiology is saying when we say it. But that’s a different discussion for another day…

Article by Helen Doyle

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Call Now 020 8686 9952 or Email helend@businessnlpacademy.co.uk