'The Growth Ladder' -
NLP for Leaders

‘The Growth Ladder’ was developed based on the research done by Frank Pucelik (co-founder of NLP) of the steps that successful leaders have taken to facilitate quantum and consistent growth in their organization.

Frank Pucelik has enabled several organisations to grow exponentially through the application of ‘The Growth Ladder’ and various other NLP techniques.

I (Abhay Thhakkar) had learnt ‘The Growth Ladder’ from Frank Pucelik in his Internationally Certified Master Practitioner NLP course in Spain.

‍Note: If there is a goal you have set out for yourself or for your organization and you have not been successful, it did not involve one or more of the steps.

Although this article of Growth Ladder is applicable in organisation, you could consider aspects of this article applicable in parenting as well.

·1 - Measurable:
Know 10 measurable ways to know where you are and where you want to be. It also involves measuring in form of numbers.

“A goal without a date is just a dream” – Dr Milton H Erickson


·2- Achievable:
Does the person who is going to take the step, has the proven skill to achieve the step. If a task has been achieved before, it is more likely for the step to be deemed as achievable.


·3- Short term:
‍How long does it take to achieve the step?
The term could be measured in hours, days, months.
The term could be on the lines of how long you can work with passion, desire and other states that motivate and excite you.


·4- Low Risk:
‍A mistake that a leader can make is that what can be deemed as not a risk for him may be considered as a risk for his employees. What is simple for one person may not be simple for another person. An employee can even make excuses for not doing the task given to him since he wants to avoid taking risks.


·5 - Success oriented:
When the necessary steps of behaviour have been taken to accomplish, how will you know it is time to go - “Yes, I accomplished it!”

“Act virtuous, use your time well, and be cheerful. Then, when you drop from life’s tree, you will drop like a ripe fruit” – Marcus Aurelius



Some questions to compliment the above points which I have added:
- Where are you now with respect to the outcome?
- How, where, when and with whom would it be when you achieved the outcome?
- What will happen after you have achieved the outcome?


Remember, any goal in your ogranisation that have not accomplished could have 1 of the criteria that were missing other than the skill sets required for accomplishing the goal.

“Don’t just accidently accomplish your goal.  Skillfully accomplish them.”


To know further indicators, read below...

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Further steps taken on a growth ladder by a successful leader are as follows:


‍1: Specific instructions:

The instructions given must be specific to avoid miscommunication. As they say in BNI (Business Networking International) – "Specific is terrific.”

The following scenario is what happened when Frank Pucelik was working with a leader of an corporate organisation:

Boss: “Here is the list of people you need to contact and sell our product”
Employee: “It will be done”
After few days…
Boss: “What is the status of the products that were to be sold?”
Employee: “Yes, I just came back from another city yesterday and struck the deal of products”
Boss: “What? I never asked you to travel! You wasted soo much time in your travel while you could have done it over a phone call. Now, who will pay for your travel?”

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Hence tools such as ‘Verbal Package’ and ‘Meta Model’ are taught in my Transformative NLP practitioner courses in Mumbai and other cities, which you can use to avoid miscommunication and to be specific.

2: Motivational level of employees:

Humans love success and celebration.
What is important is to celebrate every small accomplishment so that the employees continue to be motivated. Consider ways for keeping employees motivated.
An unmotivated employee with a mind set of “I got to work on the stupid project", the project is likely to progress in a slower pace. 

Celebrate every step taken towards goal.
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 “If you believe it will work, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t, you will see obstacles” -Wayne Dyer



3: Leadership style:

Does your leadership invoke fear or a sense of comfort which is built with rapport.
If it is fear based, it can create a sense of resentment with the employees for the leader which can lead to sabotage. Infact, in Soviet, they were known as ‘walking dead’ since it was as if their heart needed to be checked if it was working.
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4: Handling failures:

When the employees fail at achieving the final goal, who takes the blame?
An ineffective leader would blame the employee. An effective leader also takes the responsibility for not achieving the goal.
The effective leader operates out of the belief (also known as a ‘NLP Pressuposition’) of “There is no failure, only feedback.”
During the failures too, they ensure they have a rapport with their employees.


Further, one of the secrets of the success of Microsoft and TATA is that the leaders create a sense of ‘we-ness’ within the organization by creating the rapport. Due to that, the employees are even willing to jump off the bridge for the company. 

“Arise, awake, stop not until your goal is achieved” – Swami Vivekanand

The NLP techniques and tools I share in my Transformative NLP courses in Mumbai and other cities, compliments the 'growth ladder' well, by equipping you with ample of activities that allow the power of your unconscious mind to be unleashed.

With the unconscious mind being activated you can go beyond what you think you can achieve. Another advantage of activities in this NLP course is that just by playing games for 15 minutes, ‘creative juices’ start to flow, and it enables you, colleagues and employees to reduce stress.

Additionaly, learning Transformative NLP enables you to become a better thought leader and enable you to gain several other benefits mentioned in the article NLP course benefits for Leadership