How can you use role models in business?

Grant Leboff: One of the things that I took from the book, which I thought was quite interesting, was the power of 'role models'. Typical, I've got kids - they have role models. But I think, as you get to an adult, perhaps you don't think of it in the same way. So, just explain how, as a business leader, someone could use the idea of a role model and how that can work for them?

Nicci Roscoe: When I have been working with business leaders and they are feeling anxious, because they're going to give a talk, they give me a presentation to a lot of people, they say to me; Nicci I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do this because I'm really concerned how I'm going to come across. One of the businesses I was working with - I was doing some private coaching with him - we were sitting in this big board room and he was getting all ready and I was going to video him, because he was going to come across on camera and we were going to look back at it - and he said I can't do it, I don't know how I'm going to do this. And I say; Hang on a minute, I just want you to imagine how it would be to step into the shoes of somebody who really inspired you. Who is it that inspires you? What kind of speaker? And he said President Obama is amazing, he is the best orator, the way he comes across is fantastic. I said OK, I just want you to stand up for a moment, relax your shoulders, stand with your legs a shoulder width apart... Look at him, he's standing right opposite you. I want you to step into him. So he did. And I said OK turn around now, look at me, and I want you to feel what he's feeling. See what he can see out there. Who is he talking to and how does he say it?

He started talking and all of a sudden his whole body language, his demeanour, the way he spoke, he came about with so much more confidence, he felt so much better. So I said; I want you to bring him with you. Anchor that moment - which was having that memory from your head - of being in a good place and taking that with you, by squeezing your thumb and forefinger together. Taking that with you as you step out of that moment and come back into you. And he did. He said; I feel really good. I feel really inspired, because now I know how I can do this. I need to step into his shoes or I need to imagine that this is what the person that I I'm inspired by, can do and does and I can do exactly the same thing. And he projected brilliantly and he came across with so much confidence.

Grant Leboff: That's a really interesting example of a way that a business leader can use a role model, in changing their emotional state. Are there other applications for the way that you see people are using role models?

Nicci Roscoe: With how to work with them? Absolutely. What I get people to do is, I get them to work together. So I get them to play, one person acts in one way and the other is the other. So what they do is they talk to each other and they see who inspires who and how that inspires them. One person might take on the role of President Obama and the other may take on the role of someone like Whoopi Goldberg. It just depends what it is that is going to make them feel good about themselves.

Role models, in particular, are having somebody who really does inspire you, who you can look at and you can think 'I want to be like them'. And I always recommend going through YouTube, looking at all the different people who do inspire you, whoever that may be - it may be an actor and actress it may be a politician, it doesn't matter - but look at them and watch how they are. How they act and how they come across. How they use their body language, how their facial expressions are, because that can rub off on you and that can really enable you to be even more successful in the way you come across too.

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