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"I was able to almost triple my income in just 30 days as a result of working with Christopher Howard. Not only did the work we did together impact my financial future, but he assisted me in finding my life's purpose. I am more on track and excited about life then ever before."

— Jon Andre Bliss, USA

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I recently coached a senior manager who had inherited over a million pounds from a close friend. 'Wow' you might think - 'what an opportunity to do all the things you had ever wanted to do or give what you truly wanted to give'. And yes, although he had these thoughts the truth of the matter was that the gift had created such conflict and stress that he was almost unable to cope with life. If he invested the money to create security for himself and his family for the future he would still have to find the money to do the things he wanted to do. If he just gave up work he would be consumed with the guilt of having left his colleagues with the burden of the business. When he considered devoting his time to his family he realised that he would need to get to know his wife all over again, as a distance triggered by long hours of work and stress and decreasing self esteem had wormed its way between them and they had allowed it to do so. He felt helpless and did not have the skills or even the desire to step into a possible outcome. Sometimes the techniques that have become such common currency in NLP are in my experience superficial and disrespectful of our present state.

I have coached another manager in recent months who had offered a 'fix' by some enthusiastic and newly NLP trained colleagues to step into a more positive state. My belief was that what this manager truly needed was to travel to a grave in his home country to mourn the death of a close friend. This is what he subsequently did.

My recent experiences with many senior managers who have the skills to set business goals and consistently achieve them is that they reach a point when the significance of the goals they face requires that they allow the possibilities to unfold rather than proactively step into the imagined future that they might conjure up.

I recently ran an open program for 30 Chief Executives who openly shared the dilemma that almost all without exception faced in considering what was important to their future. What we discovered was the need for them to know their potential and to experience it in the present. In this way, they achieved a state that allowed insights about their future to unfold. And of course, in gaining these insights for the future they began to experience them in the present.

The key to this was to create states of openness, truthfulness, support learning and love. I would not have believed prior to this event that so many Chief Executives would allow themselves to discuss and experience a love for each other that was so open and so vulnerable. I would not have believed that Chief Executives would even have used the word. And I write this article at the time when three white Americans are accused of chaining a black hitchhiker to the back of their lorry and dragging him to pieces. I feel sick to even consider how anyone can be capable of such gross inhumanity to another human being and I ask myself how can I make a difference to the world where this kind of event can happen. Where was love on that night when that trapped individual fell mercy to such acts of obscenity?

I cannot, I believe directly make a difference to evens such as these but I can help those who do not have a far reaching influence on others lives. I can help the leaders in business today to realise the truth of their own contributions particularly in the way they relate to the people who work with them. We do have some powerful techniques and tools for discovering the difference that truly makes a difference. The question is in what context do we use them - for our own ends, for the manipulation of others, to impress or for the genuine heartfelt contribution that we can make to mankind?

And what of the manager who inherited the million pounds? He discovered that he first needed to relearn how to love his wife and his children and in doing so learn how to love himself. In managing himself to relate to the significant people in his life in ways that are meaningful and truthful he allowed those goals for the future to unfold through him and to touch others in his life in ways that encouraged them to do the same.

Maybe then if we each reach out in these kinds of ways we can ultimately change the balance in the world between those for whom the truth is one of hatred and rejection to one of acceptance and love. These are of course my values and they are ones

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