The GROW Coaching Model

Step 1:

ESTABLISH THE GOAL Goal (aspiration)

Ask the coachee (group member, colleague, etc..) to describe what their goal/aspiration(s) is.

Valuable coaching questions in this step:

• What would you like to focus on today?
• What’s important to you at the moment?
• What does your ideal future look like?
• What will you be doing in five years?
• What new skills do you want to learn or develop?
• Where is your life out of balance?
• What challenges are you facing at the moment?
• What would make you feel that this time has been well spent?
• What are you currently working toward?
• How can you word your goal in positive language?

Goals are anchors for hope, and the more human beings are aligned with their core values in movements toward those goals, the better-engaged people will be in participating in actions that will make those goals realized.

Step 2:

EXAMINE THE CURRENT REALITY

Next, ask the coachee to describe their current reality.

This is an important step. You must have a starting point.

As the coachee tells you about their current reality, clues may start to emerge.

Useful coaching questions in this step:

• What is working well at the moment?
• What do you need?
• What excuses have you always used for not achieving your goals?
• Have you already taken any steps towards your goal?
• Does this goal conflict with any other goals or objectives?
• What does self-sabotage look like for you?
• What is your inner critic saying to you?
• What fears are present?
• What are you passionate about?

This area of GROW allows for an invitation for self-assessment.

Step 3:

EXPLORE THE OBSTACLES/OPTIONS

Once you and the coachee have explored the current reality, it's time to determine what are the possibilities for reaching their objective.

Help your coachee brainstorm as many good options as possible. Then, support them to decide on the best ones. Dotmocracy is a good tool for this.

You can try a variety of things in this step. Be sure to listen more than talk. It's important to guide your coachee in the right direction, without actually making any suggestions for them. Your job is to guide.

Typical questions that you can use to explore options are as follows:

• What obstacles stand in your way?
• If you had 50% more confidence, what would you be doing that would be different?
• What could you possibly do?
• What else?
• What if this constraint were removed? Would that change anything?
• What are the pros and cons of each option?
• What would you do if you answered to no one?
• What is the most efficient use of your time at this moment?

Options allow people to explore possibilities and to choose which of those possibilities will work the best to move them forward. When the person develops these options, they are more motivated and emotionally connected to them.

Step 4:

ESTABLISH THE WILL

Way Forward (accountability and personal actions) (What, When, by Whom and the WILL to do it)

Establishing their current reality and exploring options, the coachee will now have a pretty good idea of how they can achieve their goal. Awesome – but, this may not be enough. The final step is to get the coachee to make a commitment to specific actions to move forward towards their goal. This step helps them activate their willpower and give them an empowering boost!

Effective questions include:

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how motivated are you to achieving your goal?
• What will it take to get that motivation closer to a 10?
• Whatever your first step is, can you think of anything that might stop you from doing it?
• How committed are you to achieving this goal?
• How do you want to be held accountable for this goal?
• How will you celebrate when you’ve achieved your goal?
• What are you going to do in the next 24 hours?
• What will you do when you’ve achieved your goal?
• Who do you need to include in your journey to that goal?
• What else do you need to consider before starting?

Decide on a date when you'll both review progress. This will provide some accountability, and allow them to change his approach if the original plan simply isn't working.

This portion of the framework helps to develop a commitment to goal achievement.

The GROW model is a simple yet highly effective coaching framework that can be used in any coaching, meeting, or leadership setting. It can be adapted to fit into any setting where decisions need to be made, or where obstacles need to be overcome.

The benefit of having structure when coaching is that the person-chosen topic can move forward on their terms. It helps set an agenda, and open-ended coaching questioning allows coachees to be open to the possibilities that might be revealed.

Holding space for other people can be hard work. The GROW model makes the process a little more structured.