Grow model for Coaching

Coaching is a growing field. More people than ever are sincerely considering hiring a coach or become one because coaching often helps people see the kingdom of greater purpose, happiness, and fulfillment. A lot of coaching takes place using the Grow model for Coaching.

If you are intrigued to learn more about the Grow model for Coaching and if you are curious to know how you too could make use of grow model for coaching self and/or others, then read further.

What is the Grow model?

The Grow model for Coaching was designed by Sir John Whitmore and explained in depth in the best-selling book ‘Coaching for Performance’,

As a process, coaching involves asking open questions because open-ended questions cause people to think for themselves, and thus facilitate building awareness, responsibility, and self-belief. The GROW model aims to provide the sequence for this questioning. Hence sometimes the Grow model for Coaching has also been referred to as the GROW Model of questioning.

The sequence of questions suggested by Sir John Whitmore essentially follows four distinct headings – Goals, Reality, Options, Way forward/ Will.

Whenever you are tackling any new issue for the first time, it is recommended that you explore all stages around the issue. You start by setting the short term as well as the long term goal. Then run a reality check to assess, explore, and examine the current situation. Think of the available options, alternative courses of action, and implementable strategies. Apropos, identify what has to be done, by when, and by whom.

When you are making headway on a task or process that has already been discussed before and the work is underway, you may start and end the questioning with any stage in any sequence.

Qualified ICF coaches who have attended ICF approved coach training programs or ICF accredited coach training programs in India often use the GROW model in life coaching, team coaching, performance coaching, organizational coaching, etc

Why is the GROW model so popular?

The Grow model for Coaching has become very popular because it’s not a rigid structure. You can easily mix and apply any other coaching tool, any coaching technique, any coaching methodology over the top of the Grow model for Coaching while flowing with its sequence of stages.

The GROW Model of questioning ensures that –

sufficient time is spent on setting goals
the solutions, actions, and activities are explored in depth.
awareness, as well as commitment towards taking action for solving challenges and achieving results, are raised.

How to use the GROW Model?

The GROW Model is used to structure the conversations while coaching, counseling, and/or facilitating sessions.

The Grow model of Coaching provides a convenient framework within which you can hold the conversations and discussions with your clients, with your reports and team members, etc to be able to unlock their potential and maximize performances.

When you sufficiently practice using the GROW model, you will not lose track of any goal-focused conversation. The simple structure of the GROW model for Coaching explicitly aligns people to commit to taking actions.

Here’s how you can put the GROW model for Coaching to use while coaching your clients-

G – GOAL

When you are using the GROW model for coaching, this is the goal of your client for the particular session. Some questions that you can ask as a coach are mentioned below-

What specifically would you like to get out of this session?
Where would you like to have got to by the end of this session?
What would be the most useful or helpful thing for you to take away from this session?

To support your client in defining specific goals easily and clearly, you can use some of the sensory questions used in the NLP Well Defined Outcomes technique as well.

Successful and trained ICF coaches ask at the outset the specific outcome the client is seeking from the coaching conversation because only when the client understands and verbalizes the desired outcome, the coach will be able to facilitate the session for the client to work towards that outcome.

R – REALITY

This is the stage where you as a coach ask questions around your client’s understanding of the situation, what your client has already done so far, what has been working in favor, what has not been working in favor, etc. You explore as many facts and feelings around the topic to raise the awareness of your client and to bypass your as well as your client’s cognitive distortions. Below mentioned are some of the questions that you can ask as a coach-

What’s the situation right now? How do you feel about it?
What specific actions have you taken on this so far? What was the effect of those actions?
Tell a bit more about the current situation?
What exactly has been stopping you so far from taking action?

Proficient and skilled ICF coaches often make full use of NLP Meta Model challenges to develop a better and quicker understanding of the client’s reality, and this helps to augment the Grow model for Coaching. Once the client is aware of the reality around the situation, the goals become sharp in focus, and it becomes easy to think about actions, solutions, and ideas that will help in moving forward.

O – OPTIONS

This is the stage where the coach helps the client in brainstorming the solutions to feel empowered and more in control. You essentially form a bridge between the current and future desired outcome. Here are some of the questions that you can ask as a coach-

What options do you have?
As if you knew the answer, what would it be?
As if the obstacle didn’t exist, what action steps would you take?

People feel empowered when they find choices and when they are free to make their own choices. However, there are times when negativity creeps in as you ask a client to think about possible options that will help in solving the issue. And most often, such negativity comes from the self-limiting beliefs. It becomes evident in the statements like I don’t know, I can’t do it, it’s not possible, etc.

To unlock negativity in such cases and to install useful powerful beliefs, NLP coaches often utilize NLP belief change techniques.

Once the limiting belief is addressed, the solutions and choices are much easier to find.

W – WILL/ WAY FORWARD

This is the stage where the coach asks questions around what is to be done, who will do it, when does it have to be done, etc. Assessing the willingness of the client towards executing the preferred option is a crucial aspect at this stage.

Some questions that you can ask as a coach are mentioned below-

Which of these alternatives are you going to act on?
What will you do? What are you going to do now?
When are you going to take that step?
On a scale of 1-10 how committed are you that you will carry out the agreed actions?
What prevents it from being a 10? How would you make it a 10 for you?
What support do you need? How are you going to get that support? What are you going to do about it? And when?

Well qualified and best ICF Coaches ensure that before the client leaves the session, the client is committed to at least one action, else the session would just be a casual chit chat. Also read sample life coaching session to get an idea about the coaching flow and how to ask coaching questions.

In Conclusion,

The GROW model for Coaching essentially converts a discussion into a decision. It is one of the most popular coaching models and gets extensively used in goal setting, problem-solving, and performance enhancement.

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We wish you success in all your coaching endeavors!

Grow model for Coaching