Unit 4: Effective Coaching Skills

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Describe the GROW Model of Coaching

• Identify the four action steps of the GROW Model

• Evaluate the importance of using a coaching model

• Complete a GROW Model self-reflection exercise

• Explore a scenario using the GROW Coaching Model

GROW involves four action steps, the first letters giving the model its name. It’s easy to grasp conceptually, but it’s harder to practice than you might imagine because it requires training yourself to think in new ways about your role and value as a leader.

A good way of thinking about the GROW Model is to think about how you'd plan a journey. First, you decide where you are going (the goal), and establish where you currently are (your current reality). You then explore various routes (the options) to your destination. In the final step, establishing the will, you ensure that you're committed to making the journey, and are prepared for the obstacles that you could meet on the way. The model was originally developed in the 1980s by business coaches Graham Alexander, Alan Fine, and Sir John Whitmore. (Source: MindTools, The GROW Model of Coaching and Mentoring).

GROW stands for:

1. Goal.

2. Current Reality.

3. Options (or Obstacles).

4. Will (or Way Forward).
   

   • Goal. When you begin discussing a topic with someone you’re coaching, establish exactly what the coachee wants to accomplish right now. A good way to start is to ask something like “What do you want when you walk out the door that you don’t have now?”
     

   • Reality. With the goal of your conversation established, ask questions rooted in what, when, where, and who, each of which forces people to come down out of the clouds and focus on specific facts. During this stage, a good reality-focused question to ask is “What are the key things we need to know?” Attend carefully to how people respond. Are they missing something important? Are they talking about operational issues but forgetting the human side of the equation? Or the reverse?
     

   • Option. When people come to you for coaching, they often feel stuck. “There’s nothing I can do,” they might tell you. Or “I have only one real option.” Or “I’m torn between A and B.” To broaden the conversation, sometimes it’s enough to ask something as simple as “If you had a magic wand, what would you do?”
     

   • Will. The step actually has two parts, each involving a different sense of the word will. In the first part, you ask, “What will you do?” The second part involves asking people about their will to act. “On a scale of one to 10,” you might ask, “how likely is it that you will do this?” (Source: Harvard Business Review, 2019).

Read the following:

The GROWS model: Extending the GROW coaching model to support behavioral change

The Importance of Using a Coaching Model

Using a coaching model helps you stay organized during the flow of conversation so that you can set goals more easily to stay focused. Please flip through six other coaching models.

First, identify something you would like to achieve at work.

Then, write down your answers to the following questions, interpreting them in the way that seems appropriate to you.

Summary

The questions in the exercise should help raise your awareness, and encourage you to take responsibility for achieving your goal. The fact that you come up with your own solutions will also raise your confidence that you can achieve your goal.

Additional Strategies for Using the GROW Model

To structure a coaching or mentoring session using the GROW Model, take the following steps:

1. Establish the Goal. Make sure that this is a SMART goal: one that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

2. Examine the Current Reality. This is an important step. Too often, people try to solve a problem or reach a goal without fully considering their starting point, and often they're missing some information that they need in order to reach their goal effectively.

3. Explore the options. Once you and your team member have explored the current reality, it's time to determine what is possible – meaning all of the possible options for reaching their objective.

4. Establish the Will. By examining the current reality and exploring the options, your team member will now have a good idea of how they can achieve their goal.

The Big Idea

There are lots of different coaching models to choose from. This lesson provided a short overview of some different models you could learn more about. Coaching takes a lot of time and practice. This is only the beginning.