By: Louise Yates
Category: Coaching
The GROW model is a widely recognized coaching model which you might use on a one to one basis or with a team. By asking questions rather than taking a more directive ‘telling’ or instructive approach you are allowing others to think for themselves, come up with their own ideas, develop their confidence and increase their commitment to action.
Here are some GROW coaching questions which illustrate each stage of the model.
Goal
At this stage you are doing two things. Helping your coachee or team members to establish an overall Goal for what they want to achieve in the longer term, and a specific Goal for the conversation.
Overall goals:
Sometimes referred to as the ‘Topic’ questions need to be asked initially to understand the overall purpose of the conversation.
Goals for the conversation:
With these questions you are defining more precisely what your coachee wants from the session which will help move them towards their overall goal?
Questions such as these will initiate responses such as ‘to create a plan of action’, ‘to identify next steps’, ‘to gain clarity about my situation’ or ‘to help me make sense of this problem.’
Reality
During this stage as coach or facilitator you are helping our coachee to assess where they are now in relation to their overall goal. Scaling is a useful technique to use to help your client gauge where they are at. Personally I like to take a solutions focused approach and focus on what is working well.
Options
Once you have a clear picture of the current situation you can then start to explore options for moving forward. This is an opportunity to really unlock the creativity within your client and allow them to see the wide ranging possibilities and alternatives open to them so don’t be tempted to move to action following just one idea.
Way Forward
Once you have exhausted all the options open to the client then help them to select the best option open to them and specific action they will now take. It is important that action is made really specific and that it is clear when the action is successful.
These GROW coaching questions are just examples and you will find depending on who you are coaching some will ‘land’ better than others. As you develop your experience as a coach so will your repertoire of questions which you can draw upon.
Louise Yates has written extensively about the GROW coaching model and GROW coaching questions. She is also a qualified business motivation coach.
Article Source: How To Use The Grow Coaching Model
