Get Smart!

The GROW model is a simple structure which can be used very effectively in coaching. However, to be truly effective it needs to be used in the right way and with the client at the very heart of it.

GROW, of course, is an acronym for:

Goal
Reality
Options
Way forward (or Will or Wrap up)
The model is straightforward: identify the client’s goal (G), find out where they are with it now (R), look at all the options open to achieve the goal (O) and help the client commit to one or more options for action (W).

So far so good.

However, all too often the GROW model ends up actually detracting from effective coaching. This is particularly true with new or training coaches where they place too much focus on the model and not enough on what the client is trying to say.

This is NOT a fault of the coaching model itself but of the way it is applied.

So let’s look at six top tips to use GROW in coaching effectively.

1. Don’t treat the GROW model as a linear checklist process
Often coaches will just go through the process as though doing an audit ending with a neat list of agreed actions!

This will almost certainly lead to failure on the part of the client to take action and frustration for the coach.

Instead, treat GROW simply as a map which structures a complex journey. Slow down and allow each stage of the journey to be fully explored. There are four key stages shown on the map but like any journey the actual voyage is full variety, surprise and diversions.

GROW may be your map but your client deserves to experience the richness of the journey.

2. Keep in mind four key questions.
Rather than thinking Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward think about what you’re really asking your client:

What do you want?

Where are you now?

What can you do?

What will you do?

These are the four fundamental questions which drive the GROW model. If you explore these fully, you won’t go far wrong.

3. Everything hinges on the goal.
Get the goal wrong and the coaching will feel unsatisfactory for you and the client. It’s a little like when you place a few jigsaw pieces in the wrong place – they initially seem to fit but the further you go on placing pieces the more the puzzle goes wrong!

Get it right, however, and the coaching is almost effortless. You and the client both have clarity. The jigsaw keeps fitting together and the picture reveals itself as it should.

So, ensure you fully explore and define the goal until you are both clear. If it means taking a whole session or more to get it right then that’s fine. This will always be far more beneficial to the client in the long run than unswervingly following the process.

There’s not enough room here to explore goal setting but there is a wealth of information on this subject in many books and articles.

4. When looking at where the client is now (Reality), understand that you should not be just fact-finding but helping the client to learn.
For instance, when coaching a client on creating more spare time, a fact-finding question might be: “What time do you get up?” This question does nothing to help the client learn – it simply gives you a ‘fact’.

However, a question like “What impact is not having enough time having on you?” asks the client to dig deep and think hard.

The answer to this question is not a straightforward ‘fact’. It produces new ideas, insights and commitment to change.

5. When exploring options for progress around an emotive issue, you can use reframing to help your client think more objectively.
Asking questions such as “What would your best friend advise you to do?” or, flipping it, “What would you say to a friend in your circumstances?” can produce real clarity and clients will often confess that, if they are honest with themselves, they knew what to do but found it hard to accept it. That can be a real breakthrough.

Think about using this when faced with issues such as a ‘big’ difficult decision, divorce, debt, bad health and so on. You are not in any way saying that the hypothetical ‘friend’s advice’ is correct but it gets it out in the open as an option.

6. During the final phase (Way Forward) be absolutely sure there are no final reservations or ambivalence.
Amongst the various steps for agreeing actions the most important is identifying any signs of ambivalence and addressing them. Ambivalence in the coaching session will translate to inaction in the ‘real world’.

I once heard a coach say “once I got my client to say they were 100% committed…” – this is a recipe for failure. The coach’s job is to find what the client will really do not artificially encourage commitment to something they won’t do.

If you have followed the GROW model with the client’s needs at core of it and you have consistently identified and challenged signs of incongruity as you go then the final piece, the commitment to action should be like the final piece of the jigsaw. It should fit effortlessly into place and the picture be completed.