One of the great tools in the world – for coaching, mentoring, development, or even a simple meeting agenda – is the GROW Model.
The tool has been around since the 1980s as a coaching model developed by the late Sir John Whitmore. (If you’re into sports and the name sounds familiar, Whitmore was the same British championship racing driver who upon retirement virtually created the executive coaching industry.) His post-racing work culminated in his outstanding book Coaching for Performance, first published in 1992, and now in its sixth edition after being translated into more than 20 languages.
I mention the GROW Model in almost every leadership workshop I lead to help people new to management learn and understand its importance and usefulness 33+ years after it was created.
There’s much to be said for it as a leadership tool, but I encourage people to use it as a personal tool first. Any successful path forward begins at home: with you. Use the simple GROW structure to help start your own thinking.
Once you’ve been able to articulate your thoughts, go find other people you trust to help you continue examining your career and professional goals.
This will be a long post as I’m putting all the information I’ve gathered over the years on this page to be most convenient. I’ve also added a link to this good website to help you coach yourself to get started, if necessary.
Tips for Coaching and Mentoring others deserves its own time. (I’ll add this at a later date.)
Finally, I’ve put some buttons (above right) if you want to jump to specific sections.
As always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions to help others, please add them to the Comments section below.
Let’s review this magnificently simple tool.
The Four Parts of the GROW Model
GROW is an acronym which stands for its four sections completed (usually) in sequence.
It’s often shown as a wheel as it should be an ongoing discussion. (Growth is rarely a linear path with an “end.” The circle aspect simply means to keep returning to the first question to ensure you’ve progressing or achieving your success.)
The questions are usually written in the second person point-of-view (‘you’) for a coach to ask the learner or protégé. I’ll stick with second person for the remainder of this post, but adapt the questions below as needed to the first person POV (‘me’) or third person POV (‘them’) depending upon how you’re using the GROW Model.
The four parts are:
Goal – What do you want to achieve? Why?
Reality – What’s your current situation? Where are you ‘now’?
Options – What steps could you take to achieve your goals?
Note: This section includes all the actions the learner might take, as well as the aspects which are to their advantage.
Some also believe (me included) this section should include the opposite of benefits: Obstacles. What aspects might prevent you from achieving your goal?
Will (often ‘Way Forward’) – What will you do? What’s your plan? How will you get started?
Here’s one final point as something important to Whitmore. He felt Will was the most important aspect of the four. To succeed at anything, Whitmore believed you have to have the desire to do the work to accomplish your goals.
If you want a PowerPoint slide of the artwork to adapt for your own presentation, click here to download.
Benefits of the GROW Model
As I said, simple. Like all good tools should be. Some of the other key benefits are:
Its focus on the person being coached. The questions help inspire a person to find their own path toward whatever goal that is important to them. One thing I love about this tool is you don’t need anyone else to get started on your thinking. It can be a brilliant private exercise to gather and articulate your thoughts, especially prior to a coaching session.
Its actionable. Its steps – and questions – lead toward doing something specific and measurable.
Its adaptability and flexibility. While the acronym suggests sequential steps, more often than not, people jump around the four sections to answer its questions. One of the points Whitmore says in his book is not to apply GROW rigorously. He preferred the word “framework” as a guide, not a precise set of steps.
It’s universal. GROW fits anyone, at any stage in their career or personal life, with any type of goal, from any type of organisation. It also works with teams as well as individuals. As I mentioned at the beginning, the GROW Model also works as an internal agenda for a meeting.
'Requirements'
There are a few aspects the GROW Model demands for it to be effective.
Regular review. If all you do is simply answer the questions, then put the answers in a drawer, it’s a waste of time. Think of the GROW Model as something you check regularly.
Specifics. Vagueness will get you nowhere. Be precise with the answers to all questions. Specifics give you traction and momentum.
Honesty and transparency – especially with yourself – at every step. It’s great to be aspirational, but not if you can’t be honest with yourself. As the famous phrase goes: don’t be a prisoner of your past. It’s a lesson, not a life sentence. Accept your past mistakes, learn from them and move on.
Creativity, especially at the Options stage. The problem with coming up with only one or two options is that you really don’t know if they’re good options. By creating multiple options, you have a better sense of what’s possible when you can compare options to determine which is better. You may also need to consider the fact that continuing to do more of the same thing may be the problem. You probably need to try something else. Allow yourself to think differently, and dare I say, think outside of the box!
Collaboration. While I mention the GROW Model can be used as a private tool first to begin thinking about your own aspirations, you should also look to people whom you respect and trust to help you articulate your desires, emotions and goals. The key is finding someone who can give you honest feedback that you’ll listen. But, do not look to them for the answers. That’s your job.
Time. All good things take time. Remember, perseverance helped the tortoise win.
Finally, one last reminder about ‘Will.’ Think about how you’re going to commit to the plan itself. To plan and not do is useless. Ask yourself: who or what will help you commit?
Instructions to Get Started
First and foremost, remember the GROW Model is simply a series of questions organised into phases or stages. The questions are there as prompts for you to decide the most appropriate answer for you.
Here’s how I suggest getting started.
First, review the stages and consider the questions. Don’t rush to answer the questions until you have a sense of the questions and the order from start to finish.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the questions. Many of them are redundant because some questions paraphrased differently can appeal to different people.
You don’t have to answer every question. But, ask yourself why you’re avoiding a question. If one question is redundant to another – yes, delete it. But, if it’s hard to answer, the question may be something you want to explore further, perhaps with someone you trust or want their counsel.
Before you get too far down into the questions, start to articulate the most important one first. What’s your goal? Be as precise and as exact as possible. If your goal is vague, it’s the equivalent of just driving forward … but driving forward to where?
It’s also OK – if not perfectly natural – for your goal to change. As you gather more information, listen to advice from people you trust, and think about what you really want – of course, your goals may change. But at least you’re still moving forward. What you should not do is let your negative thoughts become your primary thoughts. Do not make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion.
The GROW Model is not an exercise to do in your head. Write or type or draw out your responses so you can remember them and share them with others.
Yes, you can use AI to help articulate the answers, but don’t just accept the answers AI spits out. Think about whether the suggested answer is what YOU want, not just a finely turned phrase written by a computer program, or worse, a tossed-salad response gathered from an algorithm.
As you start to go through the questions or phrases, it’s OK to jump around from question to question. The point of answering the questions is to help 1) understand yourself better, 2) better clarify what you want, and most of all, 3) realise a plan to achieve the important goals in your life.
Not that you want more questions, but don’t limit yourself to the general questions below. Listen to questions from others. Ask others what questions they asked themselves to achieve their own goals.
Gather as much good information as possible. Information gives you knowledge, ideas, action, tips and encouragement.
In the end, there are only three steps.
1. Write down a goal so you have direction.
2. Gather information to decide if it’s the right direction.
3. Get started with a plan. (Don’t wait!)
If a worksheet would help for you to write down your thoughts, click here to download a Word document. Edit and adapt to suit your needs.
Ok – now let’s tackle the four sections.
Goal: What do you want to achieve?
What do you want to accomplish?
Use the SMART methodology to make sure your goals are appropriate.
When do you want to achieve it?
How will you know when you’ve reached your goal?
What’s the destination you want to reach?
Why do you want this specific goal? Why this goal? And not that – or some other – goal?
What’s the outcome you need?
What do you want to get out of today’s discussion?
What do you want to focus your efforts on?
What’s your internal motivation?
Is there an external motivation? (Is it truly a motivation? What happens if the other person – or worse, the other thing – doesn’t respond positively to your actions.)
Try to state the goal in 10 words.
Imagine you have reached your goal.
- How does it feel?
- What does it look like?
- What do you ‘see’?
- What are the benefits? Either to you, or to the important people around you.
- What are people saying to you after you’ve achieved the goal?
- How proud would you feel about yourself?
Reality: Where are you now?
What’s the current situation?
As it relates to your goal(s), describe a day in your life.
What is happening? (Or has happened?)
Why do you decide ‘now’ is the time to start?
How (______)* are you by this current situation? Why? (* fill in with any emotion you feel, such as unhappy, confused, frustrated, angry)
What’s your mood right now?
What have you been telling yourself about ‘now’?
How do you feel about yourself in this current situation?
How is this current situation affecting you? Other important people around you?
Is the situation better or worse at some times more than others? Why? When?
What are the reasons you feel or believe this should be addressed now?
Have you talked to anyone else so far?
Who would you like to speak to? Do you know anyone who might introduce you to them?
What have you done so far? What have you done in the past that (perhaps) didn’t work out as planned? What have you learnt so far?
Is there anything about this situation you like? Does it suit you to stay as you are?
What is the biggest priority for you right now?
What are you not looking at? What are you hiding from? What have you been avoiding?
What is your instinct telling you?
Where are you now in relation to the goal?
Are you doing anything now to help you work toward your goal?
What resources do you think/imagine you’ll need? Now? In the future?
What is the biggest priority now?
What opportunities do you see ahead?
What is blocking your progress? Are you blocking your own progress? How?
What or who might help you progress?
If ‘10’ is the ideal situation, what number are you now?
Name one other person you trust. How would this other person describe you, or the situation?
What are you expecting to happen now? (Or next?)
What would happen if you did nothing?
Options: What are your options (and obstacles)?
Options: You want as many options as possible!
What can you change now? In the future? (Should you, or can you prioritise?)
What are your options?
What’s on your side?
What are your (internal) strengths?
What are the opportunities?
What has worked in the past?
Who has helped you in the past?
Obstacles
What is standing in your way?
Who is standing in your way?
What’s working against you?
What are the challenges?
What are your (internal) weaknesses?
What slows you down?
What do you need to overcome?
Who’s the ‘villain’ in this story?
Brainstorming as many actions as you can. Don’t try to do it all at once. Work with other people you trust to make the list longer or to stretch your thinking.
What could you do? (… right now?)
What could/should … you stop doing? Do less of? More of? Continue doing?
Let’s imagine the future (ex: in a year). Looking back, what did you do to achieve your goal? What would you tell yourself from the future?
If fear were not an option, what would you do first?
Is there anything you’ve tried but hasn’t worked … yet?
What do you believe the options are?
What other options might you explore? Are there any options you fear?
Have you discarded any options? What were they, and why did you stop them?
If you could do anything, what would it be? What would be the first thing you’d do?
What do you consider as ‘not negotiable’?
What resources or support can you draw upon?
How will you know if it’s a good idea? (What criteria will you use to decide if it’s a good idea?)
What’s something you’d love to try but are afraid or cautious of? What could help you get started?
Will / Way Forward: What's the plan?
How can you create a plan that actually works? Describe it.
What will you do now? Next?
What milestones can you create to feel like you’ve made progress?
How can you keep yourself accountable?
Who can you commit to? How can this person help? What support do you need to move forward?
How can you connect with the right people to support or help you? How can you build or expand your network?
Describe your commitment. Are you being honest?
What actions NEED to happen now?
What could you do as the first step toward meeting your goal?
How might you commit to that?
How will you stay committed to your goal when the going gets tough?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to complete that action? What is stopping you rating it anything other than a 10?
What could get in the way of you completing that action?
If you were going to sabotage yourself, how would you do it?
How might you (unintentionally) get yourself off track? What can you do to prevent that from happening?
What would make this more fun?
What if something comes up, what will you do to re-start?
What three action steps could you do to support yourself?
How would you be able to show this action is completed?
What are you ready to change to ensure you achieve your action?
How are you going to hold yourself accountable for these actions?
The Plan Itself
How will you get started?
What needs to happen first? What should happen first?
Does anyone need to be consulted to start?
Are there sections or phases to get started?
Is one action a priority over the other?
Does something need to happen first, or in sequence?
Can any part or step be delegated to someone else? Why would they help?
How do you FEEL about your actions?
What would it take to get you excited about your own actions?
When you succeed, what will that look like?
What is your highest priority action to take now?
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