Are you a team leader in your organization? As a leader, one of your most crucial roles will be to coach your team members to give their best. Doing this can help them solve issues, arrive at better decisions, learn new skills, or progress in their careers.
In reality, few people are fortunate enough to get formal training to coach others. Nevertheless, many will have to develop this skill by coaching many teams or individuals. This statement can make you feel that coaching is a challenging skill to obtain as it takes many years to become a good coach. But, when you arm yourself with some proven practices and techniques and believe in your instincts, you can turn out to be a great coach. You can structure your mentoring and coaching sessions by relying on the GROW Model, as it is a powerful technique besides being simple.
The GROW Model – The Founder:
In the 1980s, the GROW Model was created by Sir John Whitmore. He did this creation along with his colleagues. After finding this coaching approach, he disseminated it through his book ‘Coaching for Performance.’ The initial publication of this book happened in 1995, and now, more than 25 editions of this book have been made. Even the book has been translated into more than 20 languages. From this fact, you can understand the value of the GROW coaching model.
This Coaching Model GROW offers a framework for coaching sessions, projects, or meetings, and this model is now the best-known coaching model followed worldwide.
The GROW Model – The Meaning:
The coaching community loves to GROW more than as a model of coaching. Many use the GROW model template as a top leadership tool across different cultures and disciplines. Due to its four straightforward steps, this approach to coaching has proven to be successful across the world. In many organizations worldwide, it functions as the backbone of coaching. Organizations and even universities worldwide follow this coaching approach due to its effectiveness and outstanding benefits. With the GROW Coaching Technique, people can succeed individually and as a group.
Why Should You Use GROW Model in Your Coaching?
When you use the Coaching Model GROW, your clients will love you. The reason is that this approach to coaching is result-oriented. You will also feel supported as a leader as you know that you have covered the critical aspects of the coaching session. After using this model a few times, you will get used to it. After that, you will never lose your focus on implementing the critical elements of GROW in your coaching sessions.
Using this coaching model, you can include a T before the term GROW to make it T-Grow. Here, the letter T stands for Topic. The reason is that when your coaching sessions have a topic, the participants will come with an idea of what they will learn from the session as against visiting the coaching session without a clear idea of what to expect.
How to Use the GROW Coaching Model?
The good thing about using a GROW model template for your coaching sessions, particularly when you have planned for a coaching session for your clients, is that you need not be an expert in the specific circumstance of your client. You can coach your clients even without this knowledge when you follow this model. The reason is that this model provides a framework with general queries to options and obstacles and elicits goals without requiring to give advice or force any specific direction. In simple terms, your clients will love this approach as it will give them a dynamic vehicle for development.
At its very basic level, the GROW Coaching Technique will help a person understand his present state and the desired outcomes. Even those following this coaching approach will find ways to bridge the gap between the present and the future. Another key reason for the effectiveness of this model is that it provides the basis for many other coaching models like the ACHIEVE model and approaches known to solve issues like the A3 Problem-Solving Model.
To start using this model of coaching, all you have to do is first sit with the person or people whom you are going to coach. Ensure that you ask practical questions so that your trainees can get the utmost benefit from the conversation.
Steps in the GROW Approach:
The GROW approach encompasses four steps. The G in this term stands for goal. So, the first step is to establish the goal. R denotes reality, so the second step is examining the present reality. The third letter, O, represents options, so in the third step of the GROW approach, you will have to explore the available options. The last W in the word denotes “Will,” and so the closing step in GROW Coaching Technique is to establish the will. You can gain a better understanding of these steps from the information given below:
1. Goal:
The goal section of the Coaching Model GROW involves addressing the objective of each coaching session. Apart from setting the goal, it should be revisited repeatedly to take the focus forward without any deviations. Reviewing the goal statement will provide the required motivation to the coach and it will also help with clarifying the thought process. In coaching and even in any task, identifying what to achieve will put us on the right path, and we will start focusing on the solution as against the problem when we are focused on achieving a goal. So, before you begin any coaching session, you first have to set a goal for yourself as to what the trainees will learn from this coaching session.
When discussing the goal, you must remember one thing for sure. There are different levels of goals based on how far in the future you are looking. It is better to identify an inspirational plan to keep the motivation and energy levels at a peak. It will help not only you but also your entire team of trainees to stay focused.
2. Reality:
You can understand the reality only when you talk to your trainees. Doing this between training sessions allows you to spot the bottlenecks between the present situation and how far you wish to go or your goal. The Reality step of the GROW coaching approach is where you will have to reflect, reframe, challenge and question your trainees regarding what they see. Talk to them to know what they have learned so far. You can get to know what works and what does not when talking to them in this step. The reality is about where the trainees presently stay, how they got there, and even how your coaching impacted them.
In this part of the GROW Model, you should dig into the emotions of the trainees and should talk about what they feel.
3. Options:
From the initial two steps of the Coaching Model GROW, you might have understood where you wish to go and where you are currently positioned. Even you might have spotted the gap by reaching the third stage of the GROW Approach. From this stage of the GROW Model, the trainees can think about how to bridge the gap between the desired future state and the present state.
As a coach, your role at this stage is to aid your trainees think comprehensively and creatively along with positively about the different things they can do to reach the goal from the present state. This stage spots the different options available for moving towards the achievement of the goals. Apart from spotting the possibilities, the ways to achieve the goal and skills required for the same should be spotted.
4. Will:
This step in the GROW Coaching Technique involves defining the path to choose for achieving the goal. Here, both you as a coach and your trainees will have to agree on the following steps to take for goal achievement.
In short, the final step involves getting your team members to commit to particular actions to move forward towards the goal. This step will help your team gain the required motivation toward goal achievement.
Pros and Cons of GROW Model:
Before you choose a GROW model template, you will be interested in understanding the pros and cons of GROW Model. Here are some details to know:
Pros of GROW Model:
- It helps people find solutions to their problems
- Aids with understanding the present situation
- Assists with setting SMART Goals for coaching
- It helps with spotting the gap between goals and the current situation
- It aids with exploring the different options available for goal achievement.
- Boosts motivation and self-confidence in trainees
Cons:
- For the GROW Model to work, the goals must be realistic
- When the trainees do not show interest in expressing reality, it is not possible to understand the reality
- When truth is not understood, it will not be possible to spot the gaps
- Further, trainees might sometimes not show the will required to achieve goals.
When you compare the pros and cons of GROW Model, you will understand that the pros outweigh the cons. Above all, it is a proven technique and can work for you to advance as an efficient leader.
References:
- https://www.coachingcultureatwork.com/the-grow-model/
- https://worldofwork.io/2019/08/the-grow-coaching-model/
- https://lattice.com/library/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-grow-coaching-model
