The GROW model is one of the most popular models used in coaching. This is because it is simple and effective. It is a process model that gives a coach some structure to guide their client through change. It’s most suited where the purpose of the coaching is very goal directed, such as in business or sports. It can be used elsewhere too, though sometimes other approaches may be more beneficial where the topic of coaching is rooted in relationships, emotions, or ideas of self.
The model was first labelled as GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, and Will), by Max Landsberg, author of The Tao of Coaching, but evolved through the influence of many people. The easiest way to see how it emerged is through the coaching journey of Sir John Whitmore. After retiring from a successful career in motorsport in 1966, Whitmore studied at the Esalen Institute in California. Esalen was highly influential within the Human Potential Movement. This was a collection of thinkers exploring ideas about how to unlock untapped potential, both individual and collective. It was influenced by thinkers like psychologist, Abraham Maslow, writer Aldous Huxley, and psychiatrists Fritz Perls and Viktor Frankl, to name a few. Having studied at Esalen, Whitmore then trained with Harvard tennis coach Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, which explored new ways to coach improvements in performance, drawing on some ideas from Eastern philosophy. Eventually Whitmore returned to the UK and started to bring these new ideas of performance improvement into the world of business. This was when he and others encapsulated their coaching methodology in the GROW model.
There is a general principal in coaching about separating content and process. Content is what the client brings with them. It is their life, their challenge, their opportunity. The client is the expert in their content, not the coach. Process is both the process of achievement and the process of coaching. The coach is an expert in the process. A coach can only ever give advice in the client’s content if they have relevant expertise in that content. This might then be more like mentoring, which is acceptable, providing the coach really is an expert. If you take football as an example, coaches here know about football, so they can tell players how to play. They do get involved in the content, but even then, many of the players they coach will be better performers than the coach ever was. From a coach’s perspective process supports them in successfully guiding the client through their situation or challenge. I tell coaches, no matter what the client brings to the coaching session, even if you have never seen it before, fall back on to process, and it will support you.
The GROW model allows the coach to take the client through an exploration of what they want to achieve, the GOAL. As they explore this the coach needs to ensure that the client’s mind coalesces around a well-formed goal. One that is simple, realistic, towards what they want, timed, and ecological. This will be informed by exploring the goal, relative to where the client is right now, REALITY. Next, they explore OPTIONS and choices the client has to achieve the goal. Here the coach needs to help the client ensure that all OPTIONS have been adequately considered. Throughout this process the coach must also use the GROW model flexibly. Whilst exploring the REALITY or OPTIONS, if it becomes necessary to re-examine the goal, then do so. The model is a supportive guide, not a straitjacket. The final step in the process is exploring the client’s WILL to take action. OPTIONS is about what could the client do and WILL is about what will they do. This exploration can uncover stuck states or limiting beliefs. Which again may mean a cycling back through earlier steps. Coaching is a solution focused discipline. The GROW model is designed to help the coach, to help the client take positive actions aligned with the achievement of their objective.
Within this process there are many skills a coach needs, like being able to build rapport, listening, questioning, understanding how people think and produce their behaviour, language, metaphors and analogies, reframing, and how to challenge or change beliefs. All of these are things that Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) teaches.
Don’t just go through life GROW through it.
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” Jim Rohn
