Becoming a leader or having leadership qualities is the best thing people needs in business worlds as well as in their routine life. Some scholars says that “leaders are by birth” and this is true to some extent but one can also become a leader by learning some techniques and adopting some qualities. The most important role of a leader is to coach people or team to do their best. Leader helps people or team in making better decisions, solve problems that are serving as a barrier to progress, learn new skills, and how to progress in their careers.
Some people are lucky who get formal training in coaching. However, many people have to develop important leadership skills themselves. You may think it’s difficult but if you will learn some proven techniques, practice, and if you will trust your instincts, I am sure you can become a great leader or coach. In this article I will tell you about GROW coaching model which will really help you to become a good leader.
What is Grow Model
The GROW Model is a simple four-step powerful framework for structuring your coaching or mentoring processes.
GROW is an acronym which stands for:
- Goal.
- Current Reality.
- Options (or Obstacles).
- Will (or Way Forward).
The grow coaching model was originally developed by performance coach Sir John Whitmore in the 1980s, two other well-known coaches Graham Alexander and Alan Fine also helped him in developing this model.
To practically implement the whitmore GROW Model here we take an example of planning about a journey. If you want to go on a visiting spot in your coming vacations, first of all you need to decide where you will go (the Goal), and your current location is (your current reality).
Now there are various ways and means (the options) to reach on your decided location. In the final stage, you will establish the will, and you will make commitment about making the journey, as well as you will prepare yourself for the obstacles that you could meet on the way.
How to Use the Grow Model?
Following steps are required to structure a coaching and mentoring process by using the GROW Model:
Establish the Goal
In first step you need to define the goal. You and your team member should look at the behavior that you want to change. This desired change will be the goal you want to achieve.
You should make sure that your goal should be SMART always. SMART goals refer to Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
At this stage a coach should ask questions like:
- How will you come to know that team members have achieved defined goal?
- How will you know that the underlying problem or issue is solved?
- Does this goal suited for overall career objectives?
- And does defined goal fit with the team’s objectives?
Examine the Current Reality
In this step of the GROW model you need to ask your team member to describe their current reality (position).
This is an important step but usually people try to reach a goal or solve a problem without fully considering their starting point. If you will not clearly examine current reality of team you probably miss some information that is required to achieve the defined goal effectively.
When your team members will tells you about their current reality, you will find the better solution.
In this step the following useful coaching questions should be asked:
- What is current situation and what happening now, coach need to diagnose the situation via five W’s that are what, who, when, where and how often?
- What will be the effect or result of current reality?
- Have team members already taken any steps towards defined goal?
- Does your defined goal conflict with any other goals and objectives?
Explore the Options
Once you and your project team have recognized the current reality, now it’s time to determine what is possible? In this step you need to know the possible options for achieving defined goals and objective.
Coach should help team members in brainstorm as it will result in as many good options as possible. Then, discuss all possible solutions and select the best ones.
At this stage coach should make final decision but let your project team member offer suggestions first. When team members will think that they are involve in final decision then they will do their best to achieve the defined goals and objectives.
Following are the exemplary questions of grow model to explore options:
- What else could you do?
- What if a particular constraint were removed?
- Would removed constraint change things?
- What will be the expected consequences of each option?
- What you will consider to weigh the options?
- What problems stand in the way to achieve goal?
Establish the Will
After examining the current reality and finding the best options to achieve defined goal, your team member will now have a good idea of how they will achieve defined goal. Team members should now committed with specific actions to move forward toward is order to practically attain defined goal. In this stage for establishing goal you need to inspire, encourage and motivate your team. Praise cost nothing but it means a lot so you should never miss a chance to pass a compliment for encouraging your team member.
Some useful coaching questions for this stage are as under:
- So, what will you do now, how you will move forward?
- What else will you do to proceed better?
- What constraint could stop you moving forward?
- How will you overcome constraints?
- How can you be committed and motivated?
- On which basis you need to review progress?
Finally, decide a meeting when you and your team will review the progress. This will provide chances of accountability, and if there are some flaws in plan or original plan is not working you can change the approach.
Summing up all, if you want to become a coach or if you are already a coach you can use the GROW coaching model to help team members in improving their performance, and to help them planning to achieve defined goals and objectives of the organization.
