GROW is a top leadership tool that works across all disciplines and cultures. With its four deceptively simple steps, GROW has proven to be successful all over the world. It forms the backbone of coaching in many organisations globally, due to the outstanding results. It helps people to achieve success personally or as part of a team.
NOTE: The questions below are samples only and can be used as a guide to coaching discussions. You DO NOT need to ask all questions from each section – they are only a guide as to what you MIGHT ask
G – Goal
Coaching starts with establishing a goal. It could be a performance goal, a development goal, a problem to solve, a decision to make, or a goal for the coaching session. This is where the person writes down their goals so that coaches know what they want to get out of the session. For clarity of goal setting as well as consistency across your team, encourage your mentees to use a SMART goal format where the letters stand for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
The following 10 questions can help people gain clarity about their goals:
- What do you want to achieve from this coaching session?
- What goal do you want to achieve?
- What would you like to happen with ______?
- What do you really want?
- What would you like to accomplish?
- What result are you trying to achieve?
- What outcome would be ideal?
- What do you want to change?
- Why are you hoping to achieve this goal?
- What would the benefits be if you achieved this goal?
R – Current Reality
This step in the GROW model helps you and the person being coached gain awareness of the current situation—what’s going on, the context, and the magnitude of the situation. Let them tell their story. This is where the coach learns a little more about their mentee.
The key is to take it slow and easy with your questions. It’s not a rapid-fire interrogation. Let the person think about the question and reflect on their answers. Use active listening skills, as this is not the time to jump to solution generation or share your own opinions.
The following 20 questions could be used to clarify the current reality:
- What is happening now (what, who, when, and how often)? What is the effect or result of this?
- Have you already taken any steps towards your goal?
- How would you describe what you did?
- Where are you now in relation to your goal?
- On a scale of one to 10, where are you? What can you do to get to a ___ ?
- What has contributed to your success so far?
- What progress have you made so far?
- What is working well right now?
- What is required of you?
- Why haven’t you reached that goal already?
- What do you think is stopping you?
- What do you think was really happening?
- Do you know other people who have achieved that goal?
- What did you learn from _____?
- What have you already tried?
- How could you turn this around this time?
- What could you do better this time?
- If you asked ____, what would they say about you?
- On a scale of one to 10, how severe/serious/urgent is the situation?
- If someone said/did that to you, what would you think/feel/do?
O – Options
Once you both have a clear understanding of the situation, the coaching conversation turns to what the person can do to reach their goal. They can brainstorm options. Don’t, as a coach, fall into the ‘telling’ process, empower them to analyse choices as to how they can move towards their goal.
These 20 questions can be used help explore options and generate solutions:
- What are your options?
- What do you think you need to do next?
- What could be your first step?
- What do you think you need to do to get a better result (or closer to your goal)?
- What else could you do?
- Who else might be able to help?
- What would happen if you did nothing?
- What has worked for you already? How could you do more of that?
- What would happen if you did that?
- What is the hardest/most challenging part of that for you?
- What advice would you give to a friend about that?
- What would you gain/lose by doing/saying that?
- If someone did/said that to you what do you think would happen?
- What’s the best/worst thing about that option?
- Which option do you feel ready to act on?
- How have you tacked this/a similar situation before?
- What could you do differently?
- Who do you know who has encountered a similar situation?
- If anything was possible, what would you do?
- What else?
W – Will (Or Way Forward)
This is the last step in the GROW model. In this step, the coach checks for commitment and helps establish a clear action plan for next steps. The coach can help in identifying specific steps in an action plan towards achieving goals.
Here are 20 questions to help probe for and achieve commitment:
- How are going to go about it?
- What do you think you need to do right now?
- Tell me how you’re going to do that.
- How will you know when you have done it?
- Is there anything else you can do?
- On a scale of one to 10, what is the likelihood of your plan succeeding?
- What would it take to make it a (10)?
- What obstacles are getting in the way of success?
- What roadblocks do you expect or require planning?
- What resources can help you?
- Is there anything missing?
- What will one small step you take now?
- When are you going to start?
- How will you know you have been successful?
- What support do you need to get that done?
- What will happen (or, what is the cost) of you NOT doing this?
- What do you need from me/others to help you achieve this?
- What are three actions you can take that would make sense this week?
- On a scale of one to 10, how committed/motivated are you to doing it?
- What would it take to make it a 10?
References:
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/coaching-questions-for-managers-2275913
https://www.performanceconsultants.com/grow-model
FURTHER IDEAS
The following comments and/or questions may be also be used by coaches as a guide to start discussions with the referee that you are coaching either before the game to determine goals, work ons etc, or after the game to get the referee thinking and speaking about self-analysis of the game and strategies for further improvement.
Pre-Match
Why have you chosen that goal(s) for me to try to help you achieve?
What process did you use to come up with those three game goals?
How long have you been working on that goal? What have you done so far to achieve it? What have other coaches suggested that have helped you?
What have you done differently to prepare for this game for this game?
What do you personally want to achieve?
Post-Match
What did you try differently today to better achieve Goal (1)? How did today’s outcomes differ from in the past?
Are you able to identify any specific incident in the match that led to a high impact moment? (Yes/No) What about the incident where ….? Let’s talk about that.
Let’s move on to Goal (2). What did that look like today?
I really liked the way you …. Tell me about why that works for you.
You did really well when …..
What did you want from the players at (scrum set)? How did you convey this message, and did it achieve the outcome you wanted? Why/why not?
What about ….., talk to me about that.
How could that have been achieved?
You’ve identified lots of useful things there – let me try to summarise them for you…..
So, how can you modify your goals for the future? When might you see yourself putting that into practice?