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The GROW model

Whilst the GROW model is based on coaching, it can also be adapted for mentoring. It is usually more suited to individual one to one mentoring.

What is the GROW model

The GROW model was developed by Sir John Whitmore (1937-2017) in conjunction with colleagues in the 1980s and disseminated through his book ‘Coaching for Performance’ (Whitmore 2019), first published in 1992 and now in its 25th edition having been translated into 20 languages. GROW provides a framework for a coaching session, a conversation, a meeting or a project and is the best known coaching model in the world today:

GOALS (or objectives)

The mentee sets out their goal for the session, which might start out by being vague.

With the help of the mentor, these can be clarified so they they become clearer.
REALITY

The current situation, including any barriers to the goals that might exist, including a reality check to see if the mentee perceives the true situation.
OPTIONS The mentee is encouraged to look at a variety of alternatives and evaluate them.
WILL / WAY FORWARD The mentee chooses a course of action.


The GROW sequence illustrates the solution focus of coaching and breaks down like this:

Goal

The Goal section of GROW is addressed at the beginning of each session and referred to again from time to time to keep the focus moving forward, especially if the mentee becomes stuck. It raises energy and clarifies thinking. Identifying what we want to achieve puts us on the path to accomplishing it by focusing on the solution rather than the problem.

Some Goal questions are:

  • What do you want?
  • Over what time frame?
  • Where would you like to be on a scale of 1–10?
  • Imagine you have achieved it:
  • What do you want to achieve in five years/one year/three months?
  • How could you say your goal in a few words?
  • Which part of that is the real focus?

Reality

This is an exploration of the mentee’s world at the moment. Time spent here helps people get clear about what is happening and how it affects themselves and others. It provides an opportunity for viewing issues from different perspectives.

Some useful questions here are:

  • What is happening at the moment?
  • How important is this to you?
  • If an ideal situation is 10, what number are you at now?
  • What have you done so far?
  • What are you doing that’s working towards your goal?
  • What are you doing that is getting in the way of your goal?

Options

Mentees will move naturally towards the Options stage as their Reality becomes clearer. Then it is useful to ask some of these questions:

  • What are your options?
  • What could you do?
  • What else?
  • What steps could you take?
  • Who could help you with this?
  • Where could you find out the information?

Notice that most of these questions are almost all open. Keep asking open questions until the mentee has stopped coming up with options on the table. Once it seems that the list is complete, ask the closed question ‘is there anything else?’ to find out whether it is time to finalise the process. This question often results in new options and can be asked as many times as it continues to deliver results.

Will / Way forward

As opposed to ‘Options’, which brings to light all possibilities, ‘Will’ is about discovering which actions the mentee can commit to undertaking. When asked, ‘What will you do about this?’ there is a danger that the mentee will make a list of what they think they should do, rather than choosing a pathway which suits their talents and ways of behaviour.

Some examples of Will questions are:

  • What will you do about that?
  • How will you do that?
  • When?
  • What will it take for you to commit to that action?
  • Where will you find that?
  • Who will you talk to?
  • What else you could you do?

If the coach senses a lack of commitment, a question like, ‘How committed are you to doing that?’ should be asked straight away. If there is any hesitation, it is best to go back into the GROW process to clear any blocks and find the most comfortable way forward.

Flexibility of GROW

It is crucial to understand that the components of GROW do not necessarily follow that order; an effective coaching conversation usually starts by exploring Goal and Reality, but then moves about between all four elements.