GROW Model for Personal and Professional Coaching

Coaching for Performance:
GROWing Human Potential
and Purpose book

There are many versions of the GROW coaching model out there.  I like Goals, Reality, Options, and Will in representing the acronym.  Why?  “Options” sound more positive than the possible alternative word Obstacles.  Also, the word “Will” makes it more personal and implies being motivated to take action. 

Goals = Where you want to go or what do you want to be? (See also SMART goals.)

Reality = Where you are now, what do you currently know, which necessary skills do you already possess?

Options = How will you get there, what new knowledge must you gain, what stands in your way, who can help you?

Will = What will reaching your goals do for you, what actions do you need to take to reach them and when, how will you know when you have accomplished your growth?

The original GROW model is credited to performance coach and author Sir John Whitmore with development sometime in the 1980s.  Although other coaches may have also helped to develop it and continue to refine it to meet the needs of the people they work with. In some versions of the model and to prompt additional questions for the individual being coached: O is updated to include Obstacles to overcome and/or W is changed to Way-forward or Wrap-Up. (See also video on GROW model, Coaching for Performance (on Amazon #ad), and download free GROW template.)