Learn2 Leadership Tool
The GROW Coaching Model: 21 Questions for Every Step
Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward. The questions that let the other person find the answer.
Most coaching turns into advice. The leader solves it, the other person nods, and nothing changes. GROW gives you questions in order, so the person you coach builds the plan and owns it.
A walk through the GROW coaching model, step by step.
Goal: What do you want to achieve?
- What's on your mind?
- What's your overall objective? What could that let you do?
- What are you prepared to do to achieve it?
Reality: Where are you now?
- What's happening now? Describe the situation.
- What are some possible causes?
- How does it affect you? Others? Overall performance?
- What have you done about it so far? What happens if no action is taken?
Options: What could you do?
- What is the best and the worst option, and why?
- Who else could add a helpful view?
- What does the ideal outcome look like?
- What other ways could you reach it?
- What worked well in similar situations?
Way Forward: What are the next steps?
- What is your preferred approach, and why?
- What action is the smallest, easiest and most productive?
- What obstacles might you expect? How could you prevent them?
- When are you going to start?
Follow up with feedback
Run GROW again after the action, so feedback builds the next step.
- Goal: What feedback would be most useful for you?
- Reality: How did it go? What could you stop, keep or start doing?
- Concerns: What could you do differently next time?
- Options: What did you learn? How could you improve?
- Way Forward: What specifically will you do differently?
Try it today
In your next one-on-one, ask only questions for the first ten minutes. Use one question from each GROW step before you offer a single idea.
Questions leaders ask
What is the GROW coaching model?
GROW is a four-step structure for coaching conversations: Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward. The coach asks questions in that order so the other person finds the answer and owns the plan.
Who developed the GROW model?
Sir John Whitmore made the GROW model widely known in his book Coaching for Performance, building on work with Graham Alexander and Alan Fine in the 1980s.
What are good GROW coaching questions?
Goal: What do you want to achieve? Reality: What's happening now? Options: What else could you do? Way Forward: When are you going to start? The full list for each step is on this page.
How do managers use the GROW model in a one-on-one?
Ask only questions for the first ten minutes, one step at a time. Resist the urge to solve it. Close with the smallest next action and a date.
Can you use GROW for feedback?
Yes. Run it again after the action: what feedback would help, how did it go, what could you do differently, and what will you do next.
Build it with your team
High Impact Coaching
Leaders coach each other with GROW on a real 90-day project, so the questions become a habit.
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See how your team communicates
The same words land four different ways on one team. The free Team Diagnostic gives you a report on how each person prefers to hear a change, a concern or a coaching question. It takes about five minutes.
Start the free Team Diagnostic