GROW Model

The GROW model came out of performance coaching in 1980s Britain

Alexander, Fine and Whitmore were applying ideas from sports coaching to business. Whitmore's book Coaching for Performance made GROW the best-known coaching model in organisations, and it is still taught in most manager-as-coach courses.

Its core belief is that people perform better when they find their own answers. The structure exists to keep the conversation moving, while the questions keep ownership with the person being coached.

The four steps of GROW, with questions for each

1. 01

   Goal: what do you want?

   Agree what this conversation is for and what success would look like. "What would you like to have by the end of our time?" "How will you know it has worked?"

2. 02

   Reality: what is happening now?

   Explore the facts, what has been tried and what is in the way. "What is happening at the moment?" "What have you already tried?" "What is your part in this?"

3. 03

   Options: what could you do?

   Generate choices before judging them. "What else could you do?" "What would you advise a colleague in your position?"

4. 04

   Will: what will you do?

   Turn one option into a commitment. "What will you do, and by when?" "What might get in the way?" "On a scale of one to ten, how committed are you?"

Example: a manager coaching a team member with GROW

Imagine a team leader whose analyst keeps missing reporting deadlines. Instead of telling her to try harder, he asks what she wants (to submit on time without working late), explores the reality (two late data feeds from another department), invites options (agree new cut-off times, flag delays earlier, automate one step) and asks what she will do first. She chooses to meet the other department herself, and owns the solution.

The common mistakes are rushing Reality and treating GROW as a script

Many managers race through Reality to reach Options, because solving feels productive. Yet the Reality stage is often where the person sees something new, and skipping it produces tidy plans that miss the real problem.

GROW is also not a fixed sequence. Good coaches loop back, for example revisiting the goal once reality is clearer. And it is not a disguise for giving advice: if the Options stage is full of your ideas, it is no longer coaching. My own coaching method uses a wider journey, but the same principle holds: I ask questions rather than tell you what to decide.