GROW into your dreams ... a little insight to a coaching tool

I’m going to let you into a little secret here. In coaching, one of the tools we use is the GROW model and to help you start to understand coaching better, here’s a quick adaptation of a 20-30min coaching session exercise obtained from The Coaching Academy.

The idea of coaching is to provide the cutters for mental chains that hold you back, allowing you the freedom to explore all avenues. This is only a glimpse as coaches will listen to your replies and question further based on your replies.

GOAL

What do you want to focus on improving? This must matter to you and be something that you have control over.

go forward in time to when things are exactly as you’d like them to be in this area of your life
what would be happening that tells you this issue has been resolved? What would you be doing? Where might you be going? How might you be feeling?
how will you know when you’ve got there?
what’s the first step that you can achieve in the short term?
write it down as a ‘positive’ sentence (e.g “It’s Friday 10th May and I am skiing down the slopes” keeping to the theme!)

REALITY

Thinking about your goal...

what tells you that this is an issue at the moment?
what’s missing that you want? Be clear.
what’s good in your current situation that you want to keep?
what might stop you achieving what you wrote down you want?
what have you done before to overcome these sorts of obstacles?
when have you achieved something similar to this before?
what can you learn from all of this?

OPTIONS

Make a list of things that you COULD do that will move you closer to your goal. Let all thoughts flow.

if you actually believed in yourself fully, what could you do?
if you weren’t scared of anything, what could you do?
if others gave you space, what could you do?
what if you were advising a friend/colleague? What would you suggest?
look at your list, read through… what else?
write down two more

WILL/WAY FORWARD

select a couple and think specifically ‘what are the actions that I need to do to bring this option about’
if it’s too big, what are the components that you can break it down into?
what actions do you need to negotiate barriers within?
who else may need to be involved?
when’s a realistic time for you to complete those actions?
project yourself forward to when we have taken these actions. What will you be thinking, what will your inner voice be saying to you?
think about what you’ll be thinking, seeing, hearing or feeling, whatever is best for you?
how strong is your intention to take that step and carry out the action? Score yourself out of 10. If below 10, what would make it a ten?