Early in my career, I co-authored a coaching model called the Goal, Reality, Options, and Way (GROW) Model that has become widely adopted. For decades, business leaders, coaching advocates, and individuals have been taught to use GROW as a way to make progress toward their goals.
As gratifying as this wide adoption has been, some things have come into sharper focus over the years. First, educating people on the model doesn’t mean they will actually use it; second, even if people do use the model, it doesn’t mean they will apply it everywhere it could be helpful; and third, even when people apply it frequently, it doesn’t mean they use it skillfully.
I’ve come to believe that one cause for these things happening is our approach to getting people to use it often contradicts what we know about changing behavior. We take a training approach–giving employees information about the GROW model for a few hours–to getting people to use the model when we already know that a coaching approach is the best way to create real changes in behavior.
In a sense, GROW could be thought of as an underperforming asset, which of course raises the question: How can we get a greater return on investment out of the GROW model? We have learned there are three things that seem to help companies and individuals get the most out of their use of the GROW model:
1. Coach coaching
2. Coach for ownership
3. Reframe how we think about coaching
First, Coach on Coaching
Organizations want coaching to become part of their company culture because it supports employees in finding ways to solve their own problems. It’s the old adage: “Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime.”
One of the reasons coaching can be so powerful is that it brings discipline to what people focus on and it does it over time. There’s a reason we don’t send our children to a one-day violin workshop and expect them to walk away skillful. We know they need repetition and feedback to improve. And yet we send people to a one-day training on coaching expecting a significant change in performance even though part of the power of coaching is that it happens over time and allows for repetition and feedback.
When we “train” people in coaching, it is easily seen as a tool to be used at a manager’s discretion (interestingly, the most common reason managers say they don’t coach is they don’t have time). At best, managers say they will try to have monthly coaching conversations. What this means is that the rest of the time they are only having “regular” conversations where managers continue problem solving for their employees and telling them what to do.
Instead of training people to be more coach-like, we need to coach them to be more coach-like. This means creating the opportunity to learn over time with the opportunity for repetition and feedback. Anything less is to ignore the very reason for coaching to exist!
Second, Coach for Ownership
Done well, coaching increases accountability on the part of the person being coached–not only to the organization or the leader/manager but, much more importantly, to themselves. High performance doesn’t show up when people comply with their boss’ wishes (we may get adequate performance, which should not be confused with people doing their best stuff). High performance occurs when people are committed to making things happen when they take ownership of their deliverables in the context of creating the result more than pleasing their boss.
When employees become accountable to themselves, they start to do things not because they know it’s the right thing for their boss, but because they know it’s the right thing for themselves and for the organization as a whole. Coaching is a powerful way to help people take ownership and move from compliance to commitment.
Third, Reframe How We Think About Coaching
Coaching usually isseen as a discrete activity; for example, something that is done every Thursday morning. Of course, there is a place for this type of formal coaching conversation. However, thinking coaching only occurs this way allows people to abdicate their responsibility for being coach-like in any and every conversation they have. Being coach-like means things like having agreed-upon goals, helping people arrive at their own solutions, and creating psychological safety so people can examine their own thoughts and feelings–all of which create measurable improvement. The more we move from discrete coaching conversations to coaching in every conversation, the more we tap into the power of coaching.
Another reframe on coaching–specifically in regards to the GROW model–is to think about it as a checklist. For instance, pilots and surgeons use checklists every day as part of their job. These are smart, skillful, and experienced people who know how to do their jobs. The value of a checklist for them is that it ensures the necessary minimum gets done (especially under stress), frees up mental space, brings discipline to their activities, and saves time. Ultimately, checklists have been proven to save lives. When you think that every conversation we have has some kind of impact, and how often we would like to have a “do-over” for some conversations because we know it could have gone better, having a checklist is a way to keep conversations on track (this includes the conversations in our own minds–the ones we have with ourselves all day!). GROW, and the basic set of questions that go with it, is a checklist to reduce the possibility of things going off the rails.
The last way to reframe coaching is to shift away from the mindset that people need to be “fixed” in order to succeed. The best coaches in our lives were usually people who believed in us even when we didn’t believe in ourselves. They saw our potential and our ability to learn and that helped us recognize the same. They honored and respected us, and sent us a message that they believed in us.
Simply training people to use the GROW model can have an impact on coaching conversations, but coaching them to use the model will increase that impact significantly. Managers who make this shift can see dramatic results.
