The GROW model is a simple model, it is particulary helpful for novice managers and coaches who want a thumbnail check on where there are in the session. Erroneously, the model is often attributed to our dear friend, now passed, Sir John Whitmore, who told me as a face-to-face meeting that he had not invented the model.
GROW stands for Goal, Reality check, Options & Will, Where, When, What, Who (and how)
The model is NOT sequential since many coaching conversations move back and forth as the individual gets increasingly conscious about the strengths and limitations of their thinking, motivations and goals. As with all models, the aim of the user must be to become so thoroughly competent, that the model is forgotten – this helps the manager/coach to maintain the highest-possible attention on the individual rather than indulging in their own thoughts and reducing their ability to follow the individual’s process. The model does not make ’emotion’ overt though it is nominally part of ‘Will’. We believe that emotion is at the heart of motivation and de-motivation and hence emotion can be more widely acknowledged at all stages of the coachee’s journey. Hence the creation of our own STEPPPA Model, where ‘E’ stands for ‘Emotion’.
McLeod, A. 2009