Checking that the client is happy. A verbal agreement is no good unless the person is also enthused or at least congruent in taking action on the goal. I’m constantly checking this by looking and listening for nonverbal cues, but at key points I also ask directly ‘Are you happy with this?’
Checking that all the bases have been covered. Exploring some areas in depth can mean that other areas are overlooked. The coach can help overcome this tendency by asking questions such as ‘Is there anything else you need to consider?’, or ‘Do you know enough to move forward on this?’.
Checking whether the coachee has taken action. If the coachee commits to doing something, you need to have an agreed means of reporting on this. Ideally the client should own this process, but the coach also needs to keep an eye on it, to ensure that things don’t get forgotten.
Checking whether the goal has been reached. This might sound obvious, but sometimes coachees can get so involved in working on a goal that they don’t register when they have achieved what they set out to do. Alternatively, they may have a sense of ‘problem solved’ but on closer inspection, there’s still more to do. So a coach can perform a valuable role by asking some probing questions towards the end of the coaching process, to check whether the client is happy with the outcome.
9. The GROW Coaching Model The GROW model is probably the most common coaching model used in business. It was devised by Sir John Whitmore and described in his book Coaching For Performance. It offers a way of structuring coaching sessions to facilitate a balanced discussion:
GOAL - defining what you want to achieve
REALITY - exploring the current situation, relevant history and likely future trends
OPTIONS - coming up with new ideas for reaching the goal
WHAT/WHO/WHEN - deciding on a concrete plan of action
In practice, since most coaching is driven by questions, this means that different types of question are used at each stage:
GOAL - questions to define the goal as clearly as possible and also to evoke an emotional response.
‘What do you want to achieve? What will be different when you achieve it? What’s important about this for you?’
REALITY - questions to elicit specific details of the situation and context.
‘What is happening now? Who is involved? What is their outcome? What is likely to happen in future?’
