Use Self-Coaching to Seriously Level up Your Career
By: Matt Saunders
Tags: Self Help, Productivity, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Coaching

“Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance” ― John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance

Applying the GROW model

What GROW enables you to do is set goals and work toward them. The model empowers you to think in a different way — one that focuses on a forward direction rather than distraction and deviation. Let’s break it down:

1. G = Goal

Most people have trouble setting goals. Some fear failure, others simply don’t know how. GROW provides a framework for goal-setting.

When working with a coach or self-coaching, it’s important to understand that the goal is really central to the whole process. Again, unlike talking therapies or other such interventions, coaching is for those who broadly know what they want, but aren’t sure how to get it, or are overwhelmed by choice. Let’s look at a few goal examples:

I want to retired by 55

I want to hire my first member of staff

I want to reach £10k monthly income by the end of the year

Goals can be quite lofty. They can be short or long term. It doesn’t really matter — what matters is having one.

The coaching process helps by asking good questions about your goals. Let us take the last example, I want to reach £10k monthly income by the end of the year. A coach might ask you the following questions:

What’s motivating you to achieve this goal?

Fast-forward 12 months, how would you feel if you reached this goal?

How challenging do you feel this goal is?

These are vital questions to ask because your goals can never become reality unless you explore your reasons for having them. Otherwise, they remain as pipe dreams. Try asking yourself similar questions and see what interesting thoughts emerge.

2. R = Reality

The second step of GROW is in examining your reality. The purpose of this stage is to understand what you’ve already tried, or haven’t tried, and to find out where the blockers are. Continuing with that same 10k question, a coach might ask:

How much do you currently make each month?

What activities bring in the most money?

How effectively are you spending your time?

What additional resources do you need?

What problems have you faced so far?

You might note that we never ask a question that can be answered by “yes” or “no”. This is called a closed question and these should be avoided because they can effectively end the dialog. “What additional resources do you need?” is a better question than “do you need additional resources?” because you need to think about the answer.

The reality step empowers you to consider your achievements, as well as your failures, and helps add form to the next step.

3. O = Options

Discussing your options is where the magic happens. It’s what gives you direction and lights up your motivation. So far you’ve established your goal and assessed your reality, now’s the time to think big. What opportunities lay before you? A coach might ask these questions:

What could you do to increase your income this month?

Who could you ask for help?

How would you advise a friend with the same goal?

What would you do if you couldn’t fail?

What haven’t you tried?

These open-ended questions are designed to level-up your thinking. Coaching is the opposite of getting bogged down in details and problems, with each strand of conversation intended to move toward the next step: your action points.

Discussing your options is where the magic happens. It’s what gives you direction and lights up your motivation.

4. W = Will (or way forward)

How great is the GROW model? So far we’ve established our goal, looked at our reality and discussed the options that could take us toward this goal. This final step, the will, consolidates our conversation into clear actions.

Many people fail to realise their dreams because they set nebulous goals. You can’t action what you can’t pin down. But the GROW framework brings us nicely to our way forward:

What will you do?

When will you do it?

How confident do you feel?

What support do you need?

What could stop you from taking these actions?

This final step is all about self-accountability. It is you, writing down exactly what you will do to move yourself toward the goal. Coaching can be fairly introspective in that it explores how you feel about a given task and encourages you to consider what you need (or don’t need) to happen in order to complete it. A coach will never hold you accountable: it’s your life, and you need to follow through on your action list to reach the goal you set earlier.