The GROW Cheat Sheet

The 4-step coaching process you can take yourself through.

These questions form the basis of a coaching approach.

STEP 1: GOAL

DEFINE YOUR GOAL - Questions to spark inspiration about where you want to be.

  • What is the ideal outcome for you?

  • What do you really want to happen?

  • If I have a magic wand, and I could make anything happen for you, what would you want to take away from this coaching session today?

  • If you were to bump into me on the street in 3 years time and say “Omg since that coaching session we had my life has changed so much! Let me tell you about my amazing life as it is now...” What would be telling me?

  • What would be the best result for everyone involved?

  • What would it mean to you to achieve this goal?

STEP 3: OPTIONS

DEFINE YOUR OPTIONS - Questions to open up your thinking about how you could move forward.

  • What are ALL of your options for moving forward? Write ALL available paths down.

  • Could there be more options available? Often we think there are just a couple of options available to us because our brains tend to think in duality (right/wrong, us/them). But the truth is there are endless ways in which we can deal with situations in our lives. So try to free yourself, and explore other potentialities.

  • What are all of the bad ways you could deal with this? (This helps to open up creative thinking and sometimes gets more good options on the table too!)

  • Imagine a wise guide who has deep knowledge about the world: Someone you can respect and trust. Take the deepest breath you’ve had all day, close your eyes and picture this wise guide being with you. Take another deep breath. What advice would they give you? Take a moment with this one. You will surprise yourself if you do this properly.

STEP 2: REALITY

DEFINE YOUR REALITY - Questions to clarify your current position, and motivate you for change.

  • What is your current reality like regarding this issue?

  • What’s the main challenge for you?

  • What have you done to address this issue so far?

  • How are you finding your current situation to live with?

  • Could your current situation be better?

  • What’s getting in your way or blocking you from getting what you really want?

  • What’s the worst thing about your current situation?

  • What’s the worst potential consequences of not taking any action regarding this issue?

STEP 4: WILL & WAY FORWARD

DEFINE YOUR WAY FORWARD - Questions to solidify your willingness & an action plan.

  • How willing are you to move forward with this issue, on a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the highest)?

  • If the score you give yourself on the question above is 7 or below, what would make the score higher for you?

  • Having explored all of your options in the previous step, what will you actually do?

  • Who stands to benefit from this way forward?

  • How will they benefit?

  • Looking at your chosen way forward, break up the plan into very small steps (this is key for the dopaminergic system in your brain, which gets us motivated!). Break each point on the plan up into smaller steps until you can’t make the tasks any smaller. This is how you create a realistic action plan.

  • What’s the very first thing you will do?

  • When will you do it?