The GROW coaching model was developed in the UK in 1988 by Sir John Whitmore. He wrote the book Coaching for Performance, which gave birth to today’s popular framework.

Using powerful questions, managers can use the GROW model to help boost their direct reports performance and enable them to creatively tackle challenges. Coaching differs from mentoring in that instead of offering advice taken from the coach’s experience, coaching aims to guide the coachee to find answers themselves.

GROW stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Way forward (or Will). Managers and leaders can structure their coaching sessions using this framework, and use powerful questions in each block to help their team members define and achieve their goals.