How to grow with the T-GROW coaching model

by Mervin Straughan
June 2020

Setting goals is a serious business. Like playing chess, it works best if we embark on it with an overarching objective, a clear strategy and an understanding of the proactive and, when necessary,
the reactive moves that will bring success.

There are several tools for getting us off the starter’s blocks. A model favoured by many life coaches is T-GROW which provides the process – an understanding of where we are, where we want to get to, what needs to be done and how we know we've arrived.

The model was developed in 1984 by Graham Alexander and brought to wider attention when published by Sir John Whitmore in his book Coaching for Performance eight years later. It works in the following way:

T – topic. The first step is to explore the area of our lives we feel needs change – career, finances, health, physical surroundings, relationships etc. (the Wheel of Life provides a great diagnostic tool for this).

G – goal. Once we've identified the challenging area, we frame our goal/s within a positive statement.

R - reality. Now it's time to stand back and examine closely and objectively all aspects of the situation. How much control do we have over it? Where are we in relation to our goal? Who else is involved or needs to be involved? What resources do we have at our disposal?

O - options. It’s often tempting to see a potential route and jump at it when, in fact, there might be a range of possibilities. We need to spend some time looking at the range of options for getting us moving towards our goal.

W – what next/what's the way forward? Having decided on the best option, we get to work on developing our action plan. This will incorporate the SMART philosophy of ensuring that what steps we take are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. And we’ll decide how we will celebrate our successes. At this point, we can gauge the strength of our intention by asking, on a scale of one to ten our level of commitment to this course of action.

It’s a good idea for goal setters to regard the T-GROW model as a continuous process because the “W” stage can feed back into the “T” as we look at our next area for change. It also allows us to gain feedback.