4.4. Questioning
Tips; Questions you can use when implementing the GROW model
Goal
- What is important to you right now?
- What do you want to achieve?
- What areas do you want to work on?
- Describe your perfect situation
- Describe your 10/10
Reality
- Where are you now in relation to your goal?
- On a scale of 1 -10 where are you?
- What has contributed to your success so far?
- What progress have you made so far?
- What is working well right now?
- What obstacles/ barriers are you facing?
- What is the real issue here?
Options
- What are your options?
- How have you tacked this/ a similar situation before?
- What could you do differently?
- If anything was possible, what would be your ideal course of action?
- What would work for you?
- What skills/knowledge/attributes do you have that would help the situation?
Way forward
- Which options work best for you?
- What one small step are you going to take now?
- What actions will you take?
- When are you going to start?
- Who will help you?
- How will you know you have been successful?
- On a scale of 1 -10 how committed /motivated are you to doing it?
- Which option most excites you?
- How will you ensure you do it?
It’s worth noting that questions should avoid starting with the word “why”. The reasons for this is that questions that start with the word “why” tend to imply judgement of some sort and this may change the thought process of the student being coached/mentored. To give a concrete example: If you ask the student “Why do you want to take this particular approach?”, the student might think that his/her approach is wrong, and another approach is better. So even if it is a valid question that will result in an open response, the student being coached get his/her defences up and not respond the way you had hoped. A suggestion on how to rephrase the question above is “What is the motivation behind choosing this specific approach”.