COACHING BEST PRACTICES:
GROW ME MODEL
LWV Membership & Leadership Development (MLD) Program
May 2014
Today’s Agenda
 Housekeeping items
 Coaching? In League?
 Introduction to GROW ME coaching
model
 Best practices
 Taking it back…
 Q&A
Housekeeping items
•Lines will be muted.
•Please “raise hand” with
question or when you want to
speak.
•Identify yourself (name and local
League).
•Use the “chat” function for
questions and feedback.
Coaching? In League?
How can we support League
leaders?
How do we help to set
individuals up to succeed?
How do we create maximum
impact as an organization?
The growth of coaching practices is attributable
to a new focus on organizational leadership
development. Organizations with powerful
leadership development practices consistently
produce desirable long-term results. When
coaching is an effective element of an
organization's leadership development strategy,
long-term improvements--measured by profit,
cost--containment, or both--are the likely
business outcomes.
-Getting Value from Coaching:
Organizations improve their leadership development ROI when coaching links
directly to the strategy and performance.
by Mike Horne, Ph.D
Coaches are key...
Role of a Coach
Clarity of expectations:
• Guide
• Inform
• Cheerlead
• Mentor
What is the key
to success?
ASKING THE
RIGHT
QUESTIONS
Powerful questions
= Powerful answers
Why Ask?
Questions hold the power to cause us to
think, create answers we believe in, and
motivate us to act on our ideas. Asking
moves us beyond passive acceptance of
what others say, or staying stuck in
present circumstance, to aggressively
applying our creative ability to the
problem.
5 Reasons to Ask
1. All the info is with the coachee. The
local League is the resident expert on
that League. The coachee always knows
far more about the situation than the
coach.
2. Asking creates buy-in. People are more
motivated to carry out their own ideas
and solutions.
3. Asking empowers. Just asking can
empower people to do things they
couldn’t do on their own. Asking =
taking opinions and ideas seriously.
4. Asking develops leadership capacity.
Asking builds the responsibility
muscle and that develops leaders.
5. Asking creates authenticity. There is
no greater relational gift than to have
someone see the real you and value
it.
So many models, so little time…
“Conversational Coaching”
• Setting an agenda
• Defining the problem
• Creating a goal
• Exploring and developing
options
• Address obstacles
• Take action
GROW Model
• Most common or best known model
• Just a way to organize or structure the
conversation
• Focuses on concrete action so it is a good
model for getting “practical things” done
Goal  Reality Check  Options  Will
Goal
What do we want to accomplish?
- Clear, specific
Sample questions:
• What specifically do you want to accomplish?
• By when do you want to have this done?
• What will be different as a result of working
on this?
• How will we know when we’ve achieved it?
Reality Check
How are things now?
- Concrete facts about present situation
- Understanding our starting point
Sample questions:
• What have you tried already?
• Who else is involved in this situation/goal?
• What is the situation right now?
Options
What are the potential solutions?
- Think creatively; listen don’t suggest
Sample questions:
• What are five potential solutions?
• If you had unlimited resources, what would
your try?
• Who else can help?
• What have you seen others do that might
work for you?
Will
How can we turn our preferred “option” into
action steps?
- Concrete plans; high “buy-in”
Sample questions:
• Which option do you want to pursue?
• What step could be taken this week? This
month?
• What will you commit to doing?
• Who else will we enlist?
Is it higher than an 8?
Coaching is not always linear, but we can
try to add some definition.
• If the perfect outcome is a 10, where are
we now?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s the
motivation to do this?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
The “M” and the “E”
Monitor progress
Evaluate
Sample questions:
•What do you need to track to assess progress?
•Who is responsible for collecting/reporting
data?
•What tool will facilitate your monitoring and
evaluation practices?
•What is your “story of success”?
What does this look like…
SCENARIO:
Every other year, we hold a candidate forum for
the state representative candidates for our
district. We want to increase the number of
League members involved in planning and
executing this event.
Goal  Reality Check  Options  Will
GROW ME
What are our coaching
questions?
How do we get to the action
steps?
How do we monitor progress
or success?
What other resources might
be used or needed?
What does this look like…
SCENARIO:
At the same event, we want to increase public
attendance.
Goal  Reality Check  Options  Will
Practical applications…
Small wins are motivating.
What’s the smallest change that we can
make to have the biggest impact?
Coaching Agenda
•
•
•
•
OWNERSHIP: Local League’s own idea.
PASSION: Motivated to pursue it.
URGENCY: Need to act now!
SIGNIFICANCE: Will make a real difference and
worth sacrificing for.
Use O.P.U.S. to help you remember.
Heart of the MLD Program
With the support of a coaching
structure, capacity building for high
impact.
Member recruitment &
retention
Leadership development
Questions?
Contact Us
• Carol Reimers (reimersc@aol.com)
• Kelly McFarland Stratman
(kmcfarland@lwv.org)
• More information about MLD program:
membership@lwv.org