🌳 GROW – W is for Will 🌳

Ruth Harrowfield – BA/BSc, MSc Hons, PGDip I/O Psych, PGDip Science (Cl. Psych)

How can you help your people to take a good idea and turn it into action? They’ve decided on an OPTION to reach their GOAL… What’s next?

Next – ask questions that help them work out specific actions they WILL commit to taking. This will establish motivation.

And I think you’ll find the conversation pretty energising yourself. Especially the part where you don’t have to do anything about their problem!

WILL is the W in the GROW model.

G Clarify their GOAL – the end point they want to get to
R Spell out their REALITY – where they are at now
O List their OPTIONS – all the ways they could get to their end point
W Decide what they WILL commit to – exactly what they will do

My favourite WILL questions from the G.R.O.W. model:
🌱 What are the first steps that you need to take?
🌱 How exactly will you do this?
🌱 When will you do this?
🌱 On a scale of 1-10 how committed are you to doing this?
🌱 What could stop you/get in your way? What can you do to overcome that obstacle?
🌱 When/How would you like me to follow up with you on this?

In NZ we don’t love to be pushy. Asking questions about exactly what someone else is going to do can feel like an interrogation.

But it’s all in the tone you use. Ask with actual curiosity and keep in mind that for them it’s energising to determine what they WILL do. They will walk away from the conversation with the momentum they need to actually do it!

______________

I’m Ruth Harrowfield, an organisational psychologist based in Auckland, New Zealand. Together with my partner, Sam, we run Harrowfield People Development, a strategic learning agency. We help business leaders who are unsure how to grow the people they want to hold on to, for the purposes of engagement, productivity and organisational growth.

Working to a specific client brief, we draw on the disciplines of organisational and behavioural psychology to determine and execute strategic and tactical programmes for personal and team development. We help business leaders to bring out the potential that they see in their people by shaping habits of thinking, communication and action in the workplace. Talk to us today.