THE GROW MODEL | STRUCTURE YOUR MENTORING SESSIONS

The GROW Model is a powerful four-step framework that helps you structure mentoring sessions in the most effective way. As a leader, one essential role is to coach your mentees to do their best. At the same time, mentees should be ready with the information to discuss upon, and should be receptive to the wisdom shared by their mentors. There is no particular way of doing it but the more the sessions are structured, the optimum results are achieved. One practical way to do so is by employing the GROW Model.

The Grow Model | the framework

While entering into a mentoring session, it is crucial to plan ahead of it to get optimum results. A mentee should respect her/his mentor’s time. Not that I didn’t know but I used to rely on my brilliant brain to store all the topics to discuss. Guess what? I used to forget half of it, and then used to wait for the next session only to forget the next set of questions. After I started writing down, it covered a lot of ground in the same one hour session. To take it to a more efficient level, I recently have explored the GROW model.

GROW is an acronym for G(oal), Current (R)eality, Options (or Obstacles), Will (or Way Forward). As a mentee, it is our duty to self-analyze first. What are our goals? What is the current situation we are in? What are the challenges that we are facing in order to achieve those goals? What are the ways that we can think of overcoming to become?

Yes, your mentors are always there to help you but instead of them telling you everything, the idea is to stretch our own limited thinking. Be accountable to your mentors and seek assistance from them. Foundation to all this is to develop a tremendous mentee-mentor relationship. It definitely is a two way street but there’s no denying that it is the mentee who seeks the mentorship instead of a mentor pushing the wisdom down.

A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. –Oprah Winfrey