Grow Leadership Model: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Grow Leadership Model, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. Raise awareness and build responsibility simultaneously
   Help the person see their situation more clearly while also connecting them to their ownership of it.
   The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People
2. Model the values you expect (idealized influence)
   Become a living example of the values you want your team to hold.
   Transformational Leadership, Made Practical
3. The GROW Coaching Model, Made Practical
   GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) is a structured four-stage conversation framework that guides a person from a clear goal through an honest assessment of current reality, to a generated set of options, and finally to a committed action. It is the most widely used coaching model in executive and workplace coaching; evidence is primarily practitioner consensus and observational, not randomized controlled trials.
4. The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People
   The GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will/Way Forward), popularized by John Whitmore’s Coaching for Performance, is the most widely used coaching conversation framework. It works by sequencing a conversation from goal clarity through honest reality assessment to option generation and commitment — resisting the coach’s instinct to jump straight to advice. Evidence is clinical rather than from controlled trials, though the underlying principles map onto well-supported psychological mechanisms.
5. Use GROW in brief leadership conversations, not just formal coaching sessions
   Apply GROW structure to 5-minute hallway conversations and 1-on-1 check-ins — not only to hour-long coaching sessions.
   The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People
6. Put the growth of others first
   Start from "how do I help this person succeed?" rather than "how do they help me succeed?"
   Servant Leadership, Made Practical
7. Lead from the relationship building domain — hold the team together
   People strong in relationship building are the glue that holds a team’s cohesion under pressure.
   Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
8. Identify your dominant leadership strengths — and lead from them
   Know which of the four leadership domains you naturally operate from and amplify it rather than trying to be equally strong in all four.
   Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
9. Treat each person as an individual with distinct needs and aspirations
   Know what each team member needs to grow and provide support tailored to them.
   Transformational Leadership, Made Practical
10. Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
    Strengths-based leadership, developed by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie building on Gallup’s decades of manager research, holds that the most effective leaders invest in their own strengths and build teams whose combined strengths cover all four leadership domains — executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Gallup’s correlational research consistently finds that strength-focused teams report higher engagement and performance, though the causal direction is not fully established.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I give my team a sharp, accurate read on what’s going wrong and exactly how to fix it, and they nod and walk away→
• I stand up and tell my team what we value, but I’ve started to wonder whether my own choices actually match the words→
• I only ever coach in the rare formal sit-down and then default to firing off answers in every quick hallway exchange→
• I catch myself walking into every one-on-one asking what I need out of this person, and almost never what would actually help them grow→
• Where I come alive is in the human glue→

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.