CLEAR coaching model
The CLEAR model is a five-stage sequence for a coaching conversation: contracting, listening, exploring, action and review. Peter Hawkins is named as its originator. Hawkins and Smith's 2006 book is listed under Sources, but it was not read for this page. No outcome study of the model itself turned up in the sources checked, so the research shown here is adjacent.
What it is
A CLEAR conversation moves through five stages in order. First you agree what the conversation is for and how you will work together, which is contracting. Then the coach listens to your account of the situation. Next the two of you explore it from several angles, then choose an action. The last stage is review, where you look at what happened and what to change.
Each stage is described here in the order the sequence runs. This page makes no claim about why the stages are ordered this way, and the research below is about coaching in general, not about this sequence.
Where it comes from
Peter Hawkins is named as the originator, and Hawkins and Smith's 2006 book is listed under Sources. Neither that book nor any dated account was read for this page, so this page gives no date for the model's origin.
The principles underneath
Agree before you begin
The contracting stage makes clear what you want from the conversation, and what the coach will and will not do.
Listen before you explore
The listening stage gives your own account room before the coach moves to questions or options.
Review what the action taught
Each action is reviewed afterwards, so that what worked and what did not becomes part of the next round.
How a session runs
- Contracting: agree what the conversation is for, how long it will take, and how you will both know it has helped.
- Listening: describe the situation in your own words while the coach listens without steering.
- Exploring: look at the situation from other angles, including what may be getting in the way and what you have not yet said.
- Action: choose one step to take before the next session, and agree how you will carry it out.
- Review: at the next session, or at the end of this one, look at what happened and what to change.
When it tends to fit
- You want a clear structure for a single conversation, with an agreed end point.
- You are in a coaching relationship where it helps to agree expectations at the start.
- You find it hard to move from talking about a problem to choosing a step, and you want a sequence that keeps the conversation moving.
What the research shows
Evidence: Practitioner tradition — little or no outcome research
No outcome study of the CLEAR model itself turned up in the sources checked for this page. The nearest research is on coaching in general. Theeboom, Beersma and van Vianen (2014) report a meta-analysis that asks whether coaching affects individual-level outcomes in organisations; the title is the basis of this description. Hawkins's wider systemic approach to coaching, described in his team-coaching chapter (Hawkins, 2019), is a separate body of work from this five-stage sequence.
Where the evidence is thin: Coaching-wide evidence does not show that this five-stage sequence produces any effect. The book listed under Sources was not read for this page, so the attribution to Hawkins has not been checked against it.
Sources
- Hawkins, P., & Smith, N. (2006). Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy: Supervision and Development. Open University Press.
- Theeboom, Beersma & van Vianen (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology.
- Hawkins (2019). Systemic Team Coaching. In The Practitioner's Handbook of Team Coaching.
Where it stops
A fixed sequence can rush a conversation that needs more time with listening, or make it feel like a checklist. Let the stages flex when the person needs it.
Coaching is not a substitute for therapy. If a conversation surfaces trauma, depression or thoughts of harm, the right step is a qualified professional, not more coaching.
A money or legal crisis, or a situation where someone is in danger, needs specialist help before any coaching sequence.
Practices for this approach
- The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People
Goal, Reality, Options, Will — the four stages of a coaching conversation that builds ownership
- The GROW Coaching Model, Made Practical
The four stages, the questions that move each stage, and where the model is strong
- After-Action Review: The US Army’s Tool for Continuous Learning
A four-question debrief that turns experience into usable learning
- Feedforward: Future-Focused Feedback That Actually Changes Behavior
Replacing critique with future-focused suggestions — and the mechanisms behind it