The Manager’s Coaching Toolkit: Fast and Simple Solutions for Busy Managers

History of the tool

I developed the COACH tool as an enhancement of the GROW model currently in widespread use in the coaching world. Sir John Whitmore was an early author to record and popularize the GROW approach. The model, however, has been criticized for lacking a stage wherein the coaching topic is clarified; the rather cumbersome TO GROW acronym was developed to get around this limitation. The addition of the necessity to create a hard copy action plan adds a useful degree of accountability, whereby the coach and coachee are very clear on what has to be done, by whom and by when.