In an earlier post, we shared how to use the GROW Model to coach employees. In this post, let’s look at a mini case study of a manager who utilized the GROW model to help an employee work toward achieving his goal of becoming a supervisor in the organization.
A mini case study
Jane is a manager of a group of 15 customer service representatives. During a recent one-on-one meeting with one of her team members, James, to discuss his goals over the next few years, he mentions that he is interested in moving into a supervisory role. James tells Jane that he would like to start now in doing what he needs to do to be able to achieve his goal. Jane talks to James about his current reality. James…
- has only been with the organization for three years, having started right out of college.
- has shown his ability to be proactive by looking at how he can improve the processes used to get work done within the group.
- has shown his ability to be a team player by proactively reaching out to new employees to help them to “learn the ropes.”
- needs experience managing other people.
Jane collaborates on a number of options with James that will help him to achieve his goal within the next two to three years. Together, they choose the following:
- James will lead a new project that will be launching in the department within the next month. This will provide him with experience in leading others.
- Jane will train James as a mentor so that he can take on a formal mentoring role with new employees in the department.
- James will take the lead at a least two monthly team meetings with a focus on leading discussions around problem solving as well as brainstorming with the team.
Additionally, Jane will reach out to her peers and see about getting James involved in a cross-functional initiative so he can build relationships and work closely with others outside of his own department.
James is willing to undertake these initiatives toward achieving his goal, while continuing to do his day-to-day work. Jane develops an action plan with James along with regular “check in’s” to see how he is progressing.
In this mini case study, through the use of the GROW Model, the manager works collaboratively with one of her employees in order to develop an action plan that will enable him to achieve his professional goals – in this case, taking on a supervisor role within the organization.
