GROW coaching model worksheet: a fillable version, and where the answers go after the session

The GROW model is a four-stage coaching framework: Goal, Reality, Options, Will. A GROW coaching model worksheet puts those stages on one page, with a question and a blank each. Performance Consultants, whose founder Sir John Whitmore developed the model with his peers, publishes the stages and the questions.

That page credits “his peers” and names none of them. The Disruptive Leadership Institute names three codevelopers, Alan Fine, Sir John Whitmore and Graham Alexander, so the credit coaches repeat comes from everywhere except the source.

What is the GROW model of coaching?

It gives one conversation four steps: name the client’s goal, look at where things stand, open the options, settle what they will do. One question a stage below, because the long question bank belongs on its own page.

Stage	One question	Client’s answer
Goal	What would you like to achieve?	________
Reality	What progress have you already made?	________
Options	What options could you consider?	________
Will	What will you do, and when?	________

The first three are Performance Consultants’ own; the Will line turns their description of that stage into one.

Is there a PDF version of the GROW coaching Model?

Yes. Ohio State University’s Urban Extension publishes one as a printable PDF, GROW Coaching Model Worksheet, with sample questions under each heading, pulled 1 October 2026. Simply.Coach’s blog and LifeCoachHub advertise their own. Performance Consultants’ own page, the model’s source, gave me web text, not a file.

Where does a GROW worksheet live, and who fills it in?

It lives in one of six places, and that decides who writes afterwards.

Where it lives	Who fills it in (my read)	What the page says (pulled 1 Oct 2026)
Ohio State Urban Extension	the coach, by hand	”GROW Coaching Model Worksheet and Notes”, printable
The Coaching Tools Company	nobody: no blank	”30+ Free Coaching Tools, Forms & Resources”; the GROW page is a question bank
Notion Marketplace	the client, in Notion	”Life Coaching Worksheet: Setting GROW Goals”, by Mochi Productions
Simply.Coach	coach and client, in the platform	”Goal & Development Planning”, “Coaching Tools & Forms”; from US$9 a month billed annually
A general AI, asked for a worksheet	the AI, then you	blank
Ember	the AI the coach already uses	one box a stage, each with a prompt and a test

The AI row is blank: I ran no assistant output here.

Coaches ask assistants to rank GROW against CLEAR and Co-Active for corporate work. Performance Consultants calls GROW “one of the most widely used coaching frameworks”, which is their own claim about their product, and nothing I pulled compares the three. No page I pulled names a best model for corporate settings.

A worksheet the client fills in live does a job no report written afterwards can do. The handwriting is theirs, in the moment, and I would not give that up.

I build Ember, the last row, so read it as an interested party’s claim. The four stages become boxes you draw, each with its own prompt and standard, and the assistant you already pay for fills them (the box system). It is in closed beta, and no GROW template ships ready-made.

Print the four questions before the session. Who writes down what came out of it is a separate decision the worksheet will not make for you.

Questions people ask next?

Is the GROW model free to use?

Performance Consultants writes it as “The GROW ™ model”, and MyNavy HR’s GROW worksheet carries the line “GROW Model granted by estate of Sir John Whitmore and Performance Consultants International”. Not legal advice; ask the rights holder.

What is the difference between a GROW worksheet and a GROW question bank?

A worksheet gives one question a stage and a blank under it. A bank gives dozens: The Coaching Tools Company’s GROW page offers 79 or more, with tips and a recap. Use the worksheet in session, the bank the night before.

Do coaches actually use GROW in sessions?

One r/lifecoaching commenter calls GROW “the supra structure” and points coaches to a published question list. Another says the questions “work best when they lead to very small next actions”. Two accounts, not a rate.