About 2200 years ago, Archimedes stepped into his bath and exclaimed “Eureka!” It means “I found it.”

At that moment Archimedes discovered a solution to a problem he had been pondering upon for a long time.

It was a moment of sudden discovery. The Eureka effect, it was a moment of deep insight. It’s an epiphany; the ‘AAHA!’ moment, that is Aim, Audit, Hash out and Act.

Consider Archimedes’ bathtub as your mind; the water as all the thoughts, beliefs, values, fears, emotions and everything else that is filled inside your mind.

Coaching is a process which facilitates the 'dip' that you take to explore that water, and brings your 'AAHA' moment to you; gets you your Eureka!

A coach helps you take the dip; helps you take a look inside yourself and takes you through the process of self-discovery of all the solutions which we believe is available with us already.

This process of ‘holy-dip’ and the discovering your AAHA! Moments is called ‘Coaching Conversations’

The popular 'GROW' model of coaching is one of the best ways to structure our coaching conversations. Let’s see how GROW helps us in discovering the AAHA!

G: Goal, the aim

I read this quote from J.P. Morgan, “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are”

At the ‘Aim’ step, you help your coachee to identify where is it that they want to be? What is the goal they want to achieve? At this step, we finalize the goal which coachee wants to work upon. As a coach, it is your responsibility to help the coachee think thoroughly and decide the goal which is important for them.

R: Reality, the audit

Audit: - We are calling it ‘Audit’ because here we help the coachee assess where he stands as at this moment; it’s like a self-audit. We help him dive into his beliefs, values, needs and review what steps has the coachee already taken with regards to achieving his said goal. We may also challenge the coachee at this stage by questioning what got them to this stage; what has worked for them, what are their strengths and what’s been in the way of them and their goal.

O: Options, the hashing out

Hash out: What happens when your desk, wardrobe, house, gets cluttered with so many things? Some are wanted; some are unwanted. Some are useful, some are totally useless. What do we do?

We hash out what we want; what will serve our needs, what is useful for us; and we do away with the un-resourceful items.

Similarly, as a coach, your responsibility is to help the coachee to hash-out the all the clutter in his mind.

The key is, empowering questioning and listening. You will help the coachee to shift from an un-resourceful state to a more resourceful state; from problem-focus towards solution focus; solutions, which the coachee feels work best for them. You can help them reflect upon what all they can explore that they haven’t, yet; options, which are in-sync with coachee’s values and beliefs.

W: Way forward, the action

Act: After the coachee has thoroughly evaluated all of his available options, you need to help them to form an action plan. This action plan has to come from coachee, and you help them by asking about when would they like to start working on this plan? What are the next steps they would like to take? Don’t forget to check their commitment levels and when you’ll follow-up on the progress.

As ICF defines it, coaching is all about partnering with your coachee in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential; you can facilitate self-discovery by using this AAHA! – The GROW model of coaching, and help your coachee fulfill their personal and professional goals.