I’m giving the GROW model a spin. As someone dealing with executive dysfunction, such a system of concrete goal-setting and problem solving might do wonders. A quick summary:
A concrete measure of success. “A better manager” is too vague to quantify. “My team and I complete our weekly planning meetings in half their current time” is achievable.
Where things stand, including the unpleasant truths. “Morale on my team is low” doesn’t say much. “We’ve had the same complaints come us every retrospective for six months and counting” presents a tangible circumstance.
What’s preventing achievement of the Goal. “Not enough support from the higher-ups” is too general. “My developers spend half the day waiting on under-provisioned AWS instances to finish deploying” shows exactly what blocks the road to success.
How the Obstacles might be overcome. For example: “Give QA their own server instances so that they can break them with abandon without disrupting the developers’ work” or “Set aside Fridays as dedicated ‘training days’ for junior developers and new team members.”
The specific steps necessary to achieve the Goal. “Sell more subscriptions” doesn’t translate to action. “Spend half the advertising budget promoting the new campaign across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, then double-down on the one with the best ROI” turns into results.
With all of that explained, I will dedicate a follow-up post to how I’ll use the GROW model to improve the rate at which I apply the GROW model itself.