9 MIN READ

The POSITIVE Model of Coaching

Getting People Excited About Their Goals

Use this tool to help team members identify the support they’ll need as they work towards their goals.

We can all get excited about our goals when we're interested in what we're doing, and when we're getting plenty of support and encouragement from the people around us.

So, how can you guide your team members so that they develop goals they'll be genuinely interested in for the long term? And how can you help them create strong networks of people who will give them support?

One way to do this is with the POSITIVE model of coaching – an eight-step framework that you can use to develop highly motivating goals with your people.

About the POSITIVE Model

Vincenzo Libri developed the POSITIVE Model of Coaching and published it in his 2004 article, "Beyond GROW: in Search of Acronyms and Coaching Models."

POSITIVE stands for:

Purpose.
Observations.
SMART.
Insight.
Team.
Initiate.
Value.
Encourage.

From "Beyond Grow: in Search of Acronyms and Coaching Models" by Vincenzo Libri in The International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching, Volume 2, Issue 1, July 2004. Reproduced with permission.

The model encourages people to come up with long-term goals that excite them. It also gets them to build a support network as they work towards their objectives. This makes it more likely that they'll reach their goals.

Tip:

When people need coaching to solve a problem or deal with a specific performance issue, other frameworks, such as Solution-Focused Coaching, may be more appropriate than this model.

Applying the POSITIVE Framework

Follow the steps below to use the POSITIVE model.

Step 1: Define Purpose

When you begin coaching someone, it's likely that she will already have a general idea of what she wants to achieve. However, she might not have a clear sense of how coaching can help her reach her objective.

To clarify this with her, use the following questions...