Leadership Development Profile

The Harthill Leadership Development Profile (LDP)

We strongly believe that leaders who make the effort to understand their own Action Logic can significantly improve their ability to lead. In order to do that, it is important first to understand what ways of thinking inform your current leadership.

The Harthill Leadership Development Profile (LDP) is a work-related, personal and leadership development instrument developed and administered by Harthill. It has been empirically validated through extensive research. Over the past 10 years, we have administered the LDP to almost 4,000 leaders and professionals.

Individuals who wish to understand their dominant way of thinking can download a Sentence Completion Form (SCF) and receive their personal profile. You can take a short test online to provide a glimpse of your possible broad Action Logic orientation or you can complete the full SCF for a detailed Profile.

The aim of using the LDP is to support the developmental transformation of those who complete it and seek feedback. Individuals can deepen understanding of their LDP and establish a framework for their on-going development through an executive debriefing session with an authorised LDP coach. Harthill have trained and authorised more than 300 people across the globe to provide high quality debriefs on the LDP. To commission a debrief contact Lynn Draper

As a consultant or HR professional can I have others profiled?

Yes, but you must first become an authorised user by attending a Training Leadership 3-day Learning Intensive (opens the UK Training Intensive details).

Key predictive research findings on the nature of transformational leadership

The LDP is a powerful tool based on extensive developmental theory. This body of theory accurately describes distinctive Action Logics through which persons and organisations predictably pass as they become increasingly open to integrating action and inquiry.

Several published articles in our Resources section provide details and illustrations.

Research into the validity and reliability of the LDP has demonstrated the following key predictive findings:

1. The large majority of leaders report conventional action logics (Opportunist, Diplomat, Expert and Achiever). Around 15% of leaders report post-conventional Action Logics (Individualist, Strategist and Alchemist).

2. Post-conventional leaders are significantly more effective in generating and leading organisational transformations than conventional leaders. The least effective are the Opportunist and Diplomat; the most effective, the Strategist and Alchemist.

3. Only those leaders who transform to the Strategist Action Logic or beyond have the capacity to reliably and consistently innovate and successfully lead organisational transformation.

4. Teams with one or more members measured at the Strategist Action Logic have been shown to outperform teams with no Strategist.

5. The presence of post-conventional consultants makes a measurable difference to the outcome of an organisational transformation process.

6. Being embedded in ‘reliable certainties’, individuals at the conventional stages are significantly less likely to initiate seeking feedback and transformation. Conventional leaders take objectified social categories, norms, and power-structures for granted as constituting the very nature of reality, and typically do not recognise themselves as operating within a frame. As such, ambiguity, paradox, and the exploration of implied, underlying meanings are likely to seem nebulous and a waste of time, rather than being seen as clues to innovative agendas, fostering genuine collaboration, and initiating new stages of development.

For further information on accessing the LDP, please contact Lynn Draper