Vertically Developmental Coaching at Harthill

Why at Harthill we believe coaches urgently need to pay attention to their own and their clients’ vertical development


Global society and the organisations working within that system are going through a period of exponential and existential shift.

Humanity is constantly evolving new ways of understanding the three key domains of being – what we at Harthill call the ‘I’, ’We’ and ‘It’. The domains of self, community and system. We are challenged by our need to recognise and celebrate diversity and divergence. We are exploring new understandings of identity and self designation. We are evolving from a top-down institutional collective to a peer distributed collective. We are uncertain about our future relationship with technology and Artificial Intelligence.

At many, many levels our lives, relationships and organisations are becoming more complex. And because of this we believe that to adequately hold space for our clients as they successfully navigate this increasing complexity, those of us who coach can benefit immensely from learning to see ourselves, the world and our practice through different eyes.

To pay attention to our own, and to our clients’ vertical development.

The journey towards a new sort of Accreditation


After almost three years of research, consultation, experimentation, conversation and planning we have seen something emerge in our thinking that we feel can, along with several other similar initiatives, be of service to the wider field of coaching.

Not as a replacement for what already is, but as another lens that can be brought to the craft; another viewpoint to offer to our clients. A new coaching modality.

We call it Vertically Developmental Coaching, and we’ve unpacked it a bit below.



Why at Harthill we believe coaches urgently need to pay attention to their own and their clients’ Vertical Development

Global society and the organisations working within that system are going through a period of exponential and existential shift.

Humanity is constantly evolving new ways of understanding the three key domains of being – what we at Harthill call the ‘I’, ’We’ and ‘It’. The domains of self, community and system. We are challenged by our need to recognise and celebrate diversity and divergence. We are exploring new understandings of identity and self designation. We are evolving from a top-down institutional collective to a peer distributed collective. We are uncertain about our future relationship with technology and Artificial Intelligence.

At many, many levels our lives, relationships and organisations are becoming more complex. And because of this we believe that to adequately hold space for our clients as they successfully navigate this increasing complexity, those of us who coach can benefit immensely from learning to see ourselves, the world and our practice through different eyes.

To pay attention to our own, and to our clients’ Vertical Development.

The journey towards a new sort of Accreditation
After almost three years of research, consultation, experimentation, conversation and planning we have seen something emerge in our thinking that we feel can, along with several other similar initiatives, be of service to the wider field of coaching.

Not as a replacement for what already is, but as another lens that can be brought to the craft; another viewpoint to offer to our clients. A new coaching modality.

We call it Vertically Developmental Coaching, and we’ve unpacked it a bit below.

Key Elements of Vertically Developmental Work


For their work to be truly Transformative, a coach needs to evolve a much deeper and expanded view of their craft. In our developmental work with coaches we seek to help them nurture and build greater capacity to create for their clients (both individual and team) a truly generative space within which their inquiry yields a more expansive space of insight, wisdom and understanding, In order to do this we seek to help coaches develop five additional core areas of practice.

The Leadership Development Profile

The Leadership Development Profile

A Harthill Accredited coach will be Authorised to use the LDP, the most globally recognised and widely used  ‘meaning making’ psychometric profiling tool currently in use. The LDP provides a reliable map of an leader’s Action Logics and key insights into how they might work with them to enable transformational systemic change. 

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3 Meaning Making Capacities

3 Meaning Making Capacities

Three core capacities underpin the development of a leader’s Action Logics. Each is deliberately developed according to the context, interests, needs and unique developmental edge of each leader. Our coach development activity is geared around enabling coaches to facilitate their clients’ work in building ever increasing familiarity with and expansion of these capacities. 

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7 Transformational Capabilities

7 Transformational Capabilities

Having profiled almost 13,000 leaders across the world using the LDP, our research points to seven transformational leadership capabilities. Again, each can be deliberately developed according to a leader’s interests, needs and unique developmental edge; and again, the focus of Harthill’s work is to create a broad coaching ecosystem in which these capabilities are encouraged to flourish.

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Harthill Developmental Inquiry

Harthill Developmental Inquiry

This profoundly different developmental approach is a practical way for leaders to intentionally develop their meaning-making in their day to day leadership and life. Developmental Inquiry is the frame through which immediate needs, recurring patterns, deeper reflections and transformative conversation are explored and resolved. All our coaches are experienced guides in this process.

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Developmental Practices

Key Elements of Vertically Developmental Work

For their work to be truly transformative, a coach needs to evolve a much deeper and expanded view of their craft. In our developmental work with coaches we seek to help them nurture and build greater capacity to create for their clients (both individual and team) a truly generative space within which their inquiry yields a more expansive space of insight, wisdom and understanding.
In order to do this we seek to help coaches develop five additional core areas of practice.

The Leadership Development Profile

The Leadership Development Profile

A Harthill Accredited coach will be Authorised to use the LDP, the most globally recognised and widely used  ‘meaning making’ psychometric profiling tool currently in use. The LDP provides a reliable map of an leader’s Action Logics and key insights into how they might work with them to enable transformational systemic change

Button
3 Meaning Making Capacities

3 Meaning Making Capacities

Three core capacities underpin the development of a leader’s Action Logics. Each is deliberately developed according to the context, interests, needs and unique developmental edge of each leader. Our coach development activity is geared around enabling coaches to facilitate their clients’ work in building ever increasing familiarity with and expansion of these capacities

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Harthill Developmental Inquiry

Harthill Developmental Inquiry

This profoundly different developmental approach is a practical way for leaders to intentionally develop their meaning-making in their day to day leadership and life. Developmental Inquiry is the frame through which immediate needs, recurring patterns, deeper reflections and transformative conversation are explored and resolved. All our coaches are experienced guides in this process

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7 Transformational Capabilities

7 Transformational Capabilities

Having profiled almost 15,000 leaders across the world using the LDP, our research points to seven transformational leadership capabilities. Again, each can be deliberately developed according to a leader’s interests, needs and unique developmental edge; and again, the focus of Harthill’s work is to create a broad coaching ecosystem in which these capabilities are encouraged to flourish

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Developmental Practices

Some of the benefits of becoming a Harthill Accredited Coach

Free access to several CPD
events each year

Benefitting from a genuinely post-conventional approach to the supervisory relationship

Your personal presence on the
Harthill website

Publishing opportunities in our new Harthill journal

Access to the LDP helpline for ideas, strategies and support in landing your coaching offering with clients

Working longitudinally with your own Action Logics and a Harthill mentor

Becoming an Accredited Coach is a THREE step journey

Each step is a standalone entity, but dovetails with the other steps to form a clear pathway towards Accreditation.
We offer alternate approaches to Step 1 for those who have completed Approved Prior Learning programmes.
These take the form of customised inquiry-based sessions and we run them as and when we encounter an identifiable participant cohort.

3 Meaning Making Capacities

STEP 1: Complete the Advanced Diploma

A nine-month inquiry-based Harthill Diploma in Vertically Developmental Coaching, geared towards equipping you to author your transformational coaching philosophy and practice.  

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7 Transformational Capabilities

STEP 2: Complete the LDP Authorisation Programme

The internationally renowned Harthill LDP Authorisation Programme has to date been completed by more than 730 individuals in over 25 countries. We run both online and face to face cohorts.

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Harthill Developmental Inquiry

STEP 3: Join a Harthill Supervision Community

A post-conventional approach to supervision and CPD in which your Practice becomes a personal and professional inquiry ecosystem for yourself and your clients. 

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