Introducing the Leadership Success Profile: A New Chapter in Leadership Development

30/06/2025 -

Sara Dewar is a Principal Lead within the Leading to Change team

At Leading to Change, we are proud to unveil the new Leadership Success Profile (LSP)—a thoughtfully designed framework to support and develop leaders across Scotland’s social work, social care, health, third and voluntary sectors. This marks a significant step forward in our commitment to nurturing leadership that is inclusive, adaptable, and digitally responsible.

What is the Leadership Success Profile?

The LSP is a practical and insightful tool created to support leaders at various stages of their journey—from those aspiring to lead teams, to those leading departments or functions, it’s also relevant for those working in specialist roles. It is designed to be flexible and relevant across different contexts and organisational settings, including integrated services and operational roles up to aspiring director level.

Built on three core clusters — enabling outcomes, shaping cultures, and empowering systems—the LSP focuses on behaviours, personality, values, motivation, and transition requirements. It aligns with the six Leadership Capabilities and complements local leadership models, offering a shared language and structure for leadership development across sectors. You can explore our Leadership Success Profile Guide or find out more on our website.

Tools to Support Your Journey

To help leaders make the most of the LSP, we’ve developed two key tools:

For individuals – Leadership SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire): This updated tool is aligned with the new profile and provides an instant development report. It highlights strengths and areas for growth across nine leadership dimensions, offering practical suggestions to support ongoing development.
For organisations – 360 Feedback Tool: Designed to gather insights from managers, peers, direct reports, and other relevant colleagues, this tool will be made available over the summer with enhanced features and alignment to the LSP. David Taylor will be offering update training on the new tool for those using this in their organisation.

For note: If you have completed previous SAQs or 360 Feedback reports, you can still view and download these. You can tell the difference as the new tools have the prefix ‘Leadership; i.e. ‘Leadership Self-Assessment Questionnaire’ and coming soon, ‘Leadership 360’.

These tools are free to use and are intended to support personal development planning and career progression.

Digital Enhancements for a Seamless Experience

In line with our commitment to digital responsibility, we’re making significant updates to the Leading to Change app and website. These improvements ensure that leaders can easily navigate between their SAQ results and relevant learning opportunities.

Key updates include:

A simplified registration process to make it easier for new users to get started. This will also be available to current users.
Enhanced accessibility across all platforms, meeting WCAG 2.2 standards.
Updated webpages dedicated to the Leadership Success Profile, our updated app and new versions of helpful tools. We will continue to develop these over the summer.
Improved data processing and security, and users’ greater control over their accounts and preferences. These updates will come live in the early Autumn and we will contact all registered users about this in advance.

The app will feature the new Leadership SAQ alongside existing reports and tools from 30th June. Over the summer, we’ll be preparing for an autumn launch of a refreshed in-app experience. This will include an LSP based Leadership 360 Feedback and updated Career Conversation tools, personalised learning recommendations, and a more intuitive ‘My Learning’ area.

To facilitate these changes, current tools will be suspended with a gradual release over the summer months to support demand. We are working closely with partners to ensure a smooth transition and continued support for leadership development.

A Commitment to Digital Responsibility

These updates reflect our broader strategy to be a digitally responsible, responsive, and relevant provider of leadership development. We are aligning with national and NES digital learning strategies, and planning for future integration into a Once for Scotland platform when appropriate.

Our digital improvements are not just about technology—they are about ensuring that every leader, regardless of role or sector, has access to high-quality, accessible, and secure development tools.

Get Involved

We are actively engaging with stakeholders across the system to raise awareness of the LSP and explore how it can be used in different contexts. If you are part of an organisation supporting social work, social care, or health in Scotland and would like to explore how to use our tools, please contact us at nes.leadingtochangeconfidential@nhs.scot.

We offer training for administrators and facilitators, and all our tools and support are free.

Looking Ahead

The Leadership Success Profile represents a new chapter in how we support and grow leadership across Scotland. By combining a robust development framework with accessible digital tools, we are helping leaders build on their strengths, plan their careers, and lead with confidence.

We look forward to sharing more as we connect with those early adopters and keen learners to find out how to continually develop and improve the Leading to Change LSP experience.

If you would like to hear of new developments or updates linked to the Leadership Success Profile you can use this link or the QR code below to join our early notification list.

Sara Dewar

Role:: Digital, Communications & Engagement Lead, Leading to Change Delivery Team.

Sara is a coach and people development specialist in executive and leadership development, coaching, talent management and engagement. Over her career she has led on a range of digital learning projects and currently holds a hybrid leadership role encompassing communications, engagement and digital for the Leading to Change programme of work. Coming from the private sector, she has embraced the chance to work with social work, social care, health and third and voluntary sectors, and is passionate about opening up opportunities to engage with and support leaders at all levels across these sectors.

All information regarding our contributors was correct at the time of publishing.