Leadership Assessment

Assessing senior executives thoroughly and fairly in a constructive and positive manner, whilst benchmarking them against the right peers, is challenging.

The challenge of assessment

When it comes to external candidates, many search consultants will only interview individuals for an hour, of which some of the time may be discussing the client's brief. For internal candidates, senior leaders may already have preconceptions and may not have the time or the aptitude to probe to the extent necessary.

Furthermore, candidates are likely to be selling themselves and may not truly understand the implications of fulfilling the role to which they are applying. On the other hand, some just do not interview well even though they may be excellent in the job.

Seeing through the superficial layers to the character, skills, and potential of individuals takes experience, time, and a professional eye. It also takes skill to articulate the uniqueness of the leader in an accessible and succinct way in a candid report.

How we can help

With deep assessment skills honed over many different situations and cultures, we can provide a dispassionate and independent perspective and can help in several scenarios, including:

• Advising on the selection between internal candidates for a senior post
• Appointing to new roles in a company merger situation
• Providing a thorough assessment of the finalist candidates surfaced through a search firm
• Assisting new owners to appoint their executive leadership team
• In private equity, the management due diligence prior to a bid
• Supporting a leadership development exercise, to help individual executives understand themselves better