Search is only useful if the leader who fits actually performs. We work with clients on the assessment, calibration and development of leadership — the incumbent layer, the proposed successor, and the new arrival.
Clients come to us for advisory work in several situations. Assessment of internal candidates being considered for a senior promotion. Calibration of external shortlists already identified by a board or hiring committee. Deep-dive reference work on a final candidate before an offer. Structured support for a new senior hire through the first 180 days. And periodic reviews of leadership team effectiveness.
Our approach combines structured interviews, behavioural review, reference deep-dives, and external market benchmarking. The output is a written assessment that tells the client what we are sure about, what we are not sure about, and what to test for in the next conversation.
Search alone tells the client who can do the job. Advisory tells them whether the candidate will, in this context, with this team, under this board. The combination of the two is what makes the appointment more likely to work.
Advisory engagements are often run alongside a search by the same team. The value compounds: the people who built the shortlist are the people best placed to assess the finalists, calibrate against the market, and support the onboarding.
Assessment is most useful when it is honest about uncertainty. The strongest leadership reports we write are the ones that tell the client what we are not sure about, and what would need to be true for the candidate to succeed. Confident reports are easier to write but less useful.
Reference work is often the difference between a confident hire and a wrong one. We do references ourselves — with people we know, in conversations that are not transactional — because what people will say to a stranger and what they will say to us are different.
Advisory engagements have a longer time horizon than search. The work continues after the appointment, often quietly. The clients we are most useful to are the ones who treat advisory as an ongoing conversation rather than a one-time engagement.