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Executive Search
Leadership Assessment
People decisions with significant organizational, financial, and cultural stakes.
Korn Ferry
Spencer Stuart
SHL Group
Heidrick & Struggles
Inside this journey
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Pre-Discovery
Align key stakeholders on decision criteria, timeline, and evidence requirements.
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Stakeholder Alignment
Confirm decision roles, timeline, confidentiality needs, and what evidence each stakeholder requires to approve senior leader recommendations.
Alignment Questions
Opening: Quick Introductions — Who’s in the Room?
- Please confirm your name, role, and the single most important outcome you want from this assessment partnership.
- Which executive population are we focused on right now (titles, business units, or levels)?
- How have similar leadership decisions (promotions, succession, integrations) been made here in the last 2–3 years? Brief example.
- Who will be our day-to-day point of contact and what authority do they hold to gather information and schedule assessments?
Who Really Holds the Keys?
- If one person could veto any recommendation, who is it — and what usually motivates their veto?
- Please list the decision-makers and influencers we must engage (name or role). Mark all that apply.
- How does the group typically reach a final decision—consensus, majority, CEO final, or committee approval?
- Where do decisions most commonly break down in your organization—technical evidence, politics, timing, or trust in external advisors?
- Can you share an example of a prior decision that derailed—what happened and who eventually resolved it?
What Will Move Them? — Evidence That Actually Persuades
- Which one type of evidence has most convincingly converted a skeptic in your leadership team (e.g., simulation results, benchmark percentiles, performance history)?
- Thinking across stakeholders, which 3 evidence types are non-negotiable for them? (select up to three)
- How granular do reports need to be to satisfy your board/committee—high-level recommendation, competency-by-competency detail, or raw-item transparency?
- Are there specific metrics or threshold values (e.g., top 25% benchmark, minimum cognitive score) that would normally trigger approval?
- Who among stakeholders needs narrative examples (behavioral vignettes) versus numeric scores to feel convinced?
When Does This Need to Be Done? — Calendars, Consequences, and the Clock
- Imagine decision-day is fixed—what is the hard deadline and what event forces it (CEO succession, M&A close, board meeting)?
- What are the milestone dates we must hit to meet that deadline (shortlist, assessments, validation, final reports)?
- How flexible is the timeline if we need more evidence—can decisions slip weeks, months, or not at all?
- What internal calendar conflicts or events could unexpectedly compress or expand the schedule?
- If a deadline is missed, what are the likely downstream consequences (e.g., interim appointment, deal delay, reputational risk)?
Promises We Must Keep — Confidentiality, Consent & Candidate Experience
- What would a confidentiality lapse cost you—practical, reputational, or legal—if a candidate’s candidacy or results leaked?
- What consent or data-use requirements must we meet before assessing senior leaders (e.g., written consent, legal notices, union rules)?
- How would you like candidate communications handled — direct from our assessors, co-branded messaging, or routed through your HR team?
- Are there candidates who require special accommodations, anonymity, or an altered assessment experience? If so, how long has that been a concern?
- What retention, anonymization, or deletion policies must we follow for raw data and final reports?
What 'Good' Looks Like to Each Stakeholder
- If each stakeholder group had to sign an approval memo, what are the top 1–2 signals each would require to sign in favor?
- For the CEO, what outcome is most meaningful—speed of fill, certainty of fit, or protecting team stability?
- For the Board or Comp Committee, how important is independent validation versus internal HR recommendation?
- How will you measure the success of the decision 6–12 months after implementation (specific KPIs or qualitative signals)?
- Who needs to receive the final reports, and in what format do they prefer to consume recommendations (presentation, written report, private briefing)?
Risks, Red Lines, and Escalation Paths
- What would be a dealbreaker that would cause you to reject our recommendation outright?
- Are there regulatory, compliance, or contractual constraints that could block a promotion or placement?
- If one stakeholder strongly disagrees with the assessment findings, what escalation path do you expect—re-review, independent second opinion, or final arbiter?
- Have you had past cases where a recommended candidate was rejected despite strong data? If yes, what drove that decision?
- What safeguards or transparency steps would make stakeholders more comfortable accepting an evidence-based recommendation?
Agreement on Next Steps — Commitments, Inputs, and Timelines
- If we leave this conversation with one shared commitment, what single thing would be most valuable to secure right now?
- What documents or data will you provide to help us benchmark candidates (org charts, performance reviews, comp data)?
- Who needs to be briefed before assessments begin, and what approval do we need from legal or leadership to proceed?
- What cadence of updates would you prefer during the process (weekly checkpoint, milestone summaries, ad-hoc calls)?
- Please confirm the person responsible on your side for final sign-off of the scope, timeline, and candidate list.
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Current State Mapping
Document existing succession and promotion processes, talent data sources, prior assessment outcomes, and gaps in leader readiness.
Current State
The Leadership Story You're Telling Today
- To start, how would you briefly describe the current leadership bench and succession readiness in one sentence?
- How many senior roles (VP and above) are currently in active succession plans?
- Which upcoming events are driving your focus on succession right now? (select all that apply)
- Who will be the primary audience for the assessment outcomes (select all that apply)?
- What's been the most common route to promotion for senior leaders here (short description of process/practices)?
Who Actually Decides — and What Do They Believe?
- If you had to guess, whose private opinion most shapes promotion decisions — and is that the person you'd expect?
- Which decision roles are formally defined for promotions in your organization? (select all that apply)
- When stakeholders disagree about a candidate, how are tie-breaks or final calls typically resolved?
- What specific types of evidence does each decision role typically require (e.g., performance metrics, psychometrics, references)?
- How confident are you that evidence expectations are aligned across those decision-makers?
- Share an example where mismatched expectations between decision-makers changed an outcome — what happened and why?
What’s the Real Evidence We're Using?
- If an external reviewer audited your talent data, what would they find most surprising or concerning?
- Which data sources do you rely on for senior leader decisions? (select all that apply)
- How would you rate the completeness and recency of your leader data overall?
- How often are assessment or simulation results refreshed and reused in decision cycles?
- Who owns and curates leader data, and how accessible is it to decision-makers when they need it?
- Describe any specific data quality issues, blindspots, or missing evidence you've encountered lately.
Are We Just Assuming Readiness?
- How often have promotions been made despite later doubts about readiness — and what were the root causes?
- Which failure patterns have you observed among promoted leaders (select all that apply)?
- What signals or metrics do you currently use to declare a candidate 'ready' for the role?
- Have you measured how well assessment predictions aligned with post-promotion performance? If yes, what did you learn?
- What are the tangible human and business costs when a promoted leader isn't ready (examples or estimates)?
- How receptive are senior leaders to independent external assessments vs internal judgement calls?
Where Do Candidates Fall Short — And Why?
- What hidden capability gaps keep catching you by surprise when you look deeper at high-potential leaders?
- Which competencies are most frequently missing for the next level? (select up to three that matter most)
- How do past development interventions (coaching, rotations, stretch projects) map to later readiness outcomes in your experience?
- Do you see systematic bias in who gets groomed for senior roles (e.g., function, demographic, network)? Please describe.
- What internal constraints most limit development of successors (select all that apply)?
- Share a recent anonymized case where a development plan succeeded or failed — what were the deciding factors?
What Would 'Ready' Feel Like to Your Board and CEO?
- If the board asked for a one-line definition of a 'board-ready' candidate, what would it say — and would the CEO agree?
- Which measurable signals would most convince your board/CEO that a candidate is ready? (select all that apply)
- How important are normative comparisons (benchmarks against peers) to your decision-makers on a scale of 1–5?
- Would stakeholders accept probabilistic readiness statements (e.g., 70% likelihood of success), or do they require categorical yes/no certainties?
- What style and level of reporting has historically built credibility with senior audiences (e.g., narrative summaries, scorecards, live briefings)?
If We Were To Change One Thing, What Should It Be?
- What single change to your assessment or succession approach would most reduce promotion risk in the next 12 months?
- Which investments would likely move the needle fastest for you? (select up to three)
- How much time and budget could you realistically allocate to improving candidate assessment this year?
- Describe what success would look like in six months if we partnered — what observable changes would you expect?
- Who must be involved for these changes to stick (names/roles), and what will be their top concerns or objections?
- How would you prefer we share an initial snapshot of findings and recommendations?
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Outcome Discovery
Define the specific decisions (promotion, succession, integration), measurable success signals, and role success profiles to drive assessment design.
Discovery Questions
Start: What Brought You Here — Tell Us the Moment
- In one sentence, what event or decision triggered you to seek an external readiness assessment now?
- Which of these best describes the immediate trigger for this work?
- How soon does a decision need to be made (or when does the board expect an answer)?
- Who will be the ultimate decision-maker(s) and which forum will they use (e.g., Board, CEO, Talent Committee)?
- If you could wave a wand and solve one problem this assessment must fix, what would it be?
Why This Moment Matters — The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong
- What would you say is the single biggest organizational risk if the wrong candidate is promoted or selected?
- Which business outcomes would be most immediately affected (select up to three)?
- Can you share a past example where an internal promotion or hire missed expectations — what were the early indicators?
- How tolerant is your board/CEO for a development-to-promote approach versus needing someone who is immediately ready?
- Emotionally, what would a poor decision do to your team’s morale, your credibility, or your relationship with the board?
The Decision We’re Designing For — Define the Actual Choice
- Are we designing this assessment to inform a promotion, succession, role integration, or another decision?
- How many roles and how many candidate profiles are we evaluating in this engagement?
- Is the decision binary (promote / do not promote) or layered (promotion + development plan + conditional milestones)?
- Who beyond the final approver will use the assessment outputs to act (HR Business Partners, direct managers, development coaches)?
- What objection or internal politics do you anticipate when this evidence is shared? Please name likely critics and their core concern.
Signals That Will Tell Us We Got It Right — Measureable Success
- What are the top 3 measurable signals that would prove this assessment led to a successful decision?
- For each chosen signal, what is an acceptable threshold or timeline for seeing it (e.g., sales +10% within 12 months)?
- Which short-term behavioral indicators should we look for immediately after deployment to signal right-fit (e.g., decisiveness, stakeholder engagement)?
- How important is statistical benchmarking (e.g., percentile against peer norms) versus qualitative narrative recommendations in your decision-making?
- Who will be responsible for tracking those success signals post-decision and how will accountability be structured?
The Person You’re Imagining — Building a Role Success Profile Beyond the JD
- If the job description were insufficient, what three traits or capabilities must the future leader absolutely demonstrate in their first 12 months?
- Which competencies must be evidence-backed (select all that need psychometric or observed simulation proof)?
- Describe an ideal behavioral example (a story) that would convince you someone possesses a critical competency—what did they do and what was the outcome?
- How would you weight technical domain expertise versus leadership behaviors and cultural fit for this role?
- Are there non-negotiable ‘deal-breaker’ experiences or qualifications we should screen out early?
Who Needs to Be Persuaded — Audience, Evidence & Tone
- Which stakeholder's approval is the hardest to secure and why?
- What types of evidence does each skeptical stakeholder trust most (quantitative benchmarks, narrative case studies, third‑party validation, live simulations)?
- How confidential must the process remain at different stages, and who should have access to raw assessment data?
- What report formats and delivery styles will land best with your decision-makers (one-page scorecards, executive memos, full psychometric appendices)?
- Who should present results to the decision forum — an internal sponsor, our lead assessor, or a joint presentation?
What Could Undermine Confidence — Risks, Biases and Political Fault Lines
- What internal biases or historical patterns could cause stakeholders to dismiss objective data (e.g., favouring tenure, charisma, or internal networks)?
- Which of these risks are most likely in your context and deserve pre-emptive mitigation?
- How transparent do you want us to be about limitations of the data (e.g., sample size, cultural considerations) when presenting to stakeholders?
- What early warning signs would indicate the process is being co-opted by politics rather than evidence?
- If a decision goes against the assessment recommendation, how should we capture learnings to refine future assessments?
Timing, Candidate Experience & Practical Constraints
- How much time can candidates realistically give to assessment activities without disrupting core operations?
- What tone should candidate communications take—transparent and clinical, coaching-oriented, or high-level confidentiality-first?
- Are there mandatory accommodations or accessibility needs we must plan for (time zones, language, disability access)?
- Do candidates need to consent to sharing full reports with the board, or should we provide redacted/high-level outputs?
- Who will own scheduling and candidate liaison on your side (name and role)?
Evidence Standards — Benchmarks, Instruments & Credibility
- How important is it that instruments and norms are industry- or role-specific versus broad executive norms?
- Which forms of evidence will convince you of validity (psychometric validation reports, longitudinal outcome studies, normative sample size)?
- Do you have any prohibited instruments or data sources we should avoid (e.g., personality inventories you distrust)?
- What minimum benchmark percentile would you consider 'competitive' for a promoted candidate (e.g., top 25%, top 10%)?
- How much weight should independent assessor credibility (external reputational capital) carry versus the content of the report itself?
Next Steps & Working Rhythm — How We’ll Move From Evidence to Decision
- If we propose a phased approach (shortlist assessment → deep assessment → board briefing), which phases do you want to include?
- What timeline milestones are non-negotiable (e.g., candidate availability windows, board meeting dates)?
- Who on your team will be the day-to-day partner for our assessors, and who will be the escalation point?
- How would you like draft findings delivered for review—confidential working draft, stakeholder rehearsal, or final-ready report?
- Realistically, how ready are you to proceed once the assessment design is agreed—immediately, within 30 days, 30–90 days, or longer?
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Solution Experience
Translate the customer’s needs into how psychometrics, simulations, and benchmarking will answer the decision questions using candidate examples and expected report outputs.
Experience Meetings
- Solution Experience Kickoff — Problem & Outcome Alignment
- Candidate Example Walkthrough — Instruments & Simulations Mapping
- Benchmarking & Report Preview — What Decision-Makers Will See
- Validation, Acceptance Criteria & Next Steps
- Schedule the Assessment Scope kickoff meeting with identified owners and invitees.
- Benchmark Cohort Design
- Client accepts the benchmarking cohort logic and confirms relevance to their comparators.
- Stakeholders agree the report pages provide actionable evidence for each decision question.
- Define distribution and redaction rules to meet governance and confidentiality needs.
- Agree preliminary thresholds for readiness categories tied to decision outcomes.
- Seller to supply full sample report PDF and a one-page board summary for client review.
- Client to confirm desired benchmarking cohort filters (industry, function, level).
- Seller to propose score thresholds and rationale for review and sign-off.
- Scoring Integrity & Assessor Calibration Plan
- A validated plan for scoring checks and assessor calibration that the client accepts.
- Clear, signed acceptance criteria for final reports and decision thresholds.
- Agreed timeline and owners for assessment execution and reporting.
- Explicit client validation of the solution experience preconditions and readiness to proceed to Assessment Scope.
- Seller to circulate the scoring integrity checklist and assessor calibration schedule.
- Client to sign off on acceptance criteria and timelines (or provide revisions within 3 business days).
- Introductions & Objective Check
- A single agreed one-sentence current-state statement signed off by stakeholders.
- Quantified consequences (cost/risk) associated with making the decision without robust assessment data.
- A one-sentence future-state outcome and prioritized decision questions that will drive assessment design.
- Clear pre-work list and owners to enable the next meetings (candidate roster, role success profiles, consent status).
- Client to provide one-sentence current-state statement and supporting evidence/data.
- Client to supply prioritized decision questions and initial success signals list.
- Seller to draft a short confirmation document capturing current state, consequence, and future state for client validation.
- Candidate Set & Role Profile Review
- Confirm the instrument portfolio and justify each instrument against explicit decision questions.
- Validate that example candidate outputs produce the signals the client expects for decision-making.
- Agree acceptable assessment burden and executive experience approach to secure candidate buy-in.
- Identify any gaps where additional measures or custom simulations are required.
- Seller to finalize and share the assessment instrument list mapped to each decision question.
- Client to provide any existing candidate assessment artifacts to be integrated or compared.
- Seller to draft any required custom simulation briefs and sample scoring rubrics for client review.
- Report Walkthrough — Executive Summary & Decision-Focused Pages
- Define Acceptance Criteria & Decision Gates
- Map Decision Questions to Assessment Types
- Current State — One Sentence Confirmation
- Score Interpretation & Thresholds
- Consequence Quantification
- Timeline, Milestones & Handoffs
- Walkthrough — Candidate Example A (Promotion Candidate)
- Forced Validation — Client Confirmation
- Future State — One Sentence Outcome
- Distribution, Redaction & Stakeholder Views
- Walkthrough — Candidate Example B (Integration/Redundant Role)
- Decision Questions & Success Signals
- Validation Example — Linking Report to Outcome Signals
- Assessment Burden & Experience
- Pre-work & Validation Checklist
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Assessment Scope
Specify candidates, psychometric instruments, simulations, interview modules, benchmarking cohorts, deliverables, timelines, and assessor roles.
Scope Configuration
- Administer executive psychometric test battery
- Facilitate in-person behavioral simulation center
- Conduct structured competency-based executive interview
- Score instruments and apply normative benchmarking
- Produce benchmarked executive readiness report
- Deliver board-ready executive briefing presentation
- Provide one-on-one executive development coaching session
- Supply technical validity and reliability dossier
- Integrate results into secure client talent portal
- Deliver succession decision-support scorecard
Scope Questions
Administer executive psychometric test battery
- How many candidates will require the psychometric battery in this engagement?
- Which assessment domains should the battery include?
- Do you have preferred instruments or do you expect us to recommend validated tools?
- What delivery mode do you require for the tests?
- Are there language or localization requirements for candidates?
- Please list any accommodations or accessibility needs candidates may require (e.g., extra time, screen reader).
- What is the target turnaround time for scored results from test completion?
Facilitate in-person behavioral simulation center
- How many candidates are expected to attend the simulation center?
- Which simulation types do you want included?
- What is the preferred duration per candidate for the full simulation experience?
- Do you require video recording, live observation rooms, and/or multi-rater observers?
- Where should the center be run?
- Will assessors/facilitators be internal client staff, our assessors, or a mix?
- Are there facility or technology constraints we should know (AV, secure rooms, physical distancing)?
Conduct structured competency-based executive interview
- Which core competencies should the interview protocol target?
- Preferred interview format?
- How long should each interview be?
- Do you want standardized scoring rubrics and calibration sessions for interviewers?
- Who will conduct interviews (internal HR, line leaders, external assessors)?
- Should interviews be recorded and transcribed for audit and quality assurance?
- Are there confidentiality or candidate consent requirements specific to the interviews?
Score instruments and apply normative benchmarking
- Which normative comparisons are most meaningful for your decisions?
- Do you require demographic adjustments or stratified norms (e.g., region, gender, tenure)?
- Preferred scoring outputs?
- What is the acceptable timeline from finished data to benchmarked score reports?
- Are custom cut-scores or decision thresholds required for promotion/succession decisions?
- Do you expect linkage of scores to performance outcomes or historical validation (concurrent / predictive validity)?
- Should scoring include multi-source integration (tests + simulations + interviews) into composite readiness metrics?
Produce benchmarked executive readiness report
- Who is the primary audience for the readiness report?
- What level of reporting detail do you require?
- Do reports need redaction or role-based views before distribution?
- Which visual elements are required in the report?
- Should reports include calibrated recommendations (promote, develop, do not promote) tied to decision thresholds?
- Preferred delivery method for final reports?
- What SLA for report delivery after scoring completion is acceptable?
Deliver board-ready executive briefing presentation
- What is the target length of the board briefing?
- Who will attend the briefing?
- Do you require a live Q&A and rehearsal session prior to the board presentation?
- What tone and level of technical detail are preferred for the board?
- Should the deck include anonymized candidate vignettes or full profiles?
- Are there branding or legal language requirements for board materials?
- Do you require secure delivery and/or non-disclosure controls for the briefings?
Provide one-on-one executive development coaching session
- How many coaching sessions are you requesting per executive?
- What are the primary coaching objectives?
- Do you require coaches with specific credentials or industry experience?
- Preferred session mode?
- Should coaching include documented development plans and measurable goals?
- Are there confidentiality clauses or consent requirements for coaching notes to be shared with HR/board?
- How will coaching effectiveness be evaluated?
Supply technical validity and reliability dossier
- Which technical documents do you require in the dossier?
- Do you need evidence of predictive validity against job performance metrics?
- Are regulatory or industry compliance standards relevant (e.g., EEOC, GDPR, local psychometrics regulations)?
- Do you require independent third-party validation reports or just internal technical summaries?
- What level of statistical detail is needed (executive summary, technical appendix, full dataset analyses)?
- Should the dossier include recommended use constraints or fairness impact analyses?
- Do you require files/data to be provided for audit (raw item-level data, anonymized)?
Integrate results into secure client talent portal
- Which talent portal or HRIS should results be integrated with?
- What integration method do you prefer?
- What user roles and access levels should be supported in the portal?
- Do you require single sign-on (SSO) and role-based entitlements?
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Mutual Commit
Finalize commercial terms, data-use and confidentiality agreements, candidate consent, timelines, and acceptance criteria for final reports.
Agreement Modules
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Order Form / Commercial Terms
- Payment Schedule & Invoicing
- Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
- Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
- Candidate Consent & Participation Release
- Data Use & Benchmarking Permission
- Assessor Assignment & Accreditation Confirmation
- Timeline, Milestones & Scheduling Agreement
- Report Acceptance & Sign-off Form
- Change Order & Scope Amendment
- Security & Technical Controls Addendum
- Termination, Cancellation & Dispute Resolution
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Deployment
Operationalize rollout with readiness checks, secure candidate logistics, and validation steps.
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Pre-Deployment Readiness
Confirm candidate consent, scheduling windows, assessor assignments, data access, and any accommodations needed before execution.
Readiness Questions
Quick Check-In: One short pulse to confirm we're aligned
- What is the internal project name or code we should reference on schedules and reports?
- Who will be our single day-to-day point of contact for logistics (name, role, email)?
- What is your target window for the first live assessment day (dates or quarter)?
- How confident are you that the stakeholders named to approve the schedule and consent are available in that window?
- Is there anything—public holidays, board cycles, or external events—that immediately rules out days in that window?
What could quietly derail this launch if we don’t surface it now?
- Do any candidates have active confidentiality, legal, or regulatory constraints we must respect (e.g., non‑disclosure, legal hold)?
- Have any potential participants previously declined assessments or expressed mistrust in external evaluators? Tell us the story.
- Are there internal processes (e.g., union consultation, works council, employee representative review) that must be completed before assessments?
- How would you describe the stakeholders’ emotional posture toward external assessment right now—curious, defensive, skeptical, or enthusiastic?
- If we flagged a high‑sensitivity candidate, what escalation path do you want us to follow?
Who’s actually running the room when things get busy?
- Which assessor(s) will you expect to lead the evaluations and what credentials should they have (internal and external)?
- Do you require a named internal sponsor for each candidate (HRBP, line leader) to sit in or receive real‑time updates?
- Who are the backups if a named assessor becomes unavailable at short notice?
- Are there conflict‑of‑interest rules that would disqualify specific assessors (e.g., prior reporting lines, coaching relationships)?
- Would you like us to propose a two‑tier assessor team (lead + observer) for validation and calibration purposes?
Scheduling Reality Check — where theory meets executive calendars
- How many candidates do you plan to assess in the initial deployment batch?
- What is the typical availability window for these candidates (e.g., days of week, morning/afternoon, timezones)?
- What maximum assessment duration per candidate do you consider acceptable (total hours including breaks)?
- How should we handle executive assistants who coordinate schedules—do we work through them or via the candidate directly?
- What is your reschedule/cancellation policy expectation (notice period and allowable counts)?
Candidate Experience: What would cause a top candidate to say ‘no’?
- How have candidates historically reacted to external assessments—enthusiastic, wary, or resistant? Share examples.
- Do any candidates require language support, interpreters, or translated materials?
- Will you permit candidates to have an advocate (HR or coach) present during interviews or simulations?
- What accommodations (accessibility, scheduling, neurodiversity supports) do you anticipate needing for any participants?
- How do you want us to frame the invitation message to senior leaders—what tone and key reassurances should we include?
Data & Security: Are the keys to the castle ready?
- Have data‑use agreements, DPA, and any country-specific privacy addendums been signed and returned?
- Where will candidate PII and assessment data be hosted—your tenant, our platform, or a third party?
- Do you require SSO, SCIM, or other identity integrations for candidate or assessor access?
- Who will manage secure file transfers (name and method: secure upload, SFTP, encrypted email)?
- Are there data residency or retention limits we must enforce (e.g., EU-only storage, 90‑day purge)?
If a critical tech or people problem happens on launch day, what’s the playbook?
- What is your preferred immediate action if a candidate loses connection mid-simulation—pause, reschedule, or continue with adjustments?
- If an assessor becomes unavailable during a live day, do you want us to deploy a standby assessor or pause the candidate?
- How many reschedules per candidate are acceptable before the slot is forfeited?
- Are there any hard deadlines (e.g., promotion committee dates) that make certain days immovable?
- Who do we call immediately for incident triage (names, roles, 24/7 contact if needed)?
Small admin details that cause big delays—let’s close them now
- Do you have finalized candidate packets (CV, org chart, role profile) ready to upload? If not, when will they be available?
- What naming convention should we use for candidate files and final reports (e.g., Lastname_Firstname_Role)?
- Do you require candidate photo ID verification prior to assessment delivery?
- Who should receive draft and final reports (names and emails), and are there any embargo rules before wider distribution?
- Do you want pre-session test links sent to candidates to validate devices and environment? If yes, when should they complete them?
Decision rhythms & sign-offs: who signs off on go/no-go?
- Who is authorized to give final go‑ahead for executing the assessment schedule (name, role, backup)?
- What acceptance criteria must be satisfied before we run assessments (e.g., all consents received, assessor assigned, IT test passed)?
- How would you like us to confirm readiness—daily status emails, a single sign‑off form, or a short readiness call?
- When should we schedule the post‑deployment review to validate process and initial report quality?
- What would you consider a show‑stopper that would cause you to delay all assessments?
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Deployment Enablement
Coordinate assessment logistics, schedule sessions and simulations, manage assessors, and track completion against milestones.
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Validation & Reporting
Verify scoring integrity, normative benchmarking, report templates, and delivery handoffs before releasing reports to decision-makers.
Validation Questions
Why this moment matters
- To get us started, what prompted you to explore external leadership assessment support right now?
- Which immediate trigger best describes the situation?
- How urgent is a decision you expect to make based on these assessments?
- What would make you feel this engagement was worth the investment (one short concrete outcome)?
- How do you feel about the current level of confidence in your internal promotion decisions—calm, uneasy, or something in between?
Who holds the keys (and who secretly influences them)?
- Who is the ultimate decision-maker for promotions or role placements in this process—and who do they listen to most?
- Which stakeholders must sign off before a promotion or succession decision is final?
- Which stakeholder(s) are most likely to require extra evidence or persuasion, and why?
- How confidential must assessment results remain during the decision process?
- Tell us about a time different stakeholders disagreed on a candidate — what evidence or arguments finally moved the needle?
Where the evidence currently breaks down
- What if your usual data sources (CVs, interviews, performance ratings) are the exact reasons you miss future failures—how true does that feel?
- Which of these data sources do you rely on today for senior leader decisions?
- Where do you see the biggest blind spot in how you currently evaluate readiness—skills, adaptability, political savvy, execution under ambiguity, or something else?
- Have past promotions resulted in unexpected outcomes? If so, share one example and what surprised you most.
- How confident are you in the validity of your internal measurements (e.g., consistency across raters, predictive power)?
If promotion were a safe bet — what would that feel like?
- When you imagine a promotion that 'works' three levels deep (candidate, team, company), what would visibly be different in 6–12 months?
- Which measurable signals would you use to declare a promoted leader successful?
- Which role-specific outcomes matter most for this position (select top 3)?
- How important is an external normative benchmark versus internal comparison for convincing your board?
- If you could only get one clear recommendation from an assessment report, what would you want it to be?
What would convince your board to say yes?
- What single piece of evidence would flip a skeptical board member to approve a promotion today?
- Which report elements carry the most weight for decision-makers?
- How do your leaders prefer receiving sensitive results—written report, presentation with assessor, or a facilitated board session?
- How important is it that the assessor has prior credibility with the executive population (e.g., former CHRO, industry consultant)?
- Are there legal, compliance, or governance constraints that shape what evidence can be used or shared?
What could go wrong — and how we'll avoid it
- What's the worst outcome you fear from running formal assessments on senior leaders (reputational, legal, talent flight, morale, etc.)?
- Have you experienced candidate pushback on assessments before? If yes, what was the main concern?
- Which stakeholders must be looped into communication plans to reduce risk?
- What mitigation steps would make you comfortable (anonymous reporting, redaction, third‑party custody of raw data, candidate consent forms)?
- If someone raised a fairness or bias concern publicly, what would you want to have prepared to respond confidently?
Getting comfortable with what the process actually looks like
- If an assessment process felt like partnership rather than an audit, what would that look and feel like to you?
- Which logistical constraints should we design around (candidate travel limits, time zones, window dates, assessor availability)?
- What accommodations or sensitivities must we anticipate for your executives (disability, cultural norms, language preferences)?
- Which assessment modalities do you prefer we prioritize?
- How do you want candidate feedback handled—direct to the candidate first, only to HR, or via a facilitated debrief with the assessor?
- Who should be assigned as our internal point(s) of contact to keep execution smooth?
What does 'yes' actually look like — next steps and signals of commitment
- If you were to say yes to moving forward today, what would the first milestone be and who would need to approve it?
- Which commercial or contracting constraints should we understand up front (PO process, budget holder, standard legal terms)?
- What timing would you consider a successful kickoff date?
- Who else should join a short alignment call to finalize scope (names and roles)?
- What would you want as a minimal 'acceptance criteria' for final reports to feel actionable and board‑ready?
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Success
Review assessment outcomes against success signals, document promotion or development decisions, and maintain a shared channel for issues and follow-ups.
Success Reviews
- Assessment Outcomes Review & Decision Meeting
- Development Planning Workshop (Post-Decision)
- Decision Validation & Risk Mitigation Session
- Candidate Feedback & Appeals Process Meeting
- Follow-up Governance & Shared Channel Setup
Issues & Enhancements
- Prepare individualized feedback packs (report extracts + development priorities) for each candidate.
- Confirm no decision introduces unacceptable continuity or compliance risk without agreed mitigation.
- Document mitigation actions, owners, and deadlines for all material risks.
- Obtain required legal/privacy confirmations prior to report release.
- Update succession risk register with mitigation tasks, owners, and due dates.
- Secure legal/data privacy sign-off on communications and report distribution lists.
- Schedule any necessary interim coverage or rapid redeployment actions.
- Feedback Objectives & Boundaries
- Finalize candidate feedback messages and formats aligned to development or promotion outcomes.
- Establish a transparent, timebound appeals and clarification process.
- Ensure raters/HR are trained and comfortable delivering feedback while protecting confidentiality.
- Welcome & Objectives
- Schedule feedback sessions and assign trained deliverers for each case.
- Publish the appeals procedure and contact points to candidates as part of feedback materials.
- Purpose & Scope of Shared Channel
- Establish a single shared channel with clear access, structure, and rules for ongoing follow-ups.
- Agree on monitoring cadence, reporting templates, and owners for progress tracking.
- Define issue escalation flow and SLAs to ensure timely remediation where development or deployment problems arise.
- Create the shared channel, apply access controls, and upload final decisions and development plans.
- Publish the monitoring cadence, reporting template, and invite the governance group.
- Schedule the first follow-up review (e.g., 30/90 days) and confirm attendees.
- Configure alerts/notifications for SLA breaches and escalate contacts.
- Reach final, documented disposition (promote/succession/develop/do not promote) for each assessed candidate.
- Ensure each decision is explicitly mapped to the pre-agreed success signals and acceptance criteria.
- Identify any conditional requirements or further evidence needed before final release of reports.
- Agree on immediate next steps for communications and implementation owners.
- Enter final decisions and rationale into the shared decision register with linked assessment artifacts.
- Prepare decision memo for Board/CHRO sign-off and archival (include data-use and consent references).
- Schedule candidate communications and stakeholder briefings per agreed timeline.
- Flag any cases requiring additional validation and assign owner with due date.
- Workshop Objectives & Constraints
- Produce draft 90/180/365-day development plans for each candidate requiring development.
- Assign clear owners, resources, and measurement indicators for each plan.
- Agree on checkpoints and reporting format for monitoring progress.
- Finalize and circulate individualized development plans and timelines.
- Book recommended coaching, assessment follow-ups, or development programs.
- Set recurring checkpoints in calendar and link reporting templates.
- Overview of Final Decisions
- Sample Feedback Scripts & Report Excerpts
- Channel Structure & Access Controls
- Recap Success Signals & Acceptance Criteria
- Assessment-Derived Development Priorities
- Succession & Continuity Risk Mapping
- Monitoring Cadence & Reporting Templates
- Candidate-by-Candidate Review
- Legal, Data-Use & Confidentiality Check
- Appeals & Clarification Process
- Co-create Development Roadmaps
- Logistics & Training
- Mitigation & Contingency Planning
- Deliberation & Risk Discussion
- Define Measurement & Checkpoints
- Issue Escalation Flow & SLAs
- Onboarding & First Actions
- Assign Owners & Resources
- Sign-offs & Escalation Criteria
- Recordkeeping & Confidentiality Safeguards
- Decision Recording & Rationale
- Communications & Next Steps