Elevated Search Enabled by Multi-Science Assessments
Most leadership hiring processes miss what actually matters. You can spend hours reviewing impressive resumes, conducting thorough interviews, and checking all the references. But somehow you still end up with a leader who struggles to deliver the results your business needs.
Here's what we've learned about hiring while building our own companies:
Traditional recruiting approaches miss deeper patterns that predict long-term success in your environment. Resume reviews and standard interviews only tell part of the story.
After years of refining our approach through real operational experience (and some expensive mistakes), we've identified what traditional hiring misses, building a systematic way to capture it.
Why Traditional Hiring Methods Fall Short
Here’s what happens when you rely on gut instinct and conventional interviews:
The Experience Assumption: You hire someone with a stellar track record, only to realize they can’t keep up with the pace and change inside your business. Experience matters, but it doesn’t always translate when the context shifts — and in growing companies, the context is always shifting.
The Interview Star: They shine in an interview setting: calm, confident, articulate. But once the pressure cranks up, they struggle to deliver. Traditional methods rarely test how someone shows up when the stakes are high, but that’s when true leadership really counts.
The “Cultural Fit” Analysis: Too often this means hiring someone who feels familiar — someone who thinks like you, talks like you, leads like you. The problem? Sameness doesn’t create stronger teams. It just limits the range of strengths and perspectives your business actually needs.
The Data Trap:. A single assessment can give you some insight, but people are messy and more complex than a one-dimensional score. Relying on those tools alone leaves you with an incomplete picture of who a candidate really is and how they’ll perform once in the role. Most assessments also use transparent questions with obvious “right” answers, making them easy to game. We instead use non-transparent questions designed to reduce impression management and surface authentic insights.
What We Measure
Our process is guided by a third-party behavioral expert and powered by three proven assessment tools. Each one looks at leadership from a different angle, and together they give us a clear picture of how someone will actually show up in your business.
By combining multiple assessment approaches and asking varied situational questions: different scenarios, different contexts, different levels of pressure, etc., we eliminate the opportunity for candidates to “game” the process. This brings out how they truly think, react, and lead.
1. Behavioral Dynamics Assessment (DISC)
Our Focus: A look at how people naturally handle four key areas that make or break leadership success
Problem-Solving Approach: How candidates naturally respond to challenges and obstacles
Influence Style: How they actually get people to follow their lead
Pace Preference: How they manage urgency and adapt to environmental demands
Structure Orientation: Their relationship with rules and systematic approaches
Why this matters: Understanding behavioral preferences helps predict how leaders will naturally approach their responsibilities. An executive who thrives in autonomous, fast-paced environments will struggle in roles requiring detailed collaboration and systematic processes. Better to know this before the hire rather than after.
2. Motivational Drivers Assessment
Our Focus: What drives someone to keep pushing when the work gets hard
Theoretical Drive: Passion for knowledge acquisition and intellectual growth
Utilitarian Focus: Emphasis on practical results and measurable returns
Aesthetic Appreciation: Value for form, creativity, and innovative expression
Social Commitment: Desire to contribute meaningfully to team and community success
Individualistic Ambition: Need for recognition, autonomy, and leadership influence
Traditional Orientation: Appreciation for established systems and proven methodologies
Why this matters: Motivational alignment reveals the sustainable energy source behind performance. Skills alone won’t sustain effort if the work doesn’t connect with what actually drives someone. It also helps us design compensation structures that match intrinsic motivation. Some leaders are energized by upside and risk, while others are discouraged by it.
3. Leadership Habits Assessment
Our Focus: The patterns that either accelerate success or create problems
Drive: Pursuing opportunities versus self-limiting behaviors that constrain growth
Care: Protecting organizational value versus squandering resources and relationships
Fear: Anticipating challenges versus creating operational blind spots
Hope: Resolving complex problems versus perpetuating systemic issues
Why this matters: Leadership habits reveal how someone performs under real pressure. Counterproductive patterns and derailers often surface in stressful situations — moments that interviews rarely capture. While candidates can describe what they should do, assessments uncover how they actually respond when the stakes are high. This is where their true leadership habits emerge.
Why We Build Success Profiles Before The Search
Before we talk to any candidates, we sit down and figure out exactly what success looks like in your specific situation.
No templates.
No one-size-fits-all approaches.
We build criteria from scratch, rooted in the unique challenges, growth goals, and measurable outcomes of your role.
If multiple hires have struggled in the position, we dig into why. Uncovering the root cause allows us to address it directly, ensuring the next candidate is set up for success. We also gather input from key team members who will work closely with the new leader, creating a 360-degree perspective. The result is a Candidate Criteria + Role Benchmarking document that aligns all decision makers before the search begins.
The Science of Cultural Fit vs. Strategic Complement
We help you figure out where you need someone who fits seamlessly and where you actually need someone who challenges how things get done.
Some things are non-negotiable: your core values, ethical standards, and communication fundamentals. In other areas, you might actually need someone who thinks differently than your current team. Understanding this distinction helps us identify leaders who will both honor your established culture and elevate your team's collective capability.
What Makes Our Assessment Different
We Know What Actually Works: We've done this hundreds of times for companies just like yours. We know which patterns actually predict success and which ones just look good on paper.
Data Informs Instead of Decides: We never make recommendations based solely on assessment scores. That data allows us to ask better questions, create more realistic scenarios, and better understand what makes someone tick.
Ongoing Value: Assessment insights don’t stop at the offer. We use them in a structured onboarding session with the hire, their manager, and our assessment expert. Together we align on what drives the hire, how they communicate, and the conditions they need to do their best work.
What Happens When You Hire This Way
New hires ramp up faster when everyone understands how they work best. Instead of weeks of trial and error, teams know from day one how to communicate, collaborate, and play to each other’s strengths.
That same clarity improves overall team performance. When people understand why someone approaches problems differently, it shifts the dynamic from frustration to appreciation fueling collaboration.
It has a big impact on retention. When candidates step into a role with a clear picture of the expectations and the cultural context, they make more informed decisions. That means fewer mis-hires, less early turnover, and stronger long-term commitment.
Additionally, leaders gain a framework for growth. With better insight into strengths and blind spots, they can give more meaningful feedback, deliver targeted coaching, and open up real opportunities for development.
Beyond Hiring: Building Your Leadership Team
After seeing the value in search, many clients ask us to assess their entire leadership team.
Understanding the behavioral and motivational composition of your leadership team helps identify capability gaps and strategically plan future hires that strengthen your overall organizational architecture. This comprehensive view of your team dynamics enables more intentional succession planning and development investments.
Assessment insights can also provide objective criteria for identifying and developing internal candidates for leadership roles, rather than relying solely on performance reviews or tenure. Instead, you have data-driven perspectives on leadership potential, behavioral flexibility, and motivational alignment with expanded responsibilities. This approach transforms succession planning into strategic talent development.