CoS Readiness Assessment

Find out exactly where you stand.
Before someone else finds out for you.

A serious read on whether you're ready for the role. Reviewed by a practitioner, not generated by an algorithm.

Take the Diagnostic Free · 5 Min Take the Entry Assessment $799 Take the Full Assessment $2,500
What this is

A serious read. Not a personality test. Not a vibe check.

Built to answer the questions interviews and gut feel can't. The role is put in front of you in situations you'd actually face — and how you handle them is what the report is built on.

Every submission is read and edited by a practitioner before it reaches you. Not generated by software and shipped.

The most common reason CoS roles fail is not capability. It is wiring that was never honestly examined before the person walked in the door.

The Coul & Gold Group

The four foundations

The capabilities the role actually demands. Not the ones easiest to write into a job description.

Twelve areas are reviewed in total. These four sit underneath all of them.

Relationship with Authority

How you operate without a clear mandate — and when credit for your work is invisible by design.

Self-Regulation Under Pressure

Whether you can absorb sustained pressure without letting it show — because the role requires it.

Judgment About Information

How you handle sensitive, incomplete, and conflicting information — the kind most jobs never test.

Operating Without Mandate

Acting with authority that is implied rather than formal — and knowing precisely where its limits are.

Twelve areas in total. These four are the spine.

How it works

Designed around your time.

Two ways in. Same approach. Entry is the starting point. Full is the complete picture.

Entry Assessment

Four stages · About 90 Minutes · In your own time

01 · 15 Min
A Short Intake
A quick form so we know your situation and what the report needs to address.
02 · 45 Min
Written Scenarios
Real situations the role involves. You write how you'd handle them, within 72 hours.
03 · 20 Min
Quick Judgment
Faster scenarios with four options. No obvious right answer — only what you'd actually do.
04 · 3–5 Days
Practitioner Review
A practitioner reads every submission and edits every report before it reaches you.
Full Assessment

Everything in Entry, plus three things Entry doesn't include.

  • A read of your public professional profile — what you've done, who you've worked with, the shape of your career.
  • A 60 to 90 minute structured interview with a practitioner.
  • An independent second read of the interview by AI. Where the two see different things, we examine why before finalizing.

Total time from you: about 2.5 to 3 hours. Delivered within 5 to 7 working days of the interview. A final read on whether you're ready — and which kind of CoS role you're best suited to.

What your report will tell you

Honest information, in either direction. Both are useful.

Not pass-or-fail. A read on what we saw, and where we couldn't tell. The four possible outcomes:

Full Endorsement

You're ready. The report tells you what to lean into when you move.

Strong Foundation

The capability is there. Focused work on a few areas closes the gap.

Development Needed

Real capability, but specific gaps to work on before this is the right move.

Not the Right Moment

Honest information, not a verdict. What we saw, what we couldn't, what to do next.

For You

Private Report

Where you stand and what to work on. Yours alone. Not shared without your consent.

For Employers, Recruiters, Advisors

Shareable Readiness Profile

A practitioner-authored document you hold and distribute on your terms.

Two products. Same approach.

Choose the depth you need — now, or later.

Same approach. Two entry points. Entry is the natural starting point for most candidates. Full is what you take when you want the complete picture and a final answer.

Entry Assessment · Recommended Starting Point

"Is this role right for me? Where are my gaps? What should I work on?"

  • Written and quick-judgment scenarios across twelve areas
  • Every submission read and report edited by a practitioner
  • A clear read on where you stand and what to focus on
  • About 90 minutes of your time
  • Delivered within 5 working days
Take the Entry Assessment
Full Assessment

"I want a complete answer — and the report to back it up."

  • Everything in Entry, plus:
  • A read of your public professional profile
  • A 60 to 90 minute interview with a practitioner
  • A second, independent analysis of the interview
  • A final read — one of four outcomes — and which CoS role suits you
  • Private report & shareable readiness profile
  • About 2.5 to 3 hours, delivered within 7 working days of the interview
Take the Full Assessment
Pricing

Two prices. Two levels of detail.

Priced for the seriousness of the work. Every report is read and edited by a practitioner before it reaches you — not generated by software and shipped. That is what makes the report worth reading, and it is the reason this costs more than a $50 online test.

Entry Assessment

$799

For the candidate who wants a real read before deciding what to do next.

Take the Entry Assessment

Full Assessment

$2,500

For the candidate who wants the complete picture and a final answer.

Take the Full Assessment

Pay Once if You Go Further

Start with Entry. Upgrade within 90 days and the full $799 comes off the Full Assessment fee. The Entry is designed to stand on its own — but if you want the complete picture afterwards, you don't pay twice.

Already took Entry? Upgrade to Full for $1,701 →

Built by practitioners

Built by people who've done this work — and watched it fail when the wiring was wrong.

Suzi Coul and Rachael Goldfarb. Twenty-plus years of operating experience in and around the role. More than 150 Chiefs of Staff spoken with in depth. The assessment is built on what they've seen — not adapted from a personality framework or a generic leadership model.

150+
Chiefs of Staff spoken with across sectors and organizations
20+
Years of combined operating experience in and around the role
Suzi Coul
Co-Founder · London, UK
Suzi is a leadership and organizational intelligence practitioner with nearly two decades of experience at the center of complex, high-stakes environments. At the peak of her political career, she served as Chief of Staff to a Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, one of the most senior roles in British government, holding complete operational authority across parliamentary, ministerial, and political responsibilities. Before that, she spent fourteen years as co-founder and COO of a specialist commercial business, building its operational infrastructure from the ground up. Her work is not behavioral coaching; it is structural diagnosis, identifying the operating systems and decision patterns that determine whether a leadership environment produces coherence or dysfunction.
Rachael Goldfarb
Co-Founder · Washington, D.C.
Rachael has spent her career in rooms where the stakes were high and the structure had to work. She helped John Podesta run the Clinton White House Chief of Staff's office, then joined him at the Center for American Progress. After law school and federal clerkships, she served as traveling Chief of Staff to the President of Global Health at the Gates Foundation, in the field 89% of the time across Bangladesh, Japan, London, and Mexico. As employee #19 at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she built a team of 250 with 94% retention and earned the only net promoter score of 100 in the organization. Today she is a recognized voice in the Chief of Staff community.
Frequently asked

Questions worth answering.

Who is this for?
Candidates seriously considering, currently in, or actively interviewing for a Chief of Staff role. Built specifically for the role — not a generic leadership assessment.
Is this a personality test?
No. No Big Five, no MBTI, no archetype quiz. The assessment puts you in the situations the role actually involves and looks at how you handle them. Personality plays a part — we're not pretending it doesn't — but how you operate under specific conditions does the predictive work.
What's the difference between Entry and Full?
Entry is the written and quick-judgment scenarios with a practitioner-reviewed report — $799. Full adds a read of your public profile, a 60 to 90 minute interview with a practitioner, and a second independent read. You also get a shareable readiness profile written for third parties. $2,500. Entry credit applies if you upgrade within 90 days.
Will my employer or anyone else see my report?
No. Your report is yours alone. Not shared with employers, recruiters, or anyone without your explicit written consent. Candidate-controlled, by design.
What if I get a result I don't like?
A real possibility, and we've built around it. A cautious read is not a rejection — it's information delivered earlier than the role itself would deliver it, and at lower cost. Most people who've received cautious reads have told us afterwards that the read was useful, even when it was hard.
Is there a refund policy?
Yes. If you purchase the Entry Assessment and decide it's not the right time, contact us within 48 hours of purchase for a full refund.
Why $799 for the Entry Assessment?
Because every submission is analyzed and the report produced by a practitioner before it reaches you — not generated by software and shipped. That's the part that makes the report worth reading. We could automate the review out and charge less. We don't, because that would defeat the point.
Decide what to do with what you know

Decide what to do with what you know.

If you've read this far, you're taking the question seriously.

The cost of getting this wrong — for you, for the executive you'd support, for the team around you — is significant. The cost of finding out earlier, with a real read in front of you, is not.

Take the Diagnostic Free · 5 Min Take the Entry Assessment $799 Take the Full Assessment $2,500