You are about to bet a year on this person. Interviews will not tell you if it is a good bet.
The internal candidate who has been excellent in their current job. The finalist your search firm is confident about. The Chief of Staff role turns on things neither an interview nor a track record can show you: how someone operates without a clear mandate, how they handle information they should not have, how much pressure they can absorb without it showing.
A Chief of Staff hire at the level most executives are making this investment runs $175,000–$250,000 in salary alone. Add recruiting fees, onboarding time, and the organizational drag of a role that isn’t functioning correctly, and a failed or underperforming CoS engagement costs north of $400,000 before you’ve accounted for the leadership bandwidth you spent managing it instead of running the organization.
The CoS Readiness Assessment puts your candidate in the situations the role actually involves and reads how they handle them. Scenario-based written diagnostics, a structured interview, and a practitioner who has held the role reading every word. No algorithm scores it.
You sponsor it. Your candidate does the work.
- Sponsor the Full AssessmentYou cover the fee, or your candidate does; either way they take it in their own time. About 90 minutes of written scenarios, a read of their public professional profile, and a 60 to 90 minute structured interview with a practitioner.
- Practitioner reviewEvery submission is read by a practitioner. An independent second read of the interview follows, and where the two see different things we examine why before the verdict is final.
- Two documents, in their handsWithin 5 to 7 working days of the interview the candidate receives a private development report and a shareable readiness profile written for employers, recruiters and advisors. They hand you the profile.
Total time from your candidate: about 2.5 to 3 hours. Total time from you: reading the profile.
A readiness profile written for the person making the decision.
A private development report
Where they stand across twelve areas, what to lean into, what to work on. Theirs alone. It is written to be useful whatever the verdict, so the assessment reads as a serious investment in them rather than a hurdle.
A shareable readiness profile
A practitioner-authored document with one of four verdicts on readiness, the evidence behind it, and which kind of Chief of Staff role suits them. Written to be read by an employer, and to be acted on.
The four possible verdicts: full endorsement, strong foundation, development needed, or not the right moment. Not pass-or-fail. A read on what we saw, and where we could not tell. A cautious read is information delivered earlier than the role itself would deliver it, at a fraction of the cost.
If the decision needs a direct fit read addressed to you rather than a profile the candidate shares, the commissioned configuration we run for search firms (a development report to the candidate, a fit read to the commissioner, with the candidate’s written consent) is available to hiring executives. It is scoped on a call.
Read a real report before you sponsor one.
The fastest way to judge the assessment is to read what it produces. This is an actual Entry Assessment report, anonymized with the candidate’s permission: the verdict, the evidence behind it, and the specific places the reading found thin. If you want a report that reassures, this is the wrong instrument.
One fee. Set against the cost of the wrong hire.
Per candidate. Written scenarios across twelve areas, public-profile read, a 60 to 90 minute practitioner interview, an independent second read, and both documents.
Sponsor the Full AssessmentBefore the promotion or the offer, while it can still change the decision.
An internal candidate you are considering moving into the seat. A finalist you are close to signing. A Chief of Staff already in role whose scope you are about to expand. In each case the read costs less than one month of the salary you are about to commit.
Fees in USD. The candidate’s private report is never shared without their written consent.
Built by people who have held the role, and advised the executives who hired them.
Suzi Coul and Rachael Goldfarb. Twenty-plus years of operating experience in and around the role, and more than 150 Chiefs of Staff spoken with in depth. Suzi served as Chief of Staff to a Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor; Rachael helped run the Clinton White House Chief of Staff’s office, served as traveling Chief of Staff at the Gates Foundation, and was employee #19 at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Read the full bios →
Read the candidate. Then design the role.
The assessment answers whether the person is ready. It does not design the seat they are walking into. Executive Advisory does, and the Fit & Friction read maps how the two of you will actually operate together.
Executive Advisory
Design the role, the authority and the operating relationship, before or after the hire. From $12,000.
See the advisory →Fit & Friction
Your operating profile mapped against your Chief of Staff’s: where it works, where it grinds, and what makes it last.
See the diagnostic →What executives ask before sponsoring one.
Can I pay for it and receive the report directly?
You can pay for it. The private development report goes to the candidate and is never shared without their written consent; the shareable readiness profile is written for you and they hand it to you. If you need a fit read addressed to you directly, ask about the commissioned configuration on a call.
Should I tell the candidate it is an assessment for the role?
Yes. Framed as an investment in them, it is one: the private report is designed so the exercise is useful to them whatever the verdict.
What if the read is cautious?
Then you have learned before the promotion what the role would have taught you nine months in, and your candidate has a specific development plan rather than a failure. A cautious read is not a reason to drop the person; it is a reason to redesign the timeline.
How is this different from a personality test?
No Big Five, no MBTI, no archetype quiz. The assessment puts the candidate in the situations the role actually involves and looks at how they handle them. Personality plays a part, but how someone operates under specific conditions does the predictive work.
How long does it take?
About 2.5 to 3 hours from the candidate, spread over a week or so. The documents arrive within 5 to 7 working days of the interview.