A structured assessment of hiring risk before a critical decision is made.
Most leadership hiring failures are not caused by weak candidates.
They happen because the decision process fails to surface risk.
The Searchlight Diagnostic™ helps leadership teams evaluate whether their current hiring process will produce a decision they will still stand behind a year later.
This is not a candidate assessment.
It is a decision assessment.
Searchlight reviews the structure behind your current or upcoming leadership hire, including:
Definition of success and performance expectations
Alignment among stakeholders and interviewers
Behavioral evidence being collected during interviews
Exposure to coachability, ownership, adaptability, and motivation risk
Decision criteria and calibration discipline
This process identifies hidden vulnerabilities before they produce costly outcomes.
The Searchlight Diagnostic™ is most often used when:
A leadership hire is already in process
A recent executive hire has underperformed
The organization is scaling and hiring stakes have increased
A leadership transition has created uncertainty
A private equity sponsor requires additional hiring diligence
These are moments when decision quality matters most.
Most hiring failures are predictable.
They occur when evaluation focuses on experience and presentation, but fails to test how the candidate will operate under real conditions.
The Diagnostic identifies those gaps before the hire is made.
This protects:
Leadership stability
Execution momentum
Organizational trust
Enterprise value
The process is simple and efficient.
Initial conversation to understand the role and decision context
Structured review of the hiring process and evaluation methods
Delivery of findings and recommendations
Most Diagnostics are completed within one to two weeks.
The Searchlight Diagnostic™ is designed for:
CEOs and founders
Private equity operating partners
Board members
CHROs and talent leaders
Executive leadership teams
Especially when the cost of a wrong hire is high.