The CV tells a board what a candidate has done. The interview tells it how the candidate presents. The reference tells it what a former manager will say on the record. What a board most wants to know is how the leader will decide in the situations that come next, and whether the principles they describe will hold when those situations are demanding.
The signal we set out to capture
Senior leaders are articulate about their principles. The most useful evidence is whether those principles shape what they actually do under pressure. We built two assessments of our own to read exactly that.
The aim is to see how a leader decides, not only what they have done.
ASCEND and APEX
ASCEND, for staff, specialists and senior managers, combines a validated personality baseline with values, working style and function specific situational judgement, scored on what the candidate actually writes. APEX, for chief executives and board candidates, adds what we call the principle and behaviour consistency review.
In APEX the candidate first writes a structured response to a leadership case and names the principle that would guide the decision. Later, in the same competency, they respond to short situations that ask what they would say and do. An assessor reads the stated principle against the reaction and codes the result as coherent, tested or contradictory. Every report is finalised and signed by a qualified assessor, and written for the board.
What changes for the board
The assessment does not make the decision, and it should not. It gives the board a clear view of where a leader's principles are strongest, where they have been tested and where to probe further, so the final conversations with each candidate go straight to what matters.
