How we work

The model is a claim until there is a method under it. This page is the method, written out in the order it happens so that a founder can check each step against what they are being offered elsewhere. It is deliberately plain. If anything here is unclear, ask us directly.

Why does the search start with the leader, not the role?

Most searches read the role carefully and the relationship barely at all, so we start with the relationship. A brief describes a job. It rarely describes the person the hire will report to: how they decide, how much room they give, whether they want a builder or a finisher, what they know they need covered. A search run against that brief optimises against an incomplete picture, and the mismatch surfaces around month four, usually labelled as culture.

Capability is the entry ticket. By the time a shortlist reaches a hiring manager, most people on it can do the job, and screening harder on skills from that point adds little. The difference in how those candidates will actually perform comes from everything underneath, and in a standard search that part is left to a single interview and a feeling. Our method puts structure under it.

What is the leader brief?

A leader brief is a structured conversation with the person a hire will report to, conducted before sourcing begins. It is the first thing we do on every search and the document every candidate is read against. It asks how the leader decides, what they delegate and what they hold close, how they like to be challenged, what the last person in the seat found difficult, and where they would welcome being complemented. The job brief comes second, and it is written with the leader brief beside it.

How a search runs, step by step

Our searches run in the same order every time: leader brief, stage brief, capability assessment, fit conversation, a two-way view for candidates, a handover note at placement, and a check-in at the three-month mark.

1. The leader brief, before the job brief

   Before any sourcing begins, we sit with the person the hire will report to and write down how they lead.

   Most searches start with a job description written by HR or the founder. Ours starts with the hiring leader. Before we look at a single CV, we spend time with the person this hire will report to: not only HR, and not only the founder.

   We come away with their decision style, what they delegate and what they hold close, how they like to be challenged, what the last person in the seat found difficult, where they would welcome being complemented, and what they want to see by the 90-day mark.

   Almost no firm does this, and most hiring managers enjoy being asked. The job brief tells us what the role needs. The leader brief tells us who will do their best work in it, and every candidate is read against it from here on.

2. The stage brief

   The stage brief records what exists at the company and what does not, so candidates are matched to the actual state of the business rather than the org chart.

   Team, budget, systems, process, a predecessor’s work to build on, or none of these. How quickly the company changes direction. Who actually decides. We write it down plainly, and we check it with more than one person.

   This becomes the honest description we give candidates, and it becomes the filter for operating temperament. Someone excellent in a structured, resourced organisation can struggle where nothing exists yet. The reverse is just as true. A CV will not show which kind of operator someone is. The stage brief gives us something precise to test against.

3. Capability assessment, done well and then set aside

   We establish that every person on the shortlist can do the job, and then we stop competing on the dimension where everyone competes.

   Capability assessment is role-specific and evidence-based. We look at what someone has actually built, run or turned around, and we check it. Where the role needs deep domain knowledge, a senior operator from our network who has held that kind of role assesses alongside us.

   Then we set it aside. By the time a shortlist reaches a hiring manager, most people on it can do the job. Screening harder on skills from that point adds little. The difference in how those candidates will perform comes from everything underneath, and that is where the rest of the method goes.

4. The fit conversation

   In the fit conversation, candidates are read against the leader brief and the stage brief, not only the job description.

   We are looking for the person who will be energised by this leader and this level of structure. So we ask about the managers they have done their best work under and the ones they have not, the kind of direction they want, how they take being challenged, and what they did the last time nothing existed and they had to build it.

   Sometimes this means setting aside an impressive candidate who would not thrive here. We say so, and we say why. A shortlist that is right on paper and wrong for the room is the most expensive kind.

5. A two-way view

   Candidates hear the real version of the role: what is still being built, how the leader works, and where the previous person found it hard.

   Fit runs both ways, so the candidate needs the truth as much as the client does. We tell them what is still being built, how the leader likes to work, and where the previous person found it hard. We do this before an offer is made, not after.

   It costs us a few candidates. It saves most of the placements that would otherwise fail. A person who joins knowing the real picture tends to stay. A person who joins on a polished version tends to leave around the time the polish wears off.

6. The handover note

   The handover note is a short written read on how to work well with the person you have just hired.

   The client gets more than a name. Alongside the offer, we write up what we have learned: what motivates this person, how they take feedback, what tends to disengage them, and where their working style meets the leader’s and where it differs.

   It is short and it is specific. The leader has already told us how they work. The handover note closes the loop by telling them how the new person works, so the first months are spent on the job rather than on decoding each other.

7. The 90-day check-in

   At the three-month mark we speak with the leader and the hire separately, and catch the things neither will raise on their own.

   The 90-day check-in lands with the guarantee period. We talk to both sides, on their own. People raise things in a quiet conversation with us that they will not yet raise with each other, and catching those early is usually what keeps a good hire from becoming a quiet failure.

   It is also where we learn. Every check-in tells us something about what the leader brief missed or what the stage brief got wrong, and that goes into how we run the next search.

Who does the assessing?

Every search is run by the founder, and where it needs deep domain knowledge, a senior operator from our network who has held that kind of role assesses alongside us. The leader brief, the stage brief and the fit conversations are never delegated. Capability assessment in a field we have not worked in ourselves is done with someone who has.

We say this openly because it is how a small firm reaches real depth across categories, and because it is more honest than claiming to know every function first-hand. The people in our network are operators, not recruiters. They have hired into these roles and been hired into them, and they can tell the difference between a strong CV and a strong candidate for this particular company. You can read more about the breadth this gives us on who we work with.

Terms we use

These are the terms that appear throughout this site, defined so that each one stands on its own.

The four Cs of fit

The four Cs of fit are capability, culture, company stage, and compatibility with the leader the role reports to. Most searches screen the first two; the second two are where the difference in outcomes lives.

The leader brief

A leader brief is a structured conversation with the person a hire will report to, conducted before sourcing begins. It records how that leader decides, what they delegate and hold close, how they like to be challenged, and what they want from the role.

The stage brief

A stage brief is a plain written account of what exists at a company and what does not: team, budget, systems, process, pace of change, and who actually decides. It is given to candidates as the honest description of the role and used to screen for operating temperament.

Compatibility fit

Compatibility fit is whether a candidate will do their best work under the specific leader the role reports to. It is assessed against the leader brief rather than inferred from a single interview, and it is where most hires are quietly won or lost.

Operating temperament

Operating temperament is a person’s tolerance for ambiguity, comfort building from nothing, and willingness to work below their title for a while. It decides whether someone suits a company’s stage, and it does not appear on a CV.

The handover note

A handover note is a short written read given to the client at placement, describing what motivates the new hire, how they take feedback, and what tends to disengage them.

The 90-day check-in

The 90-day check-in is a separate conversation with the hiring leader and the new hire at the three-month mark, timed to the guarantee period, to surface what neither will raise on their own.

Isn't this just instinct with better language?

No. We are not replacing assessment with intuition; we are assessing something the standard process never looks at, using structured input gathered from the hiring manager up front. Instinct is what a hiring manager uses when they meet a candidate once and decide whether they like them. The leader brief replaces that with a written account of how the leader works, gathered before any candidate is met. The fit conversation then asks every shortlisted candidate the same questions against that account.

The output is comparable across candidates and checkable after the fact. When a hire works, we can say which parts of the brief predicted it. When one does not, the 90-day check-in tells us what the brief missed. That is the opposite of instinct. The method is the proof.

How is this different from a standard search?

We make the usual promises, and we add the things that make them hold. The table below sets what search firms commonly offer against what The Corelation also offers alongside it.