Our Process
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The LCG Search Process
We help companies in moments of change find leaders, from Director to C-Level, who don’t just fit the job, they move the business forward.
Leadership Capital Group partners with companies navigating inflection points, growth, reinvention, expansion, or strategic resets. You don’t need a résumé that merely checks boxes. You need a leader who brings clarity, adaptability, and resilience. We help you find that leader, doing so in a manner that saves time, builds trust, and improves outcomes.
How We Work and Why It Works
You don’t have time to waste on 15 interviews. You shouldn’t have to “settle.” You need a leader who can deliver results, not just credentials. That’s precisely what we’re designed for.
Precision Without Delay
Our approach dramatically reduces the time clients spend on executive hiring — not by moving quickly for its own sake, but by ensuring the right candidate is identified early in the process. By aligning the leadership profile to what success actually requires — rather than relying solely on job descriptions or resumes — we consistently introduce a shortlist where 90% of placements are made from the initial slate. This ensures that senior leaders spend time only with high-potential finalists and are able to make decisions with confidence and clarity.
Search Led by Experienced Partners
Each engagement is led by two senior partners who bring decades of operational and functional leadership experience. This ensures that the individuals assessing candidates have themselves operated at the level they are hiring for. Clients are never handed off to junior staff, and every candidate presented has been personally evaluated by a partner. This model results in stronger alignment between candidate potential and organizational needs.
Beyond “Lift and Shift”
We challenge the conventional practice of replicating titles and industry tenure as proxies for future success. Our process actively surfaces candidates with transferable strengths, strategic versatility, and fresh perspectives — while maintaining alignment with role-specific requirements. This avoids the risk of hiring into sameness or reinforcing industry echo chambers, and instead brings in leaders capable of navigating complexity and driving change.
Structured Intake That Clarifies Strategy
Most clients come to us with a job description. Through a refined intake methodology, we help them arrive at a much clearer articulation of what the role is truly accountable for — over what time horizon, with what constraints, and in support of which strategic objectives. This upfront rigor translates into better-aligned candidates, faster decisions, and stronger organizational outcomes.
A Customer-Centric Lens on Leadership
Our roots in customer experience shape every dimension of the search — from how we assess leadership effectiveness to how we think about long-term impact. We evaluate how candidates lead through trust, engage teams in service of the customer, and foster cultures where accountability and empathy coexist. We believe that leadership effectiveness should be measured by the quality of the experience delivered to both internal and external stakeholders — and we apply that belief throughout our assessment process.
Advancing Diverse Leadership
We believe diversity in leadership is essential to innovation and long-term business performance. Our search strategies are designed to reduce bias and expand access to underrepresented talent. More importantly, we help clients assess candidates beyond the narrow lens of industry fit or familiarity — ensuring that individuals who bring different perspectives, lived experiences, and leadership styles are evaluated for what they can do, not just where they’ve been.
Candidate Experience That Reflects Well on You
Candidates, even those not selected, consistently report feeling seen, heard, and respected throughout our process. This experience builds goodwill toward your brand, expands your leadership network, and often results in future talent referrals. In an increasingly transparent talent market, how you conduct a search matters — and our process is designed to reflect well on your company from start to finish.
A Deeper, More Reliable View of Leadership
Rather than relying solely on self-assessment or polished interview responses, we triangulate each candidate’s leadership approach through a mix of formal and informal referencing. We engage with people who have managed, worked alongside, and reported to the candidate. This 360-degree insight reveals how a leader truly operates — how they build trust, respond to pressure, develop talent, and drive results. It’s the difference between hearing what someone intends to do and learning how they actually show up in a team.
A Candidate Experience That Builds Mutual Trust
We invest time in understanding each candidate’s values, motivators, and long-term goals — professionally and personally. That trust enables honest conversations about what roles will and won’t be a fit. As a result, candidates lean on us as advisors, not intermediaries, and are more transparent about their expectations. We share client feedback candidly, manage expectations thoughtfully, and keep candidates informed throughout the process. Many tell us they’ve never experienced such clarity and care in an executive search — and often recommend us as a result.
executive search and recruitment Process
01.
Discovery
Weeks 1–2
We go far beyond the job description. Through structured intake led by senior partners, we clarify what the role is truly accountable for, what success looks like, and where the business is headed — so the search aligns with your strategy, not just your staffing need.
02.
Candidate Engagement
Throughout
We build trusted, candid relationships with candidates from day one, uncovering real motivators, risks, and deal-breakers. This reduces surprises, raises close rates, and reflects well on your brand long before the offer.
03.
Evaluation & Validation
Weeks 3-10
Every candidate is personally evaluated by partners with real-world operational experience. We triangulate leadership fit through rigorous referencing, not just interviews, to reveal how candidates lead, build trust, and navigate complexity.
04.
Offer/Placement
Week 14, often before
Once the hire is made, we don’t disappear. We stay involved post-placement to ensure your new leader lands with clarity, builds momentum fast, and starts delivering impact, not just output.
Discovery
In Discovery, our goal is to understand your business in ways that even your internal teams might not.
We don’t start with a job description. We start with a question: What does success look like, really, for this hire?
Our Discovery phase goes beyond the surface. We dig deep into your business, often surfacing dynamics your internal teams haven’t articulated. We don’t just interview hiring managers. We build a cross-functional intake that includes HR, peers, business leaders, and often the board. This isn’t for optics—it’s how we expose alignment early or reveal friction that could derail a hire later.
We probe beyond responsibilities and resumes. We uncover cultural tensions, legacy baggage, and unspoken expectations. Misfires in executive hiring usually happen when everyone aligns around a title instead of a purpose. We don’t let that happen.
- A sharper, shared definition of success
- A leadership profile tailored to the business you actually have (and want to build)
- A faster, more confident search
- Fewer interviews, stronger finalists, better hires
This is where most firms cut corners. We don’t. Because this is where the real value begins.
We also bring tools that help accelerate clarity. Our AI-enabled intake framework doesn’t replace judgment—it automates the noise and captures each stakeholder’s perspective in their own words. That’s where the gaps show up. And that’s where the real work starts.
We come in curious. Here are the kinds of questions we ask:
- What is the problem this role is solving?
- Are you hiring for today, or for what you'll need 18 months from now?
- Is this role meant to stabilize or disrupt?
- Who will this person need to influence—and who might resist them?
- What stage is your business in? (Go-to-market, operational efficiency, value expansion?)
- How aligned is your team around this role’s purpose and authority?
Our process is rooted in operational depth, we’ve built companies, led teams, and sat in boardrooms. We bring that experience to every engagement, not as consultants, but as peers who understand what real leadership requires.
At the end of these two weeks, you’ll walk away with a position profile:
Position Profile
A fully realized document that redefines what the job is actually about.
Think: role outcomes, leadership traits, cultural insight—not a laundry list of responsibilities.
Candidate Engagement
This is where the search becomes personal, where trust is earned, not assumed.
- We lead with curiosity.
- We ask about purpose. What they’ve built, what they’ve learned. What’s next?
- We dig into values, life stage, leadership scars, and aspirations.
- We also engage former candidates for referrals, benchmarking, and calibration.
The relationship between a candidate and your company begins long before the first interview. But most firms treat that moment as transactional: a cold email, a templated pitch, a perfunctory screening call. That approach might generate volume, but it doesn’t connect with great leaders and is not how we operate.
At LCG, every search begins with a partner. Not a recruiter checking boxes, but someone who’s lived in your world who understands your business, your challenges, and the kind of leadership transformation you’re hiring for. We don’t sell jobs. We tell stories. Stories grounded in the discovery work we’ve already done. Stories about what’s possible in this role, and why it matters to your organization’s future.
We meet candidates where they are. Many of the leaders we engage aren’t actively looking. They’ve been approached dozens of times with recycled language and cookie-cutter roles. That’s why our outreach is different. We lead with curiosity, not assumption. We ask about purpose, what they’ve built, what they’ve learned, and what drives them now. We dig into values, leadership scars, aspirations, and life stage. It’s not unusual for a first call to last over an hour and spark a relationship that evolves over the years.
Our candidate network isn’t a static database; it’s a living ecosystem shaped by decades of placements, referrals, and career transitions. We regularly re-engage former candidates to benchmark roles, make referrals, and conduct fit tests.
We’re relentless in our pursuit of the right person. That means multiple conversations, targeted outreach, reference checks, and follow-ups. We don’t hide behind systems or automation. We pick up the phone. We show up in person, on Zoom, wherever it takes to build trust. Foe example, Michelle Martinez, one of our partners, once flew to a niche industry conference to meet a promising candidate face-to-face. That candidate wasn’t actively looking, but the connection sparked something real. Weeks later, they stepped into a leadership role that changed the trajectory of our client’s business.
Throughout the process, we’re in constant dialogue with candidates and clients:
Before interviews. After interviews. When doubt creeps in. When excitement spikes.
We navigate compensation conversations with candor. We spot risks early. We bridge gaps in expectation and understanding.
Here are just a few questions we might ask:
- What are you building toward?
- What’s driving you now?
- What kind of impact are you ready to make?
And when it’s time to introduce a candidate, we don’t just send a résumé.
We deliver a clear, honest perspective on who they are, how they lead, and why they belong in the room, so you’re not starting from zero. You’re starting from alignment.
Candidate Brief
A narrative that brings the candidate's story to life. Who they are. What they’ve built. Where they thrive. Why they matter.
Custom Interview Strategy Memo
We equip you to interview better. With a memo for each candidate: tailored guidance on what to ask, what to listen for, and where to push.
Evaluation & Validation
This is where discernment becomes everything.
We don’t show you everyone. We show you the right ones—the rare few who match your needs and stretch your thinking. For every finalist we send, we’ve screened and disqualified dozens. Not because they weren’t good on paper, but because they wouldn’t thrive in your context.
We test for more than credentials. We assess for strategic alignment, adaptability, cultural integration, and leadership attributes. The things that don’t show up on a resume — but show up every day in the role.
We use three primary lenses in evaluation:
- Attributes: How they lead, adapt, and align with your context
- Experience: Only relevant experience, not just titles
- Cultural Fit: How they amplify your existing team, not duplicate it
We disqualify hundreds to introduce five. And 97% of our first slates result in a finalist.
We’ve already spent hours with them. We’ve tested their thinking. We’ve unpacked how they respond to uncertainty. We’ve listened to how they talk about their teams, failures, and pivot moments. We’ve filtered them through your cultural reality and strategic ambitions, not a generic checklist. By the time they’re in front of you, we’ve already made a go/no-go decision on fit.
You’ll receive a detailed Candidate Assessment Report for each finalist. Not just a rehash of their experience, but our read on their alignment across the dimensions that matter most to you. We’ll share where they shine, where they’re still growing. What questions should you ask? Where to push. Where to pause.
We’re assessment-agnostic. If psychometric tools or existing internal frameworks add clarity, we use them. If not, we rely on structured interviews, real-world simulations, and backchannel references. Either way, we tailor our approach to fit your needs, not to tick a box.
We don’t hide behind email. We believe great leaders deserve great conversations. That means phone calls, not just LinkedIn pings. Real talks about real tradeoffs. And when needed, we’ll travel to build trust. Michelle once met a finalist at a conference to validate the fit face-to-face, and that person now leads one of our clients’ most strategic functions.
We don’t present “finalists” the way most firms do. We may still use the word “slate,” but let’s be honest, it’s outdated. Of the hundreds of candidates we screen, just 0.09% are introduced. From that 5- or 6 shortlist, 97% make it to the final round. That’s not mass hiring. That’s precision targeting.
Why so few? Every additional week your role goes unfilled adds risk—missed opportunity, lost budget, and team drag. Many companies can’t afford the typical 120-day hiring cycle. We shorten it without sacrificing quality.
We respect your time. We respect your business. And we optimize for both.
Candidate Assessment Report
We provide a side-by-side Candidate Comparison Grid to help your team get aligned, fast.
Candidate Comparison Grid
If someone looks great on paper but isn’t right? We’ll say so. If someone seems unconventional but could move the needle? We’ll push for a second look. Because our job isn’t to rubber-stamp your instincts. It’s to sharpen them.
Offer & Placement
We don’t just deliver candidates. We help close them—and set them up to succeed.
We lead the offer process with transparency, empathy, and data. Because we’ve built trust with candidates from day one, we understand their true motivators—how they think about compensation, what kind of impact they want to make, and how family, lifestyle, or legacy factor into the equation. That insight lets us shape offers that feel right, not just look competitive.
Sometimes, that means prioritizing equity over salary or designing a role that puts long-term purpose ahead of short-term pay. Senior leaders often reach a point where financial security isn’t the primary driver. They seek meaning, momentum, and the right stage to make a difference. We help structure around that. And when compensation expectations stretch beyond budget, we know how to navigate the conversation to find alignment without compromising credibility or momentum.
Placement isn’t a handoff; it’s a transition we manage closely. Once a finalist emerges, we guide both sides through the final stages, helping craft an ambitious but grounded offer and ensuring communication is aligned inside the company before any public or internal announcement is made.
We stay involved well past the signature. We check in with the candidate before their start date, talk with key stakeholders, and listen for what’s happening, where the excitement lives, and where resistance might quietly be building. That feedback isn’t anecdotal. It’s synthesized and shared in a way that helps the new hire land with impact and the organization stay aligned.
Because we guarantee every placement for a whole year, we don’t disappear when the paperwork’s done. We’re invested in getting it right.
To close the loop, clients receive two key tools: a Search Completion Dashboard, which captures the full lifecycle of the search, from outreach volume and funnel data to interview hours and decision drivers, and an Onboarding Feedback Snapshot, offering qualitative insights into early wins, potential integration risks, and opportunities to strengthen alignment before they become problems.
Search Completion Dashboard
A visual snapshot of the search lifecycle: outreach volume, candidate funnel, interview hours, and final decision drivers.
Onboarding Feedback Snapshot
A qualitative readout from stakeholders and the candidate—capturing early wins, integration risks, and alignment opportunities.
