Assessments & Insights

Decision-grade insight for leadership calls you can’t afford to get wrong

When your organization is approaching growth, transformation, or leadership change, intuition and surface-level assessments aren’t enough. In these moments, leaders need a clear, objective understanding of whether their talent is ready for what’s next.

Our Assessments & Insights practice provides CEOs, boards, and investors with a grounded, reality-tested understanding of leadership capability, potential, and risk, so they can make confident decisions about hiring, promotion, succession, and structure.

Why HAVEN Assessments & Insights?

Whether you are hiring, promoting, or preparing for growth, we deliver clear, unbiased insight leaders can stand behind—focused not on scores or theory, but on what it will take for someone to succeed in the role and organization ahead.

Using assessments tailored to the roles, strategy, and future-state needs of your business, we support high-stakes talent decisions across a range of situations, including:

  • Private Equity and venture capital transactions and investments
  • Executive and C-suite candidate assessments
  • Internal leadership readiness and promotion decisions
  • Succession and bench-strength evaluations
  • Leadership team and function-level capability assessments
  • Organizational readiness for scale or transformation

Our Approach

We combine a structured, data-driven methodology with experience and judgment to produce a reliable, decision-ready view of talent, including:

  • Custom competency and leadership rubrics aligned to your organization’s future-state requirements
  • Validated psychometrics to assess capability, potential, and risk
  • Qualitative interviews and calibration to contextualize data and surface organizational dynamics
  • Clear communication and expectation-setting to support trust, participation, and adoption
  • Integrated synthesis that connects individual findings to the implications across the broader organization

What We Deliver

Our assessments are built to support real decisions. You can expect:

  • A clear, evidence-based view of strengths, gaps, and role fit
  • Insight into leadership capability and how the system around them is functioning
  • Practical recommendations tied directly to business priorities
  • A narrative that leaders can confidently use with boards, investors, and stakeholders

Our Assessments & Insights Offerings

Executive & C-Suite Assessment

For high-stakes acquisition, hiring, promotion, or succession decisions

A structured, objective assessment of senior leaders or executive candidates against the specific demands of the role and business context. In this work, we evaluate capability, potential, and risk to help decision-makers determine whether a leader is positioned to succeed now—and as the organization evolves.

Common use cases: CEO and C-suite hiring, internal promotions, board-level decisions, succession planning

Learn More

Leadership Readiness & Promotion Assessment

For evaluating internal talent and bench strength

An assessment of current leaders or high-potential talent to determine readiness for expanded scope, increased complexity, or new roles. This package focuses on role fit, development needs, and promotion risk to support confident internal talent decisions.

Common use cases: VP and director promotions, succession pipelines, high-potential programs

Learn More

Organizational & Functional Readiness Assessment

For scale, transformation, or operating model change

A function- or organization-level assessment that evaluates leadership capability, role clarity, and organizational dynamics in relation to future-state needs. This work identifies gaps, risks, and priorities before major growth, restructuring, or transformation efforts.

Common use cases: Pre-scale readiness, post-turnover stabilization, transformation planning, new leadership resets

Learn More

Pre-Close Leadership Due Diligence Assessment

For private equity and growth investors evaluating leadership risk pre-transaction

A targeted, time-bound assessment designed to give investors a clear, objective view of the strengths, gaps, and risks within the current leadership team before a transaction is finalized. This package focuses on leadership capability, operating maturity, and execution risk relative to the investment thesis and value-creation plan. We assess whether key leaders can deliver against the next phase of growth, where the real risks lie, and what interventions may be required post-close—without disrupting the deal process.

Common use cases: PE or growth equity transactions, platform acquisitions, add-on diligence, founder-led company assessments, go-forward leadership risk evaluation

Learn More

  • Success Story

    HR Advisory Client
    HR Advisory Client

    Context

    A small tech company had recently appointed a new CEO and reduced its force by 60%. Heading into a new year with the same number of goals and less than half the people. The executive team knew that a few things would be critical in the next year:
    Learn More

    The Brief

    A small tech company had recently appointed a new CEO and reduced its force by 60%. Heading into a new year with the same number of goals and less than half the people. The executive team knew that a few things would be critical in the next year:
    1. they carefully selected and desperately needed to retain the remaining employees,
    2. they needed to focus, which required them to engage in uncomfortable discussions about which products they would drop, and
    3. they needed everyone in the organization to have the skills to disagree, share concerns, and take risks.

    Approach and Results

    HAVEN was introduced by a board member as a group that could support the organization in a variety of ways. A HAVEN consultant partnered with the leadership team to facilitate the series of difficult focus discussions and to be a resource for employees to share concerns. The HAVEN learning and development team conducted workshops and led small case groups to embed the capabilities in the employees to challenge each other and disagree openly. And a HAVEN project team implemented a pulse survey to measure engagement quarterly, ensuring that any individual or team in distress received support.
    HR Advisory Client

  • Success Story

    HR Advisory Client
    HR Advisory Client

    Context

    After three VP resignations within two months, the CEO of a 30-person biotech contacted HAVEN to better understand their culture. The CEO needed to understand what was working and what needed to change.
    Learn More

    The Brief

    After three VP resignations within two months, the CEO of a 30-person biotech contacted HAVEN to better understand their culture. The CEO needed to understand what was working and what needed to change.

    Approach and Results

    A HAVEN advisor met with every employee (1:1 or in focus groups) and presented a comprehensive culture and engagement report to the executive team. Following the report, three strategic initiatives were launched:
    1. HAVEN built and implemented a more structured approach to performance management, ensuring employees were getting feedback and knew where they stood,
    2. 360’s were conducted for the managers, allowing direct reports to openly share their experience, and allowing HAVEN to better understand what skills needed to be built across the manager population,
    3. a goal setting process was implemented to both clarify the most urgent priorities, and to remove less urgent work from plates. HAVEN’s role with the organization has evolved over more than two years of partnership, but the course of the work is still set by the evolving needs of the employees, leadership, and teams.
    HR Advisory Client

  • Success Story

    HR Advisory Client
    HR Advisory Client

    Context

    An 11-person R&D company in Cambridge had just gone through a major restructuring that included a layoff of 60% of the workforce. They were managing cash carefully as they aimed to turn the company's performance around. The new CEO, appointed just before the restructuring, announced that talent would be the differentiator if they were to succeed.
    Learn More

    Context

    An 11-person R&D company in Cambridge had just gone through a major restructuring that included a layoff of 60% of the workforce. They were managing cash carefully as they aimed to turn the company's performance around. The new CEO, appointed just before the restructuring, announced that talent would be the differentiator if they were to succeed. A board member recommended that HAVEN partner with the CEO to bring his vision to life.

    Haven Approach

    HAVEN focused on implementing key strategies that fit the culture and drove performance without distracting the team from the scientific progress required to maintain their funding. HAVEN tackled key initiatives such as:
    • designing and embedding goal-setting and key results into the annual planning process,
    • designing a light performance management process, and
    • advising managers on delivering candid and timely feedback to employees.
    The results were significant. The executives and scientists achieved unprecedented results in the lab. They acquired another company and raised an additional $80M. At 90 employees, the organization has just hired its first HR leader and will continue to engage HAVEN with key coaching engagements and manager development programs.
    HR Advisory Client

  • Success Story

    HR Advisory Client
    HR Advisory Client

    Context

    A Biotech company with 50M in funding had grown to 40 people without an HR leader in place. They had recently lost four key employees, and they were starting to see signs that engagement was low across the company.
    Learn More

    Context

    A Biotech company with 50M in funding had grown to 40 people without an HR leader in place. They had recently lost four key employees, and they were starting to see signs that engagement was low across the company.

    Haven Approach

    An HR leader from HAVEN was hired to spend one day per week getting a handle on the dynamics and advising them on the most critical people issues. HAVEN's leader met with key leaders 1:1 and conducted a series of focus groups to hear from employees. This research led to a recommendation for the leaders to focus on three critical vulnerabilities:
    • providing context and managing expectations during periods of change,
    • comprehensive onboarding and relationship-building opportunities for new employees, and
    • equipping and empowering more junior managers to own and lead their teams.
    The engagement was measured in 6-month intervals and improved steadily over the next 18 months. The organization grew in a healthier way and reached 60 employees before hiring a VP of Human Resources. HAVEN's consultant still meets regularly with the CEO and serves as a strategic resource to the new HR leader.
    HR Advisory Client

FAQs

Choosing an executive coach is a big decision. Some say qualifications matter most; others say chemistry is most important. At HAVEN, we think both are necessary. That’s why all our coaches have formal coach training and business experience and represent a versatile set of coaching styles. Yet, there’s one more consideration essential to making this investment worth it.

It depends. Coaching is expensive and only worth it for some. Complete this scorecard to help you decide. [Trevor: Answer code yes/no/not sure]

  • Does the recipient want coaching?
  • Does the recipient need to develop to achieve his/her/their goals?
  • Is the recipient capable of change?
  • Can the recipient make the time to invest in coaching?
  • Would the organization be receptive/supportive?
  • Is coaching a last-ditch effort to “save” recipient from termination? [reverse coded where yes calculation would go into no score]
  • Does the organization have the budget for coaching?
  • Have (or will) internal supports been provided like feedback and mentoring?

[If 70% or more are yes]: Great, it sounds like coaching may well be a smart investment in this time. If you want to discuss further and/or get to know our coaches, complete this quick form and we will get in touch.

[If 70% or more of answers are no]: From our experience, it doesn’t sound like coaching is the right intervention in this instance. We’d hate for you to invest finite resources on something with such a questionable return but if you think there is a case for coaching, reach out to us to talk.

[If no clear winner or most answers are unsure]: From our experience, positive answers to these questions are proportional to the success of the partnership. As such, we’d encourage you to uncover these answers before you determine if coaching is the right step at this time.

Bring your innovative and unique culture

to life

Schedule Your Consultation
Book an appointment
Or

Send us a message