Beyond Interviews: Moving from Intuition to Evidence-Based Executive Assessment - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stephen K. Straus, Ph.D., is President and Co-Founder of Developmental Associates, where he has developed recruitment and executive selection processes for over twenty years. A former Extension Professor in the Master of Public Administration program at North Carolina State University, he created, coordinated, and taught in executive programs. He specializes in leadership assessment and development, strategic human resource management, and organizational behavior.

Heather A. Lee, Ph.D., is Co-Founder and Partner at Developmental Associates. An organizational consultant specializing in the nonprofit and governmental sectors, her practice areas include executive recruitment and selection, coaching, executive leadership development, and team development, with a focus on assessing emotional intelligence in the workplace.

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Replace intuition with evidence-based methods for executive selections, with a proven 92% success-rate

Heavy reliance on resumes, references, and interviews fails to reveal critical competencies such as writing, presentation, and leadership skills. Beyond Interviews: Moving from Intuition to Evidence-Based Executive Assessment provides specific steps for designing systematic assessment methods premised on objective data rather than the usual intuition-driven approach. Grounded in over twenty years of applied practice and refined through partnerships filling over 300 executive positions, every method has been tested in real organizational settings.

Each chapter applies a structured approach that directly challenges readers to examine their current methods and adopt stronger alternatives. The techniques are backed by a documented track record: over 92% of executives placed using these processes remained in position for at least five years or received a promotion. Practitioners are guided through skills-based assessment design, moving from theoretical knowledge testing toward evaluation of practical competencies that predict leadership effectiveness. The authors also provide a structure and process for conducting best practice interviews that provide direct evidence of key executive competencies.

Written for managers, CEOs, directors of mission-driven organizations, and academic administrators, this book also serves HR professionals, elected officials in local government, and nonprofit board members responsible for executive hiring. It delivers the structured methodology practitioners need to reduce leadership failure and make defensible, data-driven selection choices.