Every Kleboe search runs through the same 76-step process, from the first conversation about the role to the year after your new leader starts.
I won’t list all 76 here. The point is not the number. It is that nothing important is left to memory, mood or a busy week. Every search gets the same rigour, whoever the client and whatever the role.
One example: I take six references on every shortlisted candidate before final interviews, not after an offer. By the time you meet them for the last time, you are deciding with evidence, not hoping the references hold up later.
Placement is not the finish line
Most searches stop when the offer is signed. Mine doesn’t. The final stage of the process is a series of ongoing calls with the candidate, and with you, across roughly the first year, starting in their first week and continuing month by month.
Commercial terms follow the same logic. The final third of the fee is only invoiced after the new leader has been in post for twelve months, so I stay invested in fit for as long as the search is meant to last.
Those calls are there to check fit in real life, not just on paper. Small frictions are easy to fix early and very hard to fix late. I am often the one person both sides will speak to frankly, and that is what makes the difference.