A résumé records where someone has been. Leadership assessment is about what they did once they got there.
Senior careers are easy to describe and hard to verify. Two candidates can hold the same title, in the same sector, at the same revenue scale, and have carried entirely different levels of genuine responsibility.
Ask for the conditions, not just the outcome
Results need context. A leader who grew a function during a market expansion faced a different challenge than one who protected it through contraction. Understanding the starting position, the constraints, and the resources available tells you far more than the headline figure.
Evidence worth probing
- Decisions made with incomplete information, and how they were reviewed afterwards
- People they hired, developed, and promoted — and where those people are now
- A judgement they got wrong, and what changed in their practice as a result
- How they handled disagreement with a peer or a board
- What they chose to stop doing, and why
Alignment is part of capability
A capable leader in the wrong environment still fails. Governance style, pace, decision culture, and appetite for change are legitimate assessment criteria, not soft considerations — and they should be discussed openly with the candidate rather than inferred.