Every instruction begins with a sitting and a written plan. What follows depends on how visible the hire can be.
Exclusive instruction. We map the market, approach on a named brief, and present a shortlist we can defend. Staging is typical: retainer, shortlist, completion. Weekly notes — not a dashboard you have to chase.
Used when a departure is not yet public. We work from a closed longlist. Candidates are told only what you authorise. Off-diary conversations are the default.
Specialist and mid-senior roles that are still too important for a scatter-gun. Same written plan; a slightly wider slate only when the market is thin.
We will sit in a second interview, write a comparison note, and help a panel choose without adding theatre. We do not sell psychometric products we do not use ourselves.
Sometimes, when the role is already public and the specification is tight. We still refuse cattle-market slates.
You may write first. We will not start a search without a sitting. Politics does not survive a job description alone.
As members of a private book. CVs move only with consent. If the brief is wrong, we say so before you waste an afternoon.