The Science of Transformative Leadership

The Crucible is a performance enhancement research tool exclusively for the private equity-backed middle market. The assessment is custom-built to support our clients in better understanding a candidate’s ability to drive value creation and elevate their portfolio companies. 

About The Report

Why The Crucible?

In the unique private equity space, sponsors require elite, execution-minded executives to maximize MOIC. Amongst many other qualities, leaders must be hands-on, urgent, decisive, and resilient.

The Crucible, a leadership optimization research tool, quantifies these, and other critical behaviors, to help Boards and executives maximize the potential of each investment thesis.

Goal

The Crucible is a customized development tool that was created after recognizing a gap in the market for a resource of its kind. The Crucible was built by private equity experts upon reams of private equity-specific performance data to ensure that the most critical cognitive and behavioral qualities are considered.

Problem

Most commonly available assessments are heavily weighted towards either IQ or EQ, but very rarely consider a combination of both. Without addressing both IQ and EQ, and focusing on these attributes in context of private equity, one of the most demanding leadership environments, an individual's profile depiction is incomplete.

Solution

The Crucible is comprised of an intellectual component, a work styles analysis, and a behavioral component. Based on the results, The Crucible offers insights into how candidates’ profiles translate into a private equity environment - individually, as a team, and for a specific fund.

The Private Equity Quotient (PEQ)

The report generates one PEQ which is an algorithmically generated result derived from the five catalyst scores, shown as a percentile. The PEQ is indicative of the individual's potential fit in a private equity-backed portfolio company.

The Archetype

The Crucible’s powerful algorithm complements the PEQ by placing each individual into a proprietary Archetype. While the PEQ measures overall private equity potential in a more general context, the Archetype helps determine the more specific context in which an individual may be most successful.

Catalyst Score

Catalyst scores are derived from numerous Element level scores, resulting in a percentile score that indicates the strength of that catalyst across the spectrum of behavioral performance.

The report includes three types of scores.

Scores are shown as percentiles to capture the market, represent the distribution of data, and ensure relevant insights. In addition to the PEQ, the Archetype, and Catalyst and Element scores, the Crucible also provides insight into the Contaminants, the six most frequent causes of leadership derailment.

The Five Catalysts

The Crucible report is custom engineered for each participant and shares unique learning insights that help assess possible performance in a private equity environment. The report is centered around a proprietary behavioral model that includes five catalysts:

The ability to act and respond quickly, insightfully, and accurately.

The balance between emotional contagion and deeply rooted self-esteem to propel personal and team performance.

The ability to infectiously emote to positively impact an organization.

The ability to drive MOIC through the levers of psychology and performance.

The ability to problem solve, fostering better working relationships and higher levels of understanding.

For Funds

The Crucible creates a configured behavioral map tailored to the unique governance model and specific investment strategies of each particular sponsor. This customized profile greatly improves a sponsor’s ability to diligence, select and/or develop leaders across its portfolio.

Behavioral metrics that drive top-decile leadership evaluation.

Diligence intel that provides predictive M&A insights.

Talent analytics that elevate portfolio management.

For My Company

The comprehensive insights from The Crucible can be utilized at the team level. Once a team in entirety completes The Crucible, a more holistic view of the team will be evident. This unique analysis can drive future leadership team developments and draw awareness to any potential risk areas.

For Myself

The Crucible is a research tool that enables leaders to benchmark their behavioral profile against the composite profile of thousands of private equity sample cases.   Identifying your relative strengths and gaps across the behaviors that best predict success in private equity will help a.) ensure your position, b.) accelerate your career, and c.) maximize your wealth creation potential.