Services
Leadership Diagnostics & HR Advisory
Assessment, advisory, and AI competence development for leadership teams — independent of or alongside executive search.
Not every leadership challenge translates into a search mandate. Some require an independent assessment of the leadership already inside the organisation. Some require a strategic HR perspective before a structure is set or a role is scoped. Some require building the capability of the leadership team itself. Ertler Executive Search offers three distinct service lines for these situations — grounded in business psychology, direct experience with leadership under pressure, and a decade of assessing senior talent across sectors and geographies.
Focus Areas
Leadership assessment and management audits — standalone or integrated with executive search
360° feedback, BPT® diagnostics, and executive assessment conducted by qualified business psychologists
HR advisory and AI competence development for senior leadership teams across DACH and internationally
Leadership Diagnostics
When does leadership diagnostics or HR advisory make sense?
The trigger for external diagnostics or HR advisory is typically not a vacancy — it is a structural or capability question that a vacancy would only temporarily answer. An organisation preparing for growth needs clarity on whether its current leadership architecture can carry the next phase. A company navigating transformation needs to know whether its senior team has the change capacity required before it designs new roles. A board considering succession needs an independent assessment of internal candidates before it decides whether to search externally.
Our HR advisory engagements are project-based and scope-defined: we work on organisational design, leadership architecture, role profiling ahead of search, HR strategy, and management audit preparation. Where appropriate, we combine advisory with diagnostics — so that recommendations are grounded in validated assessment data, not impression alone. For organisations that have previously worked with us on search mandates, advisory often follows naturally: we know the business, the leadership culture, and the market context well enough to add immediate value without a lengthy briefing phase.
Assessment Methods
Management audits, BPT® assessment, and 360° feedback
Diagnostic credibility comes from three things: the instrument, the person administering it, and the independence of the evaluation. Most assessment processes in executive search compromise on at least one of the three.
Members of our team are qualified business psychologists, certified in the assessment instruments we use, with direct experience in leadership evaluation at senior organisational levels. Where mandates require it, we also work with an external network of certified test psychologists — ensuring evaluator independence and data protection compliance. Assessments use the validated BPT® (Berufs-Persönlichkeitstest) with optional Riemann-Thomann cross-evaluation for leadership style and interpersonal dynamics. Data is stored exclusively in Austria or Germany in accordance with GDPR. Under stable life circumstances, BPT® results remain a useful reference point for several years and can support role changes, promotion decisions, and development planning without re-testing.
As part of a search mandate:
Candidate assessment is integrated into the shortlisting process. Clients receive structured dossiers combining competency-based interview findings with psychometric results and a written evaluation.
As a standalone mandate — Management Audits:
Where organisations need an independent view of an existing leadership team — before a restructuring, after an acquisition, or as part of succession planning — we run structured management audits. These cover individual executive assessments, team dynamic evaluation, and a written report with concrete development or repositioning recommendations.
360° feedback
The 360° feedback process adds a further dimension: structured external perception data from managers, peers, direct reports, and relevant external partners, combined with a 90-minute individual exploration session. The output is not a score — it is a development roadmap.
Die Nachfolge in einem inhabergeführten oder familiengeführten Unternehmen unterliegt anderen Rahmenbedingungen als ein klassischer Führungswechsel. Die neue Führungskraft übernimmt nicht nur eine Rolle, sondern eine Unternehmensidentität — oft über Jahrzehnte gewachsen. Die Toleranz für kulturelle Verwerfungen ist geringer, die Stakeholder-Dynamiken komplexer und die Anforderungen an das Change Management deutlich ausgeprägter als in einem professionell geführten Konzernumfeld.
Unsere Nachfolgeberatung für inhabergeführte Unternehmen geht über die Kandidatenbewertung hinaus. Wir arbeiten gemeinsam mit Gesellschaftern und Beiräten daran, die spezifischen Anforderungen der Transition zu erfassen: die Kulturfit-Kriterien, die sich aus einem Stellenprofil allein nicht ableiten lassen, die Veränderungsbereitschaft der Organisation sowie die interpersonellen Dynamiken, die darüber entscheiden, ob Führungsautorität erfolgreich übergeben wird. Interne wie externe Kandidaten werden nicht nur an Kompetenzprofilen gemessen — sondern daran, ob sie eine Unternehmenskultur tragen können, die sie nicht selbst aufgebaut haben.
CEO- und Führungsnachfolge in inhabergeführten Unternehmen
The strategic challenge of AI adoption is not technical — it is a leadership and governance question. Which decisions can AI support, and which must remain human? How does the leadership team govern AI-generated output in high-stakes contexts? How does the EU AI Act affect accountability structures, and who in the organisation owns that accountability?
Our AI competence development programme is aimed at executive boards, senior leadership teams, and HR functions navigating these questions in practice. It is not a general AI literacy training — it is a structured capability assessment and development process built around the specific operating context of the client organisation.
The programme runs in three phases: an AI maturity assessment mapping the current state of AI integration across leadership practices, HR processes, and operational functions; a role-specific competence development programme built around actual decisions and responsibilities of the leadership team; and an embedding phase implementing governance frameworks and capability measurement. Deliverables include a written AI maturity report, a role-based competence development plan, and a governance framework tailored to the organisation's risk profile and EU AI Act requirements.
AI competence development for leadership teams
Typical Mandates
Assessment, Advisory and Competence Development for Leadership Decisions.
Management audit ahead of restructuring or post-acquisition integration
Leadership architecture review before scaling or entering new markets
Standalone psychometric assessment of internal succession candidates (BPT®)
360° feedback programme for a senior leadership team or individual executives
HR strategy and role design ahead of a search mandate
AI maturity assessment for leadership teams
AI competence development for executive boards and HR functions
CEO-Nachfolge-Assessment und Kulturfit-Evaluation in inhabergeführten und familiengeführten Unternehmen
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Direct answers to frequently asked questions before a diagnostic, succession, or HR advisory mandate.
Additional Services
Supplementary services and Practice Groups
Start the conversation
Considering a management audit, leadership assessment, or HR advisory engagement?
Let's clarify the question first — and determine whether diagnostics, advisory, or a search is the right response.