Five questions that procurement does not ask and that separate vendors who take accountability for outcomes from those who take accountability for delivery.
ProventusHR is a Leading Bespoke Leadership Advisory that works directly with CHROs throughout every engagement, from the diagnostic conversation through to 90-day evidence collection. This guide covers the five questions a CHRO should ask any leadership development vendor before commissioning, the role the CHRO plays in ensuring the programme produces Board-ready evidence, and what a vendor who takes genuine accountability for outcomes looks like in the discovery conversation.
Question 1: Can you show Level 3 or Level 4 evidence from a named previous engagement?
Not from a portfolio. Not from a brochure. A named programme, a named client engagement, observable behaviour change confirmed by reporting managers at 90 days, and where available a commercial outcome expressed as ROI. If the vendor has delivered genuine Level 3 or Level 4 outcomes, they will be able to name them. If they cannot name them, they have not produced them.
Question 2: Will the person in this conversation be the person in the room with my leaders?
Many firms sell through a senior principal and deliver through a roster of associates. Ask this question directly and ask for it to be committed to in the contract. ProventusHR is principal-led: RK and Sathi Aich-Dharap are named in every engagement they lead. There is no associate network, no sourced facilitator pool, no substitute delivery model.
Question 3: What specifically happens between modules to transfer learning to the workplace?
The gap between a module and the next is where behaviour change is either consolidated or lost. Ask for a specific description of the inter-module architecture: what participants are required to do, how it is reviewed, and how accountability is maintained. If the answer is vague or the responsibility is placed entirely on participants without a structured sprint, the programme will produce in-room insight that evaporates within weeks.
Question 4: How will the outcome evidence be structured for Board or investment committee presentation?
The CHRO will eventually need to present the outcomes of this investment to the Board, the CEO, or the CFO. Ask the vendor how the evidence will be packaged: what format, what level of specificity, and whether the documentation is structured to stand independently without additional interpretation by the CHRO. The Self Impact Showcase produces evidence that is Board-ready as collected, with named participants, named outcomes, and reporting manager co-signatures.
Question 5: What is your position on confidentiality from the diagnostic conversation?
The diagnostic conversation will surface sensitive information about your leadership culture, capability gaps, and organisational dynamics. Ask the vendor explicitly how this information is held, whether it is shared within the vendor organisation, and what their data handling commitment is. A vendor who does not raise this proactively is not treating the diagnostic as a confidential advisory conversation.
Ask for Level 3 or Level 4 evidence from a named engagement. Confirm whether the person in the conversation will be the person in the room. Ask specifically about inter-module application architecture. Ask how outcomes will be packaged for Board presentation. Ask about confidentiality of the diagnostic conversation.
Present three things to the investment committee: named business outcomes the programme is designed to contribute to, a measurement methodology producing Kirkpatrick Level 3 and Level 4 evidence the CFO can read, and third-party validation of the vendor methodology. ProventusHR provides all three through LEAP design architecture and the Self Impact Showcase.
The vendor should be asking more than telling. It should cover your specific leadership gaps, the business context, the observable outcomes you need, and the constraints. If the vendor is presenting their capabilities before understanding your diagnostic, the conversation is a sales pitch, not a diagnostic.
For CHROs
Every ProventusHR engagement begins with a diagnostic. RK leads the conversation. No associate attends. No standard deck is presented. The conversation is confidential and diagnostic from the first minute.
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