Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Fractional Models

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Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast, a show for the new generation of leaders. Join Melissa R. Skog as she speaks to a wide variety of guests that bring new insights into leadership, prosperity, and personal growth. While now it has all the answers, by building a community of open-minded and gauge leaders, we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success. [MUSIC] Hello and welcome everyone to Executive Connect podcast.

Today I am so excited to have Jennifer Clark here today to discuss fractional roles. Jennifer, tell us a little bit about you. Yes, sure, thanks, Melissa. Thanks so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. So a little bit about myself. I'm currently serving as a fractional CEO, which I know is the topic of our discussion today. I have over 25 years of experience working in various industries, from healthcare to technology and food and beverage.

And with different sizes of companies, everything from Fortune 100, publicly traded companies to privately held smaller startups. I love it. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm just going to jump right in. Tell me exactly for the listeners, what is the difference between fractional roles and how they're different than full-time roles? Yeah, that's actually a very common question that I get. The world of fractional CXO is very new, I would say.

And probably has accelerated it over the last couple of years since COVID. And we'll talk probably a little bit more about why that is. But essentially a fractional CXO is a executive who helps a, typically, a startup company. But it might also be a company that has a executive level role that's somewhat in transition, and they need someone to help fill in that space. So the way I'd like to think of it is sort of hiring a COO is a service. In my case, a chief operating officer.

But I would say there are also other fractional roles that are very popular, particular CFOs, chief financial officers, chief marketing officers and chief revenue or growth officers are probably the most common ones that are out there. I would say the difference between a consultant and a fractional CXO is, a consultant is often coming into your organization, looking and seeing what the, whatever the opportunity could be.

So in my case, maybe how the operations are running and providing advice and recommendations on where the company can go next. And from there, the company often takes that, can take that advice or make tweaks and then they move forward with implementation. The difference, I would say, with a fractional role is you're a little more embedded into the company. And so oftentimes you have recommendations and advice, but you're also responsible for implementing that.

And you also serve as a key leadership role where the team often is taking direction from you

to move forward with those implementation or the running of the company, which would be different than kind of consultant where they're sort of there to help advise, but not really directly overseeing the team. That's a great explanation. I know we're talking a little bit before. One of my children was asking me about how to explain fractional roles. And when I think of fractional roles, I also think personally as well.

Like I know I've outsourced different things in our home from yard work to housework, to food services and you name it. I feel like the world you nailed it is evolving quite a bit to leverage and increase your productivity. Personally and professionally to get the results that you need to drive whatever the position is for. So what are some key from your perspective? What are some key benefits of companies engaging in fractional roles? Like I said, companies are people. Yeah, definitely.

And I very much can relate to that analogy there where we oftentimes have people who come in help and they're almost embedded as part of our family, right? Sort of our fractional family members that help get things done. So what I would say is where, you know, I, there are different types of fractional roles. But what I would say is probably the most common.

And I think this actually started off mostly in the tech world is if you are a startup company and maybe only have a handful of employees and you have a handful of capital and resources to deploy, right? It's very costly to bring in someone early stage like a chief information officer, chief technology officer, which you want the benefits of the advice of the strategic, strategic direction of that leader.

So oftentimes instead of hiring someone full time, let's say as a CIO or CTO or, you know, my case, a CO, you can really have someone come in and help you on a set project that you need strategic help with. Or at times you can also hire someone for a set number of hours. So for some of my clients, I serve as a fractional CO for one day a week. Or I have someone else that actually I serve in that role for three days a week.

So for a fraction of the cost of what it would have for someone full time salary, you can basically get that strategic advice, the executive leadership, the coaching and the mentoring, but not have to pay for a full time salary. And from a fractional perspective, you can work with multiple companies.

I would say probably on average, somewhere between one and three customers or clients, if you will, is probably about the norm, but you can also help, you know, multiple companies at the same time to piece together your own sort of full time salary while someone else is, you know, also having you part time as well. That's great.

I'm sitting here thinking of all the other questions I want to ask you, but what are you for companies who've never used fractional roles or they're very, we're hiring it, we're in-sourcing everything who've never outsourced in a fractional capacity. What are some challenges or obstacles that those companies might face when integrating

these type of roles into their already existing organization? And really how can they overcome those challenges as well? I guess the second part to the question. Yeah. And maybe I'll share sort of a personal experience I had with one of my main clients. I think they've gone very smoothly, but I think part of it is how you communicate and set expectations with existing employees of that company. So for one of my clients right now, they're actually a publicly traded company.

They don't have a CO right now, so I'm sort of filling the void, if you will, of helping one of their business units with the CO services. Now from the onset, I first came in and kind of did an assessment of their operations to say what's working well, where did I see opportunities for improvement? And then they wanted me to come in kind of this expanded role to help with the implementation. So one is they had to sort of set expectations with the team on what my role was, right?

And they actually said, Jennifer is a little bit different than a consultant where she really is going to come in and help lead you through these improvement efforts. I think partly what distinguishes also a consultant from someone in bed, someone serving a fractional role is I'm very embedded in their systems. So I would have an actual email in the company.

So when we're doing email correspondence, even sometimes with outside vendors that were working with suppliers, internally I look like I'm a member of the team and really I'm acting as such on behalf of the company. Also if we need to do calendaring, messaging through Microsoft Teams or GCHAT or whenever it is, you're also embedded in the system so people can really directly have access to you.

That is very different than a consultant where you're really engaging with that client outside email systems. But also in terms of running team meetings, one on one, sitting in on the executive calls, I'm doing all of that. It's a really outside of personnel decisions. And certainly I am providing advice on hiring or any performance management issues, but obviously as a not as an employee, I am not doing any direct hiring or performance management. I would say that would be a key differentiator.

But I think part of it is like really setting the expectation. I know they were like Jennifer's part of our team. We want you to think of her as somewhat your manager. Go to her for advice, mentorship, and so I really become a trusted resource not only to the rest of the executive team, but also managers, direct reports or other people who can come to me for advice. Great. I love that.

When I think of it, I also when I think of it in today's world, working more, working nothing's ever enough, kind of the culture thing more and more and more and more. I think of fractional roles. I also think of it emotionally, like job sharing, increased responsibility and satisfaction across the organization. So you hit on it, right?

When you were mentioning that you're really focusing on what you're doing, it's going to help other departments reduce burden, burn out, spread the responsibility across the board. So not one person is doing 50 things on their list a week. Maybe they have like ten key things they're focusing on and I also think too, like when you're focusing on 50 things, it becomes really difficult to be productive. When you're overwhelmed with too many things to do, you're really not as effective doing

the things you need to be doing. And then it really kind of, you're really engaging part time with somebody who's an expert in an area for a limited amount of hours. So they're just focusing on that time for those key initiatives that they've been engaged for. Yeah, you bring up a couple of really good points. So one is I am a firm believer of prioritization. If you have 20 projects going, you have 20 balls in the air, air, something's going to fall, right, and slip through the cracks.

So as you were saying, most of my engagements are quarter by quarter. So I'll sign an engagement for quarter and then we'll kind of decide one month prior to the end of the quarter if we're going to continue to the next quarter. But for every quarter, we're very strategic and specific about these are the priorities for the quarter and that's what I'm specifically working on with the teams to get over the finish line.

Once we hopefully get those, once we hopefully get those in place, then we can move on to the next priorities for the next quarter, right?

I think the other thing which you brought up in terms of just communication in some ways, a lot of times I'm serving as kind of a go between amongst the functions, especially when you get to a larger size organization, there could be tension between departments or functions or politics, a play, etc. And in some ways, like, I don't have those, those conflicts, if you will, because I'm technically a member of the team.

And so I'm really, truly there to help with all the pain points across all the functions without really having a loyalty to in my case, like the operations team because I'm sort of an outsider, but also on the inside. And so really, I see a lot of my role is more kind of the connector and the glue across the departments to break through the barriers of like, I would want to say this to this other department, but I can't really say that. They might take it the wrong way.

So if everyone can kind of use me as that buffer, if you will, I can take the feedback and really understand where the changes are and why we're not breaking forward. And then keeping who said what anonymous, I can usually start to forge a path forward of getting everyone together.

And like, here's what I heard collectively, collectively between all the departments and very, how we move forward really without thinking about the politics and people's feelings being heard and really just focusing on what's the improvement opportunity and moving it forward.

I have seen a tremendous increase in collaboration and communication amongst the departments since I've joined some of these organizations, which is another good benefit of having a fractional person because they can kind of cut through some of those, you know, layers, if you will, that might exist. Yeah, I love that. I've been a part of consultants, not a bunch of fractional roles. This is fascinating to me because you're right. There's a big difference between that.

So switching gears, you know, you'd touch on a bit at the beginning. What trends do you foresee in the future of this type of work and fractional roles? How might companies look at that for their businesses?

Yeah, you know, I see a tremendous opportunity to see an increase in the amount of companies that are leveraging fractional executives. I think both for startups, it definitely makes sense, right? You have limited capital, limited resources and you need to stretch all those dollars until you get a viable product to market and see the revenue for oath, right?

I think it's a matter of getting the word out because a lot of people that I talk to that are founders, entrepreneurs, don't even know this is even an option for them. And so that many of them struggling with getting the marketing that needs to be, you know, out there to help your product or service get out there, but there's a trade off, right?

So it's like you need the executive to maybe help or a revenue officer or whatnot, or you need a CFO to help with the capital raise and deployment, but they're like, when do I hire that person? There's that push pull struggle, right? And so I definitely think in the startup space, it really makes a lot of sense.

I think, but also, you know, because some of my clients that go saying are larger organizations and are also are not startups, but I think anytime you're in some sort of transformation or transition. And you're not sure maybe what the right type of candidate that you need for a C O role or whatever it might be. I feel like this is a great opportunity in some ways to also test the waters.

Now for myself, I consider my career path as a fractional C O. I know some people take them as an interim role because maybe they haven't found the right opportunity, but they want to be contributing and working still. It's kind of a good way to test the waters. I would say in both sides, I see it sort of like dating, right? Maybe go on a few dates before you decide if you're making some sort of commitment for a long term relationship.

And I think this is a really good way to also do that too is a fractional executive. You can see what the culture is like. What things are like once you're actually inside the company and see what the type of work is.

If it's what you're looking for in terms of your career, but also is an opportunity for the company and the employer to also make sure that that executive is the right fit or see what direction they might want to go with the company, especially if they're in a sense of transformation. And they're like, hey, we could hire this type of CIO or maybe this type of CIO like someone who's very tax savvy, maybe someone who's more data, an analytics savvy.

And you can kind of test the waters and see really what you're looking for before you're diving in and then maybe realizing, oh, we maybe should have hired someone who had this experience instead. So I think I see it. And I think a lot of people from executives standpoints, especially I think in a world of post COVID where we saw the great resignation and people are really prioritizing different things in their career.

A lot of people who were senior leaders were unfortunately leaving and a lot of women in particular who were feeling undervalued or maybe not challenged or the right environment. And I think this is also a way to still serve an executive role, but maybe have some better work life balance or flexibility picking out clients that you feel like really meld with your values and your working style.

And so I see a lot of people maybe moving in this path to kind of keep that buffer from the burnout like you were saying or kind of just keep some better work life balance. So I see the trend continuing is kind of a win-win both for individuals as well as companies. Yeah, I think too. I know switching years a bit from a technology standpoint too. Like a lot of the tech companies are using like AI and automation. Those resources are really, really expensive right now.

And sometimes they're doing very routine tasks and those tasks can be outsourced to maybe like a fractional C-so. I know I work in a lot in the cyber security space and some of these salaries are half a million to a million dollars a year. And like you said, if you're a startup and you're trying to get going and get expertise like outsourcing some of that or outsourcing those kind of functions and I also think of it, we didn't really touch the ton on it. And I think of remote workers, right?

As well like setting up their computers. It's also a risk to organizations when you have all these people spread all over the globe, and then you're just using the information of the company as well.

So I think there's so many ways to look at fractional roles. I think I agree, I think it's the way of the future. I think salaries are really expensive. Expertise is hard to find someone that you need in very specific roles. In some cases you're looking for a unicorn depending on the position. They have startup expertise or this expertise. So it would be helpful to hire, maybe multiple CFOs that have done raises or different things like that, but different expertise.

Yeah, definitely for different areas of expertise. I think the other thing is right now a lot of companies are having to tighten up, right? There's been reductions in personality, a lot of companies, but that doesn't mean that that expertise isn't needed. So as companies are downsizing, they have to be really cost conscious.

This is another opportunity to maybe piecemeal some roles that weren't really ever full-time to begin with, but you needed the expertise and so you've hired someone full-time and now realizing that you were saying, "Peace together, a few fractional people." So myself having been somewhat in food and beverage, right?

If you're a company and you have some amount of product development, but you're not developing around the clock every day for a year, you could maybe outsource a food scientist or a chief innovation officer or something for a specific project of something you're developing for a quarter, let's say. Then you can kind of roll that person off, right? Then maybe in a couple quarters you need someone to help set up and mention data analytics.

We need someone to come in and set up all of our data warehousing and whatnot. So you kind of piece together, like you're saying, these different fractional roles depending on where you are in your company. There's actually a few companies out there that will actually help with placements of teams.

Maybe you're looking for a CTO as well as a UI developer, software engineer, and so they will actually help place a team of a fractional leader plus some other people on their team to actually help implement. And that's something that I'm seeing being more popular to where you can actually have a fractional team, if you will. Yeah, I love it. I'm all about it. It's funny. I was part of a pod during the pandemic.

Let's say a community of people, men and women, and one of the things we were talking about during the beginning of March of 2020 is, how can we gain multipliers in our lives? We couldn't go anywhere and see our friends. So some of us were using fractional services to host a virtual happy hour networking event or because we couldn't go anywhere.

And just all these fractional things, it's not just finance, but like you mentioned, in UX and other spaces, marketing, I think it's a really big thing to look at. We touched on it a little bit about burnout and jobs sharing and increased satisfaction across the organization. I know getting to know you, I love this. Your personal mantra is you only live once, which I love that mantra. I know mine is like, you do you do, right? And so not as professional as yours, right?

But tell me what that means to you and how you're living your best life because you were employee employee and now you're doing more fractional work. Tell me about that, how that is now for you. Yeah, you know, it's been really interesting over the years. I love a sense of adventure and I'm constantly wanting to learn and pick up new things, right? So it's probably no wonder that I stumbled upon this thing of the fractional CXO world because it is new.

And I've always liked to be a trailblazer and someone who's like, I'm not sure what that is, but like, I'll figure it out and try it out. Right? So, I, you know, I was coming off of a previous role as Chief Operating Officer and probably had figured out that what I was looking for next to my career and where I was wasn't quite aligned. And so I made the difficult decision to actually take a step down without having the next thing lined up. I've been working for 25 years.

I've never, ever done that. My husband was definitely a little nervous about that move, but he's like, I'm going to trust you and you're going to figure it out. And so I spent kind of four months in transition trying to figure out what was next for me. I was finishing off my executive MBA at the time. And I, you know, hadn't quite found the right fit in kind of the only live ones. I'm like, I'm not looking for just a job, right? And a paycheck.

Like, I want something I feel really passionate about and that I want to do next. And I've always thought that about every role that I've taken. I've loved every role that I've ever had. And at a certain point, if I don't love it anymore, that has been my sign that like, I've accomplished as much as I can here is time for me to move on. I know I've had this mantra to several people, including my husband. He thinks like, these are unrealistic expectations.

But I'm happy to say that for most of that 25 years, that really was true, right? So when I thought about what I wanted to do next, what I realized is I actually, you know, mentors, several women, other people who are, you know, founders kind of informally. And I really like the idea of having a portfolio of companies and people that I could help. It's like, how do I take all these years of experience from running a company, a very large scale?

I worked at Abbott at the very large companies where I first learned sort of the ins and outs of operations. And then moved to a very small startup, you know, employee 1550, help take it through an IPO and like, how do you grow and scale a company, you know, with tremendous growth? And so I think I, I happen to stumble upon it where I met someone who was a fractional CMO and it kind of just started from there, but I was really intrigued by it and kind of that you only live once.

I'm like, I'll just start it and see how it goes. And if I don't like it, I'll just pivot in a few months and then I'll at least know, right? Right.

I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past,

people were a little more junior in their career being in kind of a senior role too. It's been really rewarding. So at this point, I am not searching for anything full time and I'm just going to continue with the fractional work because I really enjoyed doing it. I love it. You made me think about things I can do for action. Like, what else can I do for action? I know I just outsourced my fitness goals to somebody. I need to be doing that. I'm going to take some inspiration from you there.

Yeah, I'm like, you know, I need an accountability partner. Can you be my accountability partner? I think it's just thinking, you know, professionally and personally, thinking a ways to gain multipliers in our life too, Ray. Like, how can we, you know, live our best life yet, you know, keep growing, learning, developing.

I love what you mentioned about the roles because I think the other cool thing about fractional work for you, Jennifer, is all the different industries you're going to get to work with and the people that you're going to get to work with and all the different problems you're going to have and as a lover of problems, I think it sounds really interesting to learn different industries and be able to help and grow companies and make them more profitable and build a more productive team and scale it.

So I would love just closing, kind of closing here. Tell us a little bit about your business and a little plug for yourself on how we can help

you follow you, learn about more about what you do if you wouldn't mind as we close. Yeah, for sure. You can find me on LinkedIn. Jennifer Clark, you said, which I know there's probably thousands of us out there. So specifically, Jennifer, Ludwig Clark, the name of my company is called Launch Spot Consulting. I generally am doing fractional work in the healthcare space, food and beverage, but really could be any CPG product technology. And I would say health and wellness. I do.

I actually was part of our early stage startup in cannabis. So I would put that under healthcare and food and beverage. But honestly, I'm open to anything. I feel like a lot of it is transferable skills. And like I said, since I love an adventure, I like to learn in the process too. So even moving to a similar industry and helping with transferable skills and operations, I'd definitely be open to, but I would say also my expertise is a lot of new. We need to build this out.

And this doesn't exist. And so you need a creative operations person to design it and implement it. And I would say also transformation. So like this isn't working well. And we need someone to come in and redesign it and then re-implement is kind of where I would say my forte really is. I love it. Thanks so much for sharing that. And find Jennifer on LinkedIn, connect with her. She's a wonderful person. I love her energy. I love talking to her. And you only live once.

Have a great rest of the week. Thank you all for listening and let's do it again, Jennifer. Sounds great. Thanks for your time. You've been listening to the Executive Connect podcast. If you have questions or ideas on how to bring leadership to your next level, email us at executiveconnectpodcast@gmail.com. And don't forget to subscribe so you can catch every new episode. Until next time. [MUSIC]