Fractional Leadership Insights

I see this line all the time in fractional CFO job descriptions: “𝗖𝗣𝗔 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱.” It’s usually added with good intent and often without much discussion. A CPA is a strong credential. It signals discipline, rigor, and technical depth. Many outstanding CFOs have one. But here’s the issue. In fractional roles, “CPA required” is often standing in for a different question — 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦? If the business needs:  • Audit oversight  • Technical accounting leadership  • Cleanup and compliance then yes, a CPA may be exactly right. But many founders are hiring a fractional CFO because they need:  • Help making decisions with incomplete information  • Clear cash flow visibility and tradeoffs  • A thought partner who can translate numbers into action  • Someone who has been accountable for outcomes, not just reports That’s not a credential question. That’s an experience question. When CPA becomes a hard filter, it can quietly screen out CFOs who’ve spent years in the seat, navigating growth, pressure, people, and ambiguity, simply because their path didn’t include a license. Fractional CFO is not the same role as fractional controller. Treating them the same leads to misaligned hires on both sides. Credentials matter but they are not a proxy for judgment. Curious how others think about this when defining or posting fractional finance roles.

After 12+ years full-time at LinkedIn, I've spent the past 6 months in Fractional Exec roles at AI startups Speak and WisdomAI. Read on to discover my why, how, and lessons learned along the way. To learn about how the many upsides all have accompanying tradeoffs: - Flexibility and variety, but less deep ownership - Part of two cultures, but not quite like full-timers - Easier to give direct feedback, but with less contextual expertise - High relative work quality, but lower absolute quality - Rarely working late nights, but missing the invigorating hustle To learn answers to the questions I get peppered with, including how I've found each role, how I balance my schedule, and, the #1 question, how my comp works. And to learn whether I'm completely converted to Fractional or whether I'll soon return to the more tried-and-true full-time path (spoiler alert: I love Fractionaling, so the bar is high, but wonderful exec search folks, please keep me in your rotation!) #WhatsTheSoWhat #FractionalExecing

I’ve worked fractionally for 14 years. Here’s what I wish more organizations understood: 1️⃣ I’m committed to your organization, but not only your organization. You get my full attention when I’m with you, but my model is built on balance, not exclusivity. 2️⃣ I’m not at your beck and call. Meetings and priorities should be set collaboratively. Fractional doesn’t mean “always available.” 3️⃣ I’m not the same as a consultant. Consultants deliver recommendations. Fractional leaders build and run systems alongside you. 4️⃣ I’m not the same as a part-time employee. I don’t clock set hours or take direction on day-to-day tasks. You hire me for outcomes and judgment. 5️⃣ People work fractionally for many reasons. Learn why. For some it’s flexibility. For others, variety, impact, or season of life. When you understand that, you get the best of us. 6️⃣ Fractional work costs you less than a fully loaded full-time employee. You’re paying for high-leverage expertise that delivers outsized value, not benefits. 7️⃣ The expertise I bring from other clients is an asset, not a distraction. You benefit from cross-organizational insights and tested playbooks I’ve seen work elsewhere. 8️⃣ Fractional experience is as valid as full-time experience. Leading multiple organizations sharpens adaptability, pattern recognition, and speed to value. Stop discounting it. 9️⃣ You’ll have less control than you might want. I promise it will be okay. The value of fractional work comes from outcomes, not your oversight. If your managers aren’t used to that, train them. 🔟 You miss out on incredible talent if you don't consider fractional executives. The best leaders are increasingly choosing flexibility and fractional work. They have options. Don’t design your org in a way that screens them out. ✴️ So before deciding that fractional wouldn’t work in your organization, ask: What would it look like to prioritize partnership over power? #leadership #futureofwork #fractional #humanresources

This is the first time in my adult life that I have this many friends and colleagues who have been out of work for a year or more. Not between roles. Not casually looking. Actively searching. That’s not a blip. That’s a shift. People are reassessing what they can offer independently. Organizations are rethinking how they access talent. We’re seeing more fractional leaders. More project-based work. More independent consultant teams instead of full-time hires. Whether people planned for it or not, more of us are operating like entrepreneurs now — inside companies and outside of them. And that changes the skill set required to thrive. It’s not just about doing the work anymore. It’s about: ✅Navigating ambiguity ✅Making decisions without perfect information ✅Owning consequences ✅Managing your own capacity ✅Communicating your value clearly ✅Being adaptable without becoming chaotic ✅Being respectful without becoming a pushover Grit won’t be enough. Credentials won’t be enough. The advantage will belong to people who can think independently, communicate clearly, and adjust while the ground is moving. This is adaptive capacity. The organizations building for the future aren’t just hiring talent — they’re cultivating independent judgment, communication skills, and resilience as core capabilities. Because the workforce has changed. And it’s not changing back.

Met with a lawyer yesterday who sits on a state bar committee discussing "fractional" work. As I told him, although I have multiple counsel/CLO roles, I never say or think "fractional." My professional commitment is always 100%, despite being non-exclusive. The discussion prompted me to update an article I wrote in 2020 - link in comments. Here are some points I covered with him: 💼 - All my roles are employee/W-2 - not contractor. There are many benefits to this, but primarily I only want to be viewed as a team member, never as an outsider/hired gun. 💼 - Many professionals (legal, CFO, CTO, CMO) choose independent contractor status for similar roles so they can deduct work-related expenses - car, home office, phone, travel, etc. I'm less focused on tax optimization, but I get it. On the other hand, one of my "anchor" companies always provides me with health insurance, a 401K, and other employee benefits. 💼 - Almost by accident, simultaneously with taking on part-time roles, I started an "Of Counsel" role at a boutique law firm. This let me offer hourly legal services as an alternative to in-house. The dual track worked well for ten years, but I ended the Of Counsel role in 2024. Lawyers just starting fractional work might benefit from a similar dual offering. 💼 - I only take in-house roles as a senior officer. Responsibility without authority is not good. 💼 - I do not accept roles with competitors of any of my companies. 💼 - Nor do I encourage my companies to engage in relationships with each other. Doing so would create conflicts of interest, particularly if things go wrong. 💼 - Balancing multiple roles requires abandoning any pretense of "work-life balance." If you don't love your work, just stick with one company. 💼 - I routinely accept lower pay in exchange for meaningful option/restricted equity grants under approved equity compensation plans, further aligning me with each company's mission/vision. 💼 - Lawyers on this path need to navigate "multi-jurisdictional" law practice issues, as detailed in the article. These concerns largely evaporate when working with entirely virtual companies formed under DE law. 💼 - Pros: (i) being a key team member means directly impacting business strategy and success and working closely with great team members; (ii) it also fosters proactive representation versus cleaning up mistakes and messes; and (iii) the upside of equity in multiple companies is like angel investing, but with a seat at the table to drive success. 💼 - Cons: I pretty much work all the time. But since I love legal/business projects, it's not work. More sensible persons should calibrate their commitments more judiciously. 💼 - There are also personal liability risks faced by all company officers, detailed in one of my recent posts. Others with less experience and less ability to impact company decisions may want to avoid taking on officer roles. Hope that's helpful! Share any thoughts, questions, or fun anecdotes.

The future will be defined by "fractions". The most transformative shift of the next decade is already underway: Work is becoming fractional. Ownership is becoming tokenized. Opportunity is becoming modular. For more than a century, our world was built around wholes: one employer, one income stream, one asset you either fully owned or didn’t, one linear path you were expected to follow. Technology lowered the cost of coordination - and AI has collapsed it. That collapse is what makes large-scale fractionalization possible. You can see the shift everywhere: Work Careers are becoming portfolios: multiple roles, multiple income streams, multiple arenas of value creation. Not fragmented. Intentionally diversified. Ownership Tokenization allows people to own “slices” of real estate, IP, art, data, and businesses. Not just inclusion. A quiet redistribution of economic power. Companies The next generation of businesses won’t be monoliths. They will be modular - small cores supported by global fractional talent networks. High-agility. Low-friction. Infinitely scalable. Identity Careers stop being ladders and become constellations: multi-hyphen, adaptive, designed around purpose and possibility. The fractional economy is the architecture of the present - and the people who recognise it now will be the ones who define what everyone else calls “the future” later. #UAE #Fractional #Economy #FutureOfWork

I'm a big believer in building full-time, in-house marketing teams (yes, even as a fractional marketer). However, startups, especially early-stage ones, don’t have it easy when it comes to marketing. Here's how to think about your first marketing hire as an early-stage startup: - Hire a junior marketer when: You've reached product-market fit and have clarity on your ICP, messaging, and initial channels, and when you have some repeatability. You (the founder) are providing the strategy and direction; you just need execution bandwidth. - Hire a marketing leader when: You're at a predictable revenue and can invest in headcount. You need someone to own the entire marketing function, build strategy, and scale execution. Marketing needs to operate beyond founder-led growth. - Go fractional when: You're pre-PMF or early post-PMF without clear marketing strategy. You don't have the budget for senior full-time headcount but need expertise to figure out positioning, channels, and messaging. The founder lacks marketing background and needs strategic guidance. The sweet spot for most early-stage startups: Fractional strategist plus junior executor. Your fractional leader builds the strategy, sets KPIs, and defines what success looks like. Your junior hire executes campaigns, creates content, and handles day-to-day operations. The fractional person mentors your junior marketer so they develop faster. You get senior-level thinking without burning runway, plus someone learning and growing with your company. This approach lets you punch above your weight without burning through runway. Once you hit product-market fit and have predictable revenue, transition to a full-time leader. Most early-stage founders try to choose between strategy and execution when the budget is tight. The smarter play is structuring your first marketing investment to get both.

Recruiters don't get it. They think CFOs can only be full-time or interim. But many companies need CFOs on a part-time basis. When recruiters and headhunters call me, I explain the role of fractional or part-time CFOs and why companies hire them. Simply put, they bring senior-level finance talent to companies that doesn't need them full time and 5 days per week. Here's why: 🟩 Cost Savings Let's be candid. CFOs can be expensive. If most mid-sized and smaller companies don't need a Chief Financial Officer, they shouldn't put one on the full-time payroll. Fractional CFOs provide access to high-level financial expertise at a fraction of the cost. 🟦 Expertise and Experience Fractional CFOs with strategic finance backgrounds aren't glorified accountants. They typically have worked with many different businesses, across a dozen or more industries. They've encountered companies of various sizes with lots of challenges: ▪ Turnaround and restructuring ▪ M&A and transactions ▪ Capital raises ▪ Refinancing This diverse experience offers mid-sized and smaller companies access to a seasoned professional who's been where they want to go. 🟨 Flexibility One of the greatest benefits of hiring a part-time CFO or FP&A professional is getting access where and when needed. Fractional finance professionals can ramp up or ramp down as the company needs. Someone who has experience in tech implementations. Someone with commercial banking connections. Someone who can build a severance schedule. Someone with advanced modeling skills. 🟧 Ability to Scale As a company builds and experiences fluctuations, fractional CFOs can adjust their services to the changing requirements. When the business is expanding, services can focus on fundraising, process improvement, data analytics, and technology exploration. When the business is struggling, services can focus on cash flow and liquidity management, HR reductions, cost cutting, and product rationalization. More companies are seeing fractional CFOs and FP&As as a viable partners for their growth and revitalization. 🟪 A Profession for Experienced Finance Pros Controllers who are looking for more are taking greater ownership of their financial careers. Full-time CFOs challenged by bureaucracy and consultants challenged by the daily grind are wanting to do more of the work they love with the clients they enjoy working with. Fractional and part-time financial advisory roles offer this option. It's an exciting time to work in this profession, don't you think? ⬇ The last mastermind of the year begins in 2 weeks. #seidmanfinancial

First it was fractional CFOs. Then CMOs. Now it’s fractional everything. In the past 18 months, I’ve seen more consumer brands, especially early-stage or PE-backed; embrace interim, outsourced, or hybrid leadership models as a way to hedge against volatility without compromising on capability. Need a GTM plan for Europe but not ready for a regional MD? Bring in a fractional commercial lead. Need to overhaul digital without betting on a long-term CMO? Plug in an advisor with five DTC wins under their belt. Ops too complex post-acquisition? Call the supply chain whisperer who does three-day-a-week transformations. From a financial standpoint, it makes sense. You get executive-level expertise, flexible cost structures, and just enough strategic horsepower to stay in motion while the business stabilizes. But from a talent standpoint, it raises a bigger question where does this leave the full-time exec bench? Because if every high-stakes initiative can now be outsourced or fractionalized, the nature of executive leadership is shifting. We’re no longer hiring for permanence. We’re hiring for impact velocity and that changes how roles are scoped, how candidates are evaluated, and how teams are built around them. What I’m watching closely is this: Are we unintentionally creating a generation of full-time executives who are expected to deliver the same transformation outcomes as their fractional counterparts, but with broader remits, more internal complexity, and none of the exit clause optionality? Fractional can be brilliant when used intentionally. But it’s not a replacement for leadership. And if the entire C-suite becomes part-time by design, we’ll start to feel the absence of cohesion, culture, and long-term accountability very quickly. Are you seeing this trend on your side? How do you balance agility with depth when building leadership teams today? #FMCGLeadership #ExecutiveSearch #FractionalLeadership #CPG #ConsumerGoods #HiringStrategy #LaurenStiebing #CMO #CFO #OrgDesign #PrivateEquity #InterimExecs

$11M CEO: "i need to hire a CMO, right now." me: "why?" CEO: "we need to scale." me: "you can't afford it." CEO: "what do you mean?" me: "hire a seasoned fractional who's been there, done that. 10-20 hours a week. pair them with an implementer to get things moving. scale to $20M+, then think about full-time." CEO: "i don't believe in fractional." 6 months later, the same CEO calls me back. they'd fired two full-time CMOs. now they wanted a referral for a fractional (since we have a GTMarketplace for match making for founder to fractional) look — i get it. hiring full-time works when you have everything in place. but sometimes you don't need a full-time exec. you need a smart, experienced person who's been there and done that. someone who can move fast, set the foundation, and not burn through your runway while you figure it out. fractional isn't a backup plan. for a lot of companies, it's the smarter first move. your take? love, sangram