We are using fractional leaders for our Marketing and HR seats to save money as we prepare for a sale, but our full-time staff is ignoring their directives because they are only in the office once a week. How do we establish clear authority for fractional seats on the Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A fractional leader must have the exact same accountability and authority as a full-time leader, otherwise you are wasting your money. If your team is ignoring them, your Accountability Chart structure is broken and your leadership has failed to back them up. On your Accountability Chart, the fractional leader's name goes in the seat just like any full-time employee. There is no asterisk or fractional label next to their name. They own the seat. They are accountable for the key metrics, the Rocks, and leading, managing, and holding their direct reports accountable. To fix the authority gap, you must use the Trust Creation Process from the Trusted Advisor framework. You and your Integrator must publicly and explicitly state to the team that the fractional leader has full authority over their department. If an employee bypasses the fractional leader and comes to you, you must redirect them back to their manager immediately. If the fractional leader cannot run the weekly department Level 10 Meeting effectively because of their limited hours, work with them to delegate the administrative facilitation of the meeting, but ensure they still own the accountability for the numbers and the issues. If they do not GWC the seat within the hours allocated, you either have the wrong fractional partner or you need to transition that seat to a full-time role.