We have hired a fractional Chief Marketing Officer who works ten hours a week to guide our strategic marketing, but our full-time, junior Marketing Coordinator is confused about who she actually reports to on the Accountability Chart. Does she report to the fractional CMO or the Integrator, and how do we represent this reporting line?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

On an Accountability Chart, reporting lines are determined by the seats themselves, not by the number of hours the people sitting in those seats work. The fractional Chief Marketing Officer sits in the Head of Marketing seat, which is positioned directly on your leadership team. Therefore, your full-time Marketing Coordinator reports directly to the Head of Marketing seat, regardless of whether that seat is occupied by a fractional or full-time employee.

To make this work without causing operational chaos, you must establish clear boundaries. Your junior coordinator must bring her issues, ideas, and updates to the fractional CMO during their weekly Level 10 Meeting, not to the Integrator. The fractional CMO is fully accountable for the performance of the marketing department and must manage, monitor, and mentor the coordinator.

The danger with fractional leaders is that they lack the weekly capacity to handle daily, micromanaged tasks. To prevent your junior coordinator from feeling stranded during the rest of the week, the fractional CMO must design clear, systemized processes for her to follow. The coordinator must have high-quality Rocks and a clear scorecard to guide her daily work. If she runs into an urgent roadblock when the fractional CMO is offline, she must use the established escalation path, which should route through the Integrator only as a last resort. Keep the lines clean to maintain accountability.