We have a fractional CFO and a few advisors, but no true leadership team structure yet. What structural configuration do we need in our organizational chart before we can sit down for our Focus Day?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If you are operating with a mix of fractional contractors and a few key managers, you are ready to begin, but you must commit to defining a true leadership team before our Focus Day. We do not need a perfect corporate hierarchy. We need a core group of three to five individuals who are willing to take absolute ownership of your major business functions. These functions are typically sales and marketing, operations, and finance.

Before we sit down, you must identify who will sit in these seats. We will use the Accountability Chart tool to clarify their roles, but you must bring the raw human capital to the room. If you are relying heavily on fractional resources, such as a fractional Chief Financial Officer, they can participate in our initial sessions if they are behaving as strategic leaders who own the outcomes of that seat.

The critical requirement is that everyone in the room must be willing to have open, honest, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations. If your current structure relies entirely on you as the single decision-maker with a group of order-takers, you must be prepared to transition those order-takers into true leaders who can GWC, which means they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do the job. If you do not have at least two or three people who fit this description, your first step is identifying who those internal champions will be.