We hired a fractional CFO to help us prepare for an exit, and we put her name in our Finance seat. However, because she is highly capable, she has started taking on operational projects and managing our HR specialist. How do we prevent this seat creep on our Accountability Chart without losing her valuable strategic input?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common for highly capable fractional executives to step into operational gaps, but letting their seat creep into other departments ruins the integrity of your Accountability Chart.

A fractional CFO belongs in the Finance seat, and her five core roles must be strictly limited to financial strategy, cash flow management, tax planning, and exit preparation. When she begins managing HR or driving operations projects, she is stepping into seats she does not own and likely does not have the capacity to manage long-term.

To resolve this, you must enforce the boundaries of the Accountability Chart. Review her seat roles and clearly state what she is and is not accountable for. If your business has an urgent need for an HR leader or an Operations manager, those must be represented as separate, distinct seats on the chart.

If you currently lack the budget to hire dedicated people for those seats, then your Integrator or another leadership team member must sit in those boxes temporarily. Do not allow your fractional CFO to informalize these functions.

If she has valuable strategic ideas regarding HR or operations, she should raise them as Issues in your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ so the leadership team can prioritize them, but she must not run those departments. Keep her focused on the critical financial metrics that will drive your valuation.