A Better Way to Consult in Practice
Earlier this month, I shared my thoughts about the power of embedded, fractional Chief People Officers (CPOs) in A Better Way to Consult and got an overwhelmingly positive response both from leaders who have engaged fractional support and from providers who have worked as fractional talent specialists. I had a chance to talk to a few people on both sides of this equation during our inaugural co-mmunity webinar and am excited to share just a few of the insights and perspectives we heard during this conversation.
Embedded, fractional CPOs bring experience, extra hands and a trusted resource for organizations. The beauty of this model is in the ability to customize and be flexible - there is no ‘one size fits all’. Our panelists talked about many different ways this might look. But in each example, there was a common theme of rich experiences and understanding coupled with organizations stretched too far.
Vanessa Douyon
Vanessa Douyon, Founder and Partner of Gradient Consulting, talked about her experience as an embedded Chief People Officer. “Working with stretched people officers felt very impactful. Not that they don’t want to do it or can’t do it. It is just that there are so many things on your plate and they need someone that can be there who doesn’t have to restart because they know the organization so well.”
I think about this a lot. When I was managing large teams, the person that was really competent and I knew could take the work and run, was a god-send. But most of the time, that person already had a full plate. In this model, leaders have that person, and their plate is intentionally spacious to have the capacity to do exactly what the leader and the organization needs.
Erick Roa
“When I started my role as head of talent I knew I would be the only person thinking about talent strategy. And I knew how lonely talent work can be. I therefore, very early on, advocated for advising support, so that as I was pulling together my talent strategy I had a thought partner and someone pushing me to surface things in ways I maybe wasn’t seeing.” - Erick Roa, Chief People and Operations Officer at Making Waves.
Having a wealth of experience is also so helpful for a head of talent who may not have a manager that understands the work, or can be a deep thought partner. At some point, in each of our careers, we might find ourselves owning work that the CEO or our board never did themselves. That is natural. But having someone who has been there and can be an advisor gives you that extra bit of confidence to lead.
Marion Hodges Biglan
“I’m a neutral third party and staff know that. I have the ear of the organization leader. But Staff members know that they can trust that I will keep the conversation confidential And because I’m external, I can give real feedback to leadership.” - Marion Hodges Biglan, Leadership Coach, Facilitator, and Co-Founder of Illuminate Collective.
For many organizations, having someone that fully understands the organization, but is outside of it, can play a powerful role. This dual role of having inside knowledge of the organization, but not the reporting structure that can make giving upwards feedback hard, can be transformational. And while, fractional, embedded CPOs have a distance from the organization that can create objectivity, they aren’t so far removed that they don’t feel real connection to the people working there.
Valerie Taubes
Valerie Taubes is the Chief Operating Officer of Phoenix Charter Academy shared, “I tend to get more external field knowledge [with this type of model]. Someone that can tell me this is how it is playing out in other parts of the country, in other organizations gives me a nuanced perspective.”
Bringing this nuanced, field-level perspective can build an organization’s talent acumen more quickly and contribute to smoother implementations without placing additional honus on the organization to gather and disseminate this information.
The future workplace for organizations is coming quickly - work is shifting, more people are opting for more flexible schedules, and organizations are worried about overall headcount. In this emerging reality, fractional embedded support may be less about a potential way of doing the work and more the best way to provide strategic talent knowhow.
