Fractional leadership

Fractional leadership means bringing in an experienced executive on a part-time, embedded basis. They hold real decision-making authority and own outcomes, but they do not cost a full-time salary and can be onboarded in days rather than months.

It sits between two familiar options: consulting, which delivers advice from the outside, and a full-time hire, which is permanent and expensive. For a growth-stage or mid-market company, fractional leadership is how you get senior direction exactly when you need it, and only as much as you need.

Fractional leadership works best in a few recognisable situations. It fits when you need senior direction on a specific challenge, an AI adoption, a delivery turnaround, a fundraise, but not forty hours a week of it. It fits when a full-time executive is out of budget, or would be underused if you hired one.

It is less suited to a role that genuinely needs daily, full-time presence over the long term; in that case, a fractional leader is a strong bridge while you hire permanently. The economics are the clincher: a full-time C-level hire can run several hundred thousand dollars a year, so getting the same seniority part-time, exactly where it matters, is often the smarter first move.