Fractional Futures

Why Fractional Leadership Exists

• Paul Mills • Season 5 • Episode 2

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Fractional Futures is the essential podcast for CEOs, investors, and senior marketing executives looking to unlock the power of fractional marketing leadership.
 
Hosted by Paul Mills, Founder at VCMO, and with special guests, we'll share expert insights, provide actionable strategies and explore real-world success stories to help you leverage fractional marketing leadership for maximum impact.

In this episode

In this episode of Fractional Futures, Paul Mills and Lydia McClelland delve into the role of the fractional CMO, clarifying its definition, responsibilities, and the misconceptions surrounding it. They discuss the strategic value that fractional CMOs bring to organizations, how they differ from consultants, and the flexibility of engagement models. The conversation also addresses common myths about fractional leadership and emphasizes the importance of time management and commercial value in measuring success.

Special Guest

Lydia McLelland - Fractional CMO, LMC Associates

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Key Takeaways

  • A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader working part-time.
  • They bring strategic capability without the full-time salary.
  • Fractional CMOs lead the marketing function, unlike consultants who advise.
  • The value of a fractional CMO comes from senior thinking, not presence.
  • Fractional CMOs can add value at any stage of a business's lifecycle.
  • Engagement models should focus on outcomes, not hours worked.
  • Time management is crucial for balancing multiple clients.
  • Clear communication is key to successful fractional leadership.
  • Fractional CMOs help align marketing with commercial goals.
  • Success is measured by improved decision-making and better agency performance.

Sound Bites

"What is a fractional CMO?"

"Consultants advise, fractional CMOs lead."

"Fractional CMOs can add value at any stage."

Contact VCMO

Thanks for listening & keep podcasting!

Fractional Marketing Leadership | Marketing Transformed.

Paul Mills (00:01.659)

Hello, welcome back to Fractional Futures, the show for CEOs, founders and investors who want clarity on modern marketing leadership. I'm Paul Mills, founder at VCMO, and in our last episode, we unpacked what a Fractional CMO actually is, the definition, the scope and what separates true strategic leadership from consulting or hands-on delivery. Today, we're going bigger. We're stepping back to look at the forces that gave rise to fractional leadership in the first place.

 

Because this model didn't just appear, it emerged from some foundational shifts in how organizations operate, how talent moves and how work gets done. Now for many CEOs and founders, the idea of bringing in senior leadership on anything other than a full-time basis still feels a little bit unfamiliar. But in reality, the world around us has changed. High growth companies need senior expertise earlier than the headcount budgets will allow.

 

Remote first working has become normal. Senior leaders increasingly want portfolio careers. And technology now means you can now access global talent without relocating anyone. All of this has reshaped what modern marketing leadership looks like, not just in marketing, but across finance, technology, operations, and product. So this episode is an invitation to pause and reflect. Are your assumptions about hiring still based on the old world?

 

I'll start that one again, sorry. So in this episode is, I need some, I need some Monster Energy drink. I need to go and steal William's naughty drinks.

 

Lydia McClelland (01:33.678)

It's not the same thing.

 

Lydia McClelland (01:39.745)

Hahaha

 

Paul Mills (01:41.601)

So this episode is an invitation to pause and reflect. Are your assumptions about hiring still based on the old world of full-time office-based employment? sorry, I'm reading this really wrong. So this episode is an invitation to pause and reflect. Are your assumptions about hiring still based on the old world of full-time office-based employment? Or is your business already operating in the new era of fractional?

 

Lydia McClelland (01:53.998)

Go again.

 

Paul Mills (02:10.129)

To explore this properly, I'm joined once again by someone who's seen these shifts firsthand across multiple sectors and organizational sizes. Lydia McClelland is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the CIM and operates as a Fractional CMO. Lydia's worked with high-growth scale-ups, multi-complex subsidiary groups, and organizations in transition, all places where the Fractional model makes a huge difference. Lydia, great to have you back again. Would you like to share a little bit more about your background and some of the businesses you work with?

 

Lydia McClelland (02:38.445)

Yes, so I'm Lydia McClelland. I'm based just outside of Belfast in Northern Ireland and I set up LMC Associates in 2019 and I've been working as a Fractional CMO or head of marketing since then. I work with a range of companies. I'm very much sector agnostic and I work with a range of companies across the UK and Ireland. So, working with everybody from construction companies, security companies, training companies, you name it. It really does not matter. It's about marketing strategy first. yeah.

 

Paul Mills (03:06.855)

No, that's fine. think that's Yeah, okay. No worries. I can edit that. Do you want to do that bit again or are you okay? I can edit it. Yeah, we've got loads. Yeah, that's fine. So Lydia, to understand why Fractional Leadership has taken off, we need to zoom out a little bit. And this shift didn't happen in a vacuum. It was shaped by big changes in how businesses grow and how senior talent wants to work. So Lydia, If we do zoom out,

 

Lydia McClelland (03:08.646)

Cut that bit out.

 

Do you think we're enough to cut off?

 

Paul Mills (03:35.111)

What were the big shifts that created the conditions for So Lydia, if we zoom out, what were the big shifts that created the conditions for fractional leadership to emerge? leadership to emerge?

 

Lydia McClelland (03:46.841)

So businesses have become much more complex and budgets really have not kept pace with them. So there's been a big gap. We've noticed a big gap between what organizations need, so that strategic senior leadership and really what they can justify full time. So this has created the space really for the fractional leadership model to come into play. The pace of change has accelerated. There's been digital transformation. There's economic uncertainty. There's new routes to market. There's customer fragmentation. And it means firms really do need sharper marketing,

 

commercial and operational leadership. But often they need that in short, high impact bursts rather than an all year round, Monday to Friday, nine to five type model. So the rise of flexible working has very much been normalized really from those non-traditional models. And obviously COVID and the pandemic has a lot to play in that. So organizations no longer really expect that senior leader or every senior leader really to sit at their desk five days a week. So there's been an opportunity there that has been born out of this.

 

Paul Mills (04:46.907)

And how much of this do you think is due to technology? Obviously we've had the pandemic, there's been an acceleration in digital collaboration tools, tools like Teams, and others. So I'm just thinking of what the other ones, it's Slack. Yeah, let me do that again.

 

Lydia McClelland (05:01.102)

Like, what's up?

 

Paul Mills (05:06.117)

So Lydia, how much of this is about technology? Obviously with the pandemic, there was a massive acceleration in advancement in digital collaboration tools like Teams, Zoom, Slack, platforms like that. It's now normal for senior people to work remotely across multiple organizations. And I think businesses now trust their talent to work remotely. But how much of it has...

 

technology really accelerated this sort of paradigm shift from full-time to Fractional roles?

 

Lydia McClelland (05:38.127)

It's very much been an enabler and even in my world based in Northern Ireland, the pandemic was very helpful to me in terms of opening up maybe those borders a little bit more and allowing me to work more across the UK and Ireland, which maybe might not have been in my mindset before the pandemic. So definitely it's been an enabler and the tools that we have at our disposal, you can really be based anywhere in the world and do the job and get it done well at a distance. So we don't need to all be in a room together to get the job done.

 

Paul Mills (06:07.247)

And I guess from the flip side, from the talent side, what are senior leaders looking for when they choose a portfolio or a Fractional career over a traditional full-time role?

 

Lydia McClelland (06:19.822)

So, sorry Paul, I've lost my train of thought. you ask me that again? Sorry.

 

Paul Mills (06:24.103)

So, yeah. So really here what we want to do is just, you know, why are senior managers moving to the portfolio career?

 

Lydia McClelland (06:32.052)

Right, so why us as individuals are moving to portfolio rather than the company? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, go ahead. Sorry.

 

Paul Mills (06:37.063)

Yeah, yeah, so yeah, so shall I ask that one again then?

 

Paul Mills (06:44.987)

So from a talent side, Lydia, why are senior leaders looking to choose a portfolio or fractional career over a traditional full-time role?

 

Lydia McClelland (06:56.91)

Well, there's lots of benefits being being a fractional. autonomy being the first one. So you've got the ability to choose the organizations or types of organizations that we work with and shape the engagements that we want to do based on the value that we want to bring to that organization, not necessarily the volume of work. So autonomy is is key. Variety is the other area in terms of portfolio careers. So working across different sectors,  you're meeting new people, you're learning about the challenges.

 

you're learning about new business models and you're keeping your skills very fresh and sharp as a Fractional, which allows us to have that broader impact. So when I was in-house with companies, I did maybe four to six years with each company. Now I'm working with multiple sectors and moving sectors regularly in that portfolio type career. So autonomy and variety, very, very key. Also purpose that allows us as senior leaders then to bring

 

purpose really to what we're doing and really bring value to the work. So you're cutting out the noise from being kind of in-house full time. You're very focused, very laser focused on what you're there to do and can make a real impact really quickly because you're concentrated on what the job is and what you have to do for them. And also for me it's been about balance. So that portfolio model has given me great balance with family life as well over the past number of years.

 

and different types of work as well. as you know, Paul, for me, have mentoring work as well and training. So I have a balance in terms of the type of work that I deliver.

 

Paul Mills (08:31.331)

So and I totally concur with all of that. And it's nice that you reflected on the variety of work and working across these multiple sectors. I think one of the myths or one of the conceptions that many business leaders have when they're trying to fill a senior leadership role, not just marketing, but any sort of discipline, is that they kind of

 

myopically assume that the person they need to hire must have deep sector expertise or domain knowledge of that industry as a prerequisite to the hire. And quite often, it's sometimes a bit of an own goal really, because if you're, let's say, a law firm, and you want to bring someone in who's only got law experience, you might be bringing someone in who's actually been

 

dumbed down by the industry. They might have strong industry experience, but they haven't seen best practice elsewhere. And I think one of the real big value drivers of bringing in a Fractional CMO or any fractional leader who works in multiple industries, they can be an apply best practice into your own organization. So you're actually getting broader expertise. So I think that's, you know, a real, you know, time to pause and reflect. If you are hiring a manager say,

 

Do we actually need someone who only knows this industry or would we get more benefit from hiring someone who's worked across multiple? What's your reflection on that?

 

Lydia McClelland (10:00.91)

Yes, absolutely. as I say, over the past number of years, I've gained a lot of knowledge of different sectors that I never thought that I would be engaged with. But definitely I've had a number of chief executives or managing directors hire me because I didn't have the sectoral knowledge, because they wanted fresh eyes, they wanted fresh thinking. And as I always say, we will ask the stupid questions. So to challenge kind of the status quo. So they've actually wanted that in terms of a bit of a shake up as opposed to somebody who's coming in and really

 

do the planning and the strategy with their eyes closed so they wanted somebody with a fresh pair of eyes on it.

 

Paul Mills (10:34.311)

So I think that gives us a nice sort of framing context of the drivers for this new form of leadership. guess the next question is why businesses actively choose the Fractional model. And often that's driven by speed, risk, budget and capability. So Lydia, from the business perspective, why might a CEO or investor choose a fractional leader rather than recruiting a full-time C-suite hire straight away?

 

Lydia McClelland (11:00.886)

Yeah, there's lots of lots of benefits, suppose, lots of reasons why a CEO might do that. But cost efficiency, I suppose, is the first is the first main reason I find hiring that full time senior hire is obviously a very, very expensive decision that a business needs to take. You when you look at salary, you look at the on cost, the bonuses and all the benefits, plus the long onboarding periods, a fractional really can give potentially gives that immediate access to senior expertise at a fraction of the total cost. So

 

with a fractional hire, the person can maybe come in within a number of weeks into the business as opposed to a number of months. So cost efficiency for me is one of the key things that I hear back from businesses that I'm working with. It's also about fit before commitment. So fractional allows the organisation really to test the leadership model, understand maybe what level of role that they actually need. So, you know, they may have a perception of they need somebody of a certain level, but don't know is that really going to be the right fit for the organisation.

 

And then you have the opportunity when you come in as a fractional really to build the function in a controlled way before committing to that permanent post. So really to assess is that chief executive, is this what we really need for our business? The immediate leadership is a key thing because really you can come in, sometimes it can be within a week or two weeks and you hit the ground running. So as you know, when you go to recruit somebody, it might be a six month recruitment process by the time you do your recruitment and then the notice period maybe that that person has to give.

 

And really that immediacy comes through really quickly. And really the other areas around premature, maybe avoiding that premature hiring. So many businesses simply aren't really ready financially or structurally for that C-suite appointment. So Fractional very much bridges that gap in the first instance.

 

Paul Mills (12:45.055)

And you mentioned certainly in the last episode, the importance of time to impact in these decisions. And obviously the fractional model is a much faster way of accessing that senior leadership versus the traditional recruitment channel. This is really important, I guess, particularly for scale-ups for organizations in transition. How important is this time to impact for those organizations looking...

 

to achieve rapid growth or going through transition?

 

Lydia McClelland (13:17.152)

Yeah, it's hugely important, especially in those scale up organisations that you mentioned or the organisations going through change. So chief executives or managing directors often need that strategic leadership immediately, not after a lengthy search or onboarding process. So a fractional leader we find can create momentum certainly within the first 30 to 60 days, maybe even sooner. We can review the performance, clarify priorities.

 

reset budgets and align teams and we can come in and do that pretty promptly because we know what we're doing, you're hiring a very safe pair of hands, a very skilled pair of hands. So if time is critical, so for example, maybe investor reporting or market expansion, fractional leadership can accelerate that progress without waiting for the traditional recruitment cycles.

 

Paul Mills (14:01.073)

And you mentioned their scalability. I want to talk about that briefly. I think one of the value drivers of the fractional model is you can dial the engagement up or down as your business conditions evolve. How do organizations move through, when they move through different phases of change, how does the Fractional leader change their support?

 

This isn't a permanent hire, is it? You might be brought into the organization over a long period of time, maybe 12, 24, maybe longer number of months, but you don't need to be working two or three days a week every week for that duration, do you? So how does the model evolve?

 

Lydia McClelland (14:49.952)

Yeah, so it's important, I think, that the support is put in for those key phases and that might be a rebrand or a new product launch or it might be about investment or market expansion. It absolutely depends. So that might come in bursts at certain periods and then is dialed back when it's not needed as much. you know, Once you get the strategy in place and if the team, if it's an in-house team and they're delivering confidently.

 

the Fractional may be able to die back. typically, know, engagement starts quite high intensity, kind of hit the ground running type approach, and then it moves through to more of steady state of leadership. And then eventually it might be more about oversight and mentoring or advisory support So the relationship can change over time. Sometimes you give me with an organisation for a year. I've had organisations that I've been with for nearly five years now. And my hat, as I talk about my hat, has changed in terms of the role that I have performed with that company.

 

Paul Mills (15:40.743)

So think that's, you You've just seen there some of the big logic behind the model and hopefully you can see why it is advantageous to consider this new approach. But once a fractional leader is actually in the seat, the impact goes far beyond cost or speed. It actually changes how the organization operates, how decisions are made and how capability develops internally. So Lydia, once a fractional leader is embedded in the organization,

 

what are the biggest differences you notice in how the organization operates on a day-to-day basis?

 

Lydia McClelland (16:13.942)

Yeah, so I see that decisions do become quicker. They're much more grounded in data rather than maybe than that instinct or gut reaction or habit. Teams certainly gain clarity. You they know what matters, what doesn't and why, and they can move with, you know, agility to get the job done. I find that meetings become much more focused because there's a clear strategic approach. There's a strategic discipline and we've got priorities and KPIs in our direction as set. So

 

And those are some of the advantages again, I think I mentioned on the previous podcast around agencies tend to perform better because they've got a much clearer brief and there's maybe better reporting or regular meetings maybe with the agency in terms of the reporting and shifting the dial a little bit each month in terms of what's happening there. The expectations are clear and budgets certainly become much more structured. So the organizations tend to behave more like a business with a fully formed leadership.

 

and marketing function maybe than they have done in the past.

 

Paul Mills (17:13.711)

And we touched briefly earlier around, certainly Fractional CMOs or any Fractional leader, they typically operate across multiple sectors. And I think this is a really important part of the value proposition for business leaders to understand. How does that external independent perspective help with things like challenging assumptions in your organizations or cutting through internal politics or just bad

 

behaviors, particularly marketing that you might have, the business might be guilty of bad marketing habits. How does this independent perspective cut through all of that?

 

Lydia McClelland (17:49.355)

Yeah, typically we don't have it, you fractional leaders don't have any legacy ties. We don't have internal alliances and we've no emotional investment maybe in terms of how things were done before. So we can get straight to the straight to the kind of the nub of the question that others might be avoiding. I find we bring a healthy challenge because we ask those. I call it the stupid questions. We ask those questions. We challenge the status quo. And we're not really afraid about stepping on toes because we're there to kind of

 

make a difference and make an impact. So I feel our outside perspective helps remove that noise. We're focused very much on the facts, the customer and the commercial priorities. So we cut through the nonsense in terms of what may have gone on before. I also find that we're neutral between, we're that neutral voice between departments. So if there's any tensions, which typically there can be, so there might be tensions between departments, we are that neutral voice that comes in. So we're cutting through the politics.

 

We're replacing it with clarity, logic, and a shared accountability within the business.

 

Paul Mills (18:49.275)

And think one of the sort of moving from that is one of the fears, particularly for junior marketers in the marketing team, if you're bringing in a Fractional CMO, one of the fears might be that the Fractional CMO is taking their jobs or the senior leader might be thinking they're taking over my job. Now that's often the case, certainly when you bring a contractor.

 

And you think, my God, the end is nigh. Well, it's not that at all, is it? You've talked before about building capability, not dependency. So in practice, when you bring a Fractional CMO into a marketing team, what does that achieve in terms of, I guess, team morale, capability, safeguarding the future of the organization?

 

Lydia McClelland (19:33.697)

Yeah, so for me it's about strengthening the team. It's not about creating reliance on me for the longer run because I'm not going to be there for the longer run. So it's about upscaling the marketing function, empowering them.

 

to do their job and do it well. It's about putting in place frameworks, for example, like the SOSTAC framework or others, maybe putting in place dashboards and planning cycles and having within the team, having that clear accountability and ownership. you're there, For me, you're there to make the team the best that they can be and make sure that they, you're, if you're leaving the organization, that they are fully valued by the system around them. So I find that teams tend to think more strategically, they'll question assumptions and they make better decisions independently.

 

you've brought that challenge to them. I've mentioned the agencies before, they do tend to perform a lot better and over time I suppose the Fractional leader probably does or should become less hands-on because the team is growing in confidence and structure and capability and as I say it's very much about empowering them, training them up if required and just helping them to be the best that they can be.

 

Paul Mills (20:34.663)

And I think you touched on it just a moment ago, bringing in a Fractional CMO, any Fractional leader, this isn't a permanent thing, is it? It's more of a bridge to get you from a state to a different state, isn't it? It's to build that capability. It's to build that discipline. It's to put those foundational elements into the organization, the processes, the protocols, the beliefs, the behaviors, really to build the business to a point at which

 

the fractional leader can pull away and be replaced by the full-time marketing leader or finance officer or whatever. Is that right?

 

Lydia McClelland (21:13.292)

Yes, absolutely. It's about making the organisation just more strategic and being able to stand on its own two feet. As I say, you do not want to be there for the longer run. Sometimes I joke with clients, my role is to get in and get out as quickly as possible, depending on what the time scale looks like. But you're there to kind of do a job, get it set up, get it well, leave them with a very well-oiled machine that they can run. You do not want them being reliant on you for the future. So you want them to be empowered and being able to take this stuff forward for themselves.

 

Paul Mills (21:41.583)

And in terms of a successful engagement, what sort of cultural aspects have to be set up to make sure that the fractional leader, whether it's the Fractional CMO, Fractional CFO, CTO, whatever, what has to be set up in place culturally and organizationally, and I guess from a leadership's perspective, to make sure that the engagement is successful?

 

Lydia McClelland (22:07.84)

Yeah, I think it's important that the relationship is explained at the start in terms of when you're coming into an organisation, who you are, why you're there, what you're there to do. It is very much about building trust, so for the Fractional to build trust with the stakeholders around them. So I do find myself spending a lot of time with other key stakeholders in the business, getting to know them, understand their challenges and priorities first of all. So building rapport and building that trust is really key as well. So the onus I feel is a lot of the time on the Fractional rather than the organisation.

 

It's very important, I think, that the scene is set for why the Fractional is being brought in, what he or she is there to do, what they're maybe not there to do as well, and if there's a duration has been set, what that looks like. So I think from an organisational point of view, as long as there's transparency, because people, as you would expect, they will, there will be maybe a lack of trust or a bit of suspicion, I suppose, of why is this person being brought in and what are they really here to do, you know, but I think if it's open and transparent, and certainly whenever I go in, I'm very clear about what my role is and what I'm...

 

what I've been asked to do for the business. that's really important.

 

Paul Mills (23:10.501)

Yeah, I think In my personal experiences, think one very critical thing to ensure culturally is that the organization or the team that the Fractional leader is coming into has an openness for change because ultimately there's a capability gap in the organization and the leader is coming in to fill that gap. And because they'll be leading that will naturally involve change.

 

And I think one, you know, the teams have to get over the fear of this person isn't here to replace me or take my job. We've already discussed that. But I think if the organization, know, organization, If the culture is a negative one or one that's not open to change, that's not really setting the fractional leader up for success. Now you could argue the leader's coming in to help make those changes and change the culture. Yes, that's true. But if the senior leadership team,

 

for example, isn't bought into this new way of working or isn't interested in change, then you're not going to get much traction, are you?

 

Lydia McClelland (24:16.64)

No, no, very much so as I say, there is there will be a shift, there will be a shift and certainly when Lydia comes into an organisation, they get quite a bit of a shift in terms of what happens. yeah, mindset is mindset is important, as you say, the openness to change. But if you've been brought in, especially by a chief executive or a board of directors, then they want that change and they're ready for what you're about to bring. I suppose it's everybody else within the organisation that you have to bring with you, though that's that's key. And it is it is about that empathetic leadership that you bring.

 

Paul Mills (24:20.068)

You

 

Lydia McClelland (24:46.542)

as part of your skill set when you're working with people and to get to know people very quickly and work with the teams. Again, making it really clear that you're there to empower them and help them to be the best version of themselves and to be the best marketing team you want them to be able to sing the praises of what they've achieved for the organisation on a regular basis.

 

Paul Mills (25:05.455)

Yeah. And you mentioned word shifts there and I think that's probably a nice way to wrap up this episode. So I think if we look back, know, what is this episode about? It's about the rise of the fractional leadership model. And I think it's really the shifts in markets, in workforces and in the leadership models that are reshaping how organizations access senior expertise. Whether you're seeing signs of stalled momentum, if you've got leadership gaps,

 

or an urgent need for strategic clarity, fractional leadership may give you exactly what you need without the commitment of a permanent full-time hire. If today's discussion has sparked ideas about how fractional leadership might support your own growth plans, whether that's fractional marketing or fractional finance or fractional technology leaders, you can learn more about the model by downloading our resources or take our free marketing capability audit via the links below in the show notes.

 

If you'd like to talk through anything we discussed today or want to explore the model in more detail, particularly from a marketing perspective, you're welcome to book a no obligations consultation with us. In the next episode, I'm joined by Rachel Wheatley, where we'll be discussing where I'll start a bit again. In the next episode, I'm joined by Rachel Wheatley, where we'll be discussing when a business should bring a Fractional CMO into the organization and what the early warning signs look like.

 

Lydia, thank you again for sharing your insights today. They've been really interesting and hopefully it's helped our listeners get a much greater appreciation for the leadership model. So thank you for joining us and thank you to everyone who's been listening as well.

 

Paul Mills (26:48.111)

Right, nice pause, press stop.

 

Head Shot

Paul Mills

Host
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Lydia McClelland

Guest