What It's Really Like Working with a Fractional Integrator (Inside Our Process)
Working with a fractional integrator means having an embedded operational leader who shows up to your meetings, owns execution, drives accountability, and builds systems that let your business run without you. Expect weekly touchpoints, honest feedback, and sustainable transformation over 6-12 months.
In This Article
What Happens in the First 30 Days
The Weekly Rhythm You Can Expect
How We Show Up Differently Than Consultants
What Founders Say About the Partnership
The Hard Conversations We Have
What Success Looks Like at 3, 6, and 12 Months
When It Doesn't Work (And Why)
The Handoff: Building Your Business to Run Without Us
You're considering bringing in a fractional integrator. You've read the benefits. You understand the investment. But you're wondering: "What's this actually going to look like day-to-day?"
That's the question we hear most from founders before they sign on. And it's a smart question. You're not just hiring a service. You're inviting someone into your leadership team, giving them access to your people, your processes, and your problems.
Here's what that partnership really looks like, from the first call to the moment your business runs without us.
What Happens in the First 30 Days
The first month isn't about making sweeping changes. It's about understanding where you are, what's working, and what's broken.
Week 1: Discovery and Assessment
We start with deep-dive conversations. Not just with you, but with your leadership team. We want to understand your vision, your pain points, and the real story behind your operations.
We'll ask hard questions: Where are you the bottleneck? What keeps you up at night? What have you tried that didn't work? What does success look like 12 months from now?
We review your existing systems, meeting rhythms, org chart, scorecards (if you have them), and processes. We're looking for gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities.
Week 2-3: Stakeholder Alignment
We meet with key team members one-on-one. Your COO, operations manager, department heads, whoever is close to the operational reality of your business.
Why? Because the founder's perspective is only half the story. We need to hear what's really happening from the people doing the work.
This phase often surfaces issues the founder didn't know existed. Misalignment on priorities. Unclear accountability. Broken feedback loops.
Week 4: The Operational Plan
By week four, we present a clear operational roadmap. This isn't a 50-page consulting report that sits on a shelf. It's a focused plan that answers three questions:
What are the biggest operational gaps holding you back?
What are we tackling first?
What does success look like in 90 days?
We prioritize ruthlessly. Most businesses have 20 things that need fixing. We pick the 3-5 that will create the most traction.
We also establish our working rhythm: when we're onsite or on calls, what meetings we'll attend, how we'll communicate, and what you can expect from us week to week.
The Weekly Rhythm You Can Expect
Once we're 30 days in, the work moves into a consistent cadence. Here's what most weeks look like:
Weekly Leadership Team Meeting (Level 10 Meeting)
We're in your weekly leadership meetings, often facilitating them. If you're running on EOS, this is your Level 10 meeting. If not, we'll help you build a similar structure.
These meetings aren't status updates. They're focused on solving problems, driving accountability, and keeping the team aligned on priorities.
We bring a framework to these meetings: scorecard review, rock updates, customer/employee headlines, issue solving, and to-dos. Every meeting has the same agenda. Every meeting ends with clarity on who's doing what.
One-on-One Coaching with Key Leaders
We spend time with your direct reports individually. These aren't performance reviews. They're coaching sessions to help them grow, solve problems, and own their areas.
Often, your team members will come to us with challenges they haven't brought to you. We create a safe space for honest conversation and help them develop solutions.
Operational Projects and Implementation
Between meetings, we're working on the systems and processes that move the business forward. This could be:
Building your hiring process
Implementing your CRM
Creating SOPs for core workflows
Designing your scorecards
Restructuring your org chart
Running your quarterly planning session
We don't just tell you what to do. We do it with you. We're in the tool, building the system, training your team, and ensuring it sticks.
Async Communication and Support
We're available throughout the week via Slack, email, or Voxer for quick questions, decision-making, or problem-solving. You're not waiting until next week's meeting to get unstuck.
Most fractional integrators are responsive within a few hours during business days. You have access when you need it, without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Monthly Strategy Check-Ins
Once a month, we step back and look at the bigger picture. Are we making progress on the 90-day goals? What's shifting in the business? What needs to be adjusted?
These strategic conversations keep us aligned on where you're going, not just what you're doing this week.
How We Show Up Differently Than Consultants
If you've worked with consultants before, this is going to feel different. Here's how:
Consultants give recommendations. We execute them.
A consultant will tell you that you need better accountability structures. We build them, implement them, and run them until your team can own them.
A consultant will say you need to clarify roles. We rewrite your org chart, assign accountability, and facilitate the hard conversations that come with it.
Consultants exit after the report. We stay until it works.
We're not paid to deliver a plan. We're paid to create results. If something we implement doesn't work, we adjust. We iterate. We keep going until the system is sustainable.
Most fractional integrator engagements run 6-12 months. That's not because we're slow. It's because real transformation takes time.
Consultants stay at 30,000 feet. We're in the trenches.
We're not observing from the outside. We're part of your leadership team. We're in your meetings, coaching your people, making decisions with you.
Your team sees us as internal, not external. That's the difference.
Consultants are objective. We're invested.
Yes, we bring outside perspective. But we're also deeply invested in your success. We celebrate your wins. We feel the pain when things don't go as planned. We're partners, not vendors.
What Founders Say About the Partnership
Here's what we hear most often from the founders we work with:
"I didn't realize how much I was carrying until I didn't have to anymore."
Most founders don't notice they're the bottleneck until someone takes things off their plate. Suddenly, you have space to think strategically. You're not firefighting every day.
"My team is finally aligned."
When everyone is on the same page, rowing in the same direction, business gets easier. A fractional integrator creates that alignment through clear communication, defined accountability, and consistent rhythms.
"I can finally take a vacation without everything falling apart."
This is the ultimate test. Can your business run for a week without you? If not, you don't have a business. You have a job. A fractional integrator builds the systems that let you step away.
"The hard conversations got easier."
Fractional integrators often facilitate the conversations you've been avoiding. The underperforming team member. The misaligned co-founder. The broken process everyone complains about but no one fixes.
Having a third party in the room makes these conversations less personal and more productive.
"I thought I needed more people. Turns out, I needed better systems."
Many founders assume they need to hire their way out of chaos. Often, you just need the right structure, accountability, and clarity. A fractional integrator helps you figure out what you actually need.
The Hard Conversations We Have
Let's be honest: this partnership isn't always comfortable. We're here to tell you the truth, even when it's hard to hear.
"Your leadership team isn't the right team."
Sometimes, the people who got you here aren't the people who will get you there. We'll flag when someone isn't in the right seat, or worse, shouldn't be on the bus at all.
"You're the problem."
Founders don't like hearing this, but sometimes it's true. You're micromanaging. You're not delegating. You're making decisions that should belong to your team. We'll call it out.
"This isn't going to work unless you commit."
Transformation requires the founder's buy-in. If you're not showing up to meetings, not following through on commitments, or not empowering your team, nothing changes. We'll tell you when your lack of commitment is the bottleneck.
"You're trying to do too much at once."
Founders love shiny objects. New initiatives, new products, new markets. Sometimes the best thing we can do is help you say no. Focus is a competitive advantage.
These conversations aren't fun. But they're necessary. And because we're not a full-time employee worried about job security, we can have them honestly.
What Success Looks Like at 3, 6, and 12 Months
Transformation doesn't happen overnight. Here's the typical progression:
3 Months: Foundations Are Built
You have a consistent meeting rhythm (weekly Level 10 meetings, quarterly planning)
Your leadership team has clear accountability (everyone knows who owns what)
You have a scorecard tracking the metrics that matter
Your 90-day priorities (rocks) are defined and on track
The founder is spending less time on operations and more time on strategy
At three months, things feel more organized. You're not out of the woods yet, but the chaos is starting to turn into clarity.
6 Months: Systems Are Running
Your team is running meetings without you
New processes are embedded (hiring, onboarding, project management)
Issues are being solved at the team level, not escalated to you constantly
You've made at least one hard people decision (promoted someone, moved someone, or let someone go)
Revenue or profitability has improved because of better execution
At six months, you start to feel like you have a real business, not just a high-paying job.
12 Months: The Business Runs Without You
Your leadership team owns execution
Systems are self-sustaining (they don't need you or the fractional integrator to maintain them)
You can take a two-week vacation and nothing breaks
The team is confident, aligned, and operating independently
You've hit or exceeded your annual goals
At 12 months, the fractional integrator starts to step back. You don't need us anymore. That's the goal.
When It Doesn't Work (And Why)
Not every engagement succeeds. Here are the most common reasons why:
The founder isn't ready to let go. If you're not willing to delegate, empower your team, and trust the process, nothing changes. A fractional integrator can't force you to release control.
The leadership team resists change. Sometimes, the people around you don't want to be held accountable. They like the status quo. If your team isn't open to a new way of operating, progress stalls.
Expectations aren't aligned. If you're expecting overnight transformation or think a fractional integrator will do all the work for you, you'll be disappointed. This is a partnership. We guide, you commit.
The business isn't ready. If you're pre-revenue, have no team, or are still figuring out product-market fit, you probably don't need a fractional integrator yet. You need focus and execution on the fundamentals.
There's no budget for implementation. We can create the plan, but if you won't invest in the tools, training, or hires needed to execute, nothing happens. Strategy without resources is just wishful thinking.
The best engagements happen when the founder is coachable, the team is ready, and there's real commitment to change.
The Handoff: Building Your Business to Run Without Us
Our goal isn't to stay forever. It's to build your business to the point where you don't need us anymore.
Here's what the handoff looks like:
We train your team to run the systems. Every process we implement, we teach someone on your team to own. We don't create dependency. We create capability.
We coach your internal leader to step into the integrator role. Sometimes, you have someone on your team who can grow into the COO or integrator seat. We coach them through that transition.
We document everything. SOPs, playbooks, meeting agendas, scorecards. Everything is documented so it doesn't live in our heads.
We scale back our time gradually. We don't disappear overnight. We go from 2 days a week to 1 day a week to monthly check-ins. The transition is smooth.
We stay available for strategic support. Even after the formal engagement ends, many of our clients keep us on retainer for quarterly planning or strategic advice.
The best compliment we get? "We don't need you anymore." That means we did our job.
Working with a fractional integrator isn't just about fixing what's broken. It's about building what's missing: clarity, accountability, systems, and freedom.
It's a partnership where we embed into your team, tell you the truth, and do the hard work alongside you. It's not always comfortable. But it's always worth it.
Because at the end of the engagement, you don't just have a better business. You have a business that runs without you. And that's the whole point.
Curious what this partnership could look like for your business? Let's have a conversation about where you are and where you want to go.
