Financial Services | Insurance
Replacing Siloed Execution With Centers of Excellence and Go-to-Market Pods
Clear ownership of capabilities and of markets, and one way to prioritize the work.
Practice area 0404 / 04
People Practices
Talent. Growth. Impact.
A growth strategy is only as good as the people running it. These three practices set the bar for what good looks like, develop the leaders already in the seat, and find and onboard the executive who runs the plan when the engagement ends.
Most engagements draw on more than one area, and one executive stays accountable for the whole.
01 Where It Fits
This practice area answers the fourth week-one question: do you have the right people in place, and are they deployed effectively? The blocker it removes is the team and resource gap: roles that were never defined, leaders who were never developed, and a seat that sits empty while a search drags on.
| The question we ask in week one | The blocker it exposes | The practice area that removes it |
|---|---|---|
| Is your team focused on the right initiatives to drive growth? | Disconnected strategies | Strategy Practices decide where to play |
| Are your growth teams moving fast enough to outpace competitors? | Slow pipeline velocity | Revenue Accelerators run the plan |
| Do you have the right customer technologies to support your goals? | Tech friction | Customer Tech build what it runs on |
| Do you have the right people in place, deployed effectively? | Team and resource gaps | People Practices put the right people in the seats |
The four questions are the Growth Assessment Checklist run in week one of the 100-Day Accelerator, and the blockers are the four it is built to remove.
02 In This Practice
Three services, from people who have held the seats they coach and recruit for.
03 Who Runs the Plan, and Who Runs It Next
Every fractional engagement is a leadership story with a beginning and an end. The executive takes the seat on day one, and most engagements are designed to hand the seat to a full-time leader. The three practices are the three moves that make that arc work.
A growth strategy is only as good as the people running itThe executive who runs the plan sets the bar, develops the team, and recruits the leader who takes over.
Recruiting usually starts while the fractional engagement is still running, so the new leader walks into a working plan, not a vacancy.
Coaching can carry the new leader through the first quarter in the seat.
The barValues tell people how to act and OKRs tell them what to hit. Almost nothing tells them what it takes to get there. Competency model development writes that down, in four to six weeks, as one standard for hiring, coaching and promotion.
The leadersExecutive coaching from operators who have held CEO, CRO and CMO seats, for founders becoming CEOs, new executives in their first quarter, and the next generation of leaders. A goal, a rhythm, and an end.
The successorExecutive recruiting and onboarding defines the role from the work we have been doing with you, finds and recruits the leader through our operator network, and stays through a 90-day onboarding plan while the fractional executive is still in the seat. The seat is never empty.
04 What It Draws On, What It Hands On
What it draws on
- The roles and resourcing model the plan names, from Strategy Practices
- What the revenue engine needs each role to actually do, from Revenue Accelerators
- The systems and record a new leader inherits, from Customer Tech
- Months of operating context on the team, not a job description
What it hands on
- Leaders in place who can run the plan without the fractional executive
- A full-time CMO, CRO or revenue leader who owns the plan after the handoff
- One standard for hiring, coaching and promotion that outlasts the engagement
- A clean end to the engagement, which is how most are designed
05 Proof
Consumer & Retail
Five Competing Brands, One Focused Growth System
Year-over-year growth on only 15% more ad spend, from a portfolio cut from five brands to three.
06 Questions We Get
What are the People Practices?
Three services for the people who run a growth plan: competency model development, which defines the skills that predict performance; executive coaching from operators who have held the seat; and executive recruiting and onboarding, which finds and onboards the full-time leader who takes over when a fractional engagement ends.
Why start with a competency model?
Because values say how people should act and OKRs say what they should hit, and almost nothing says what it takes to get there. Writing that down gives hiring, coaching and promotion one standard, and it is the piece that breaks first as a company scales.
Can executive coaching run on its own?
Yes. Coaching runs inside a fractional engagement, where the executive coaches the team already in place, and as its own engagement for a founder becoming a CEO, a newly promoted executive, or a next-generation leader. Either way it has a goal, a rhythm and a defined end.
When should we start recruiting the full-time leader?
When the growth model is proven and the scope needs a leader every day. Start while the fractional engagement is still running, because executive searches take months and the overlap between the outgoing and incoming leader is what makes the handoff smooth.
Is this HR consulting?
No. It is leadership work for the growth plan: who runs it, how well, and who runs it next. Compensation, benefits and HR policy are not part of it.
Ready to talk?
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The handbook
Your plan is a bet on people
Everything on this page, written down and free. Twelve chapters and eleven instruments: the competency grid, the interview loop, the coaching cadence, and the call between a builder and an operator.
88 pages
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