Why Career Transition Planning Matters for Senior Professionals
Career transition planning helps senior professionals adapt to change, stay competitive, and find meaningful new roles in evolving industries.
Career transition planning helps senior professionals adapt to change, stay competitive, and find meaningful new roles in evolving industries.
Explore career options beyond corporate life and discover alternative paths that align with your skills, interests, and passion for more fulfilling work.
Explore how to rethink your second-half career with clarity, purpose, and growth strategies to build a more meaningful next chapter.
After landing your first executive client, momentum is key. Learn how to build trust, expand opportunities, and turn one win into long-term growth.
Learn how to choose the right niche for your portfolio career by aligning your skills, interests, and market demand for long-term flexibility and income growth.
Managing multiple clients as a portfolio executive requires strong prioritization, clear communication, and efficient workload management. This guide helps you stay organized and effective.
Building a referral network for portfolio executive services helps attract ideal clients, strengthen credibility, and unlock consistent high-value opportunities through trusted professional connections.
Build a strong personal brand for portfolio work using clear strategy, consistent messaging, and storytelling to attract clients and stand out professionally.
Preparing for a portfolio executive career requires strong financial planning. Build savings, manage risk, and develop an investment strategy that supports long-term career growth and stability.
Explore the portfolio executive career path, from exploration to launch. Learn essential steps, skills, and strategies to succeed in portfolio management roles and leadership.
Discover how to evaluate whether portfolio work fits your career path by assessing benefits, risks, skills, and long-term goals before you commit.
New portfolio executives must establish credibility fast by delivering strategic wins, communicating clearly, and building trust with stakeholders across portfolios.
Starting portfolio work can be challenging. Learn key mistakes to avoid and follow best practices to create a strong, impactful, and professional portfolio from the start.
Smaller organisations need tailored expertise packaged into simple, actionable offers. Learn how to define value, set pricing, and deliver results efficiently.
Discover practical ways to add more value to portfolio executive clients by strengthening relationships, delivering insights, and driving strategic outcomes that support long-term business growth.
Portfolio executives can raise their fee rate by strengthening positioning, demonstrating measurable value, improving negotiation skills, and aligning services with client outcomes.
Scaling a portfolio executive business requires moving beyond one-to-one services. Learn how to build scalable systems, digital products, and leverage-based offers to increase reach and revenue.
Build a support ecosystem for your portfolio career with mentors, peers, tools, and systems that help you grow, adapt, and stay resilient in a multi-path professional journey.
Build strong business development habits for portfolio work by focusing on consistent outreach, strategic planning, and long-term client relationships to drive sustainable growth.
Portfolio executives can leverage LinkedIn to build awareness, increase visibility, and strengthen their personal brand and leadership presence.
Transition from relying on a single client to building a sustainable, diversified portfolio that supports long-term, stable business growth.
Learn how to explain portfolio executive value to potential clients by connecting strategy, impact, and measurable outcomes that demonstrate business growth and leadership effectiveness.
A guide to creating your first portfolio executive proposition, focusing on strategy alignment, value creation, and communicating impact to stakeholders.
Learn how to define your ideal portfolio executive clients by identifying target industries, decision-makers, and value alignment to attract and retain high-value partnerships.
Create a portfolio executive checklist before launch to align strategy, assets, and goals for a smooth, successful rollout.
Learn how to build a portfolio career without overcomplicating things. Discover simple ways to mix skills, gigs, and income streams for flexibility and growth.
Starting a portfolio executive business requires strategic planning, leadership skills, and the right tools to manage multiple ventures effectively.
Learn how to turn corporate experience into a portfolio business by leveraging your skills, building income streams, and creating long-term entrepreneurial opportunities.
Discover how to build a powerful portfolio executive offer that communicates your value, attracts ideal clients, and positions you as a high-level expert in your field.
Learn how to price portfolio executive services effectively using value-based pricing, market benchmarks, and proven consulting strategies to maximize revenue and client value.
Positioning yourself as a portfolio executive requires highlighting cross-functional leadership, strategic thinking, and measurable business impact across multiple initiatives and teams.
Finding your first clients as a portfolio executive requires clear positioning, strategic networking, and targeted outreach. This guide helps you build momentum and credibility quickly.
A Portfolio Executive oversees multiple projects and investments. Understand the skills, responsibilities, and preparation needed to step into this strategic leadership role.
Discover how to turn executive experience into independent client value by packaging expertise, building authority, and attracting clients in a competitive consulting market.
Strong networks are vital for portfolio executives, unlocking opportunities, influence, and sustainable career growth across industries.
Building confidence before a portfolio career helps you transition smoothly. Learn key mindset shifts and practical strategies to start strong across multiple income streams.
Explore the key differences between consulting and portfolio executive work, including responsibilities, scope, and strategic influence in organizations.
Portfolio careers are more than consulting—they combine diverse roles, skills, and income streams, offering flexibility, resilience, and long-term professional growth.
Senior professionals can design a more rewarding workstyle by balancing flexibility, purpose, and productivity, creating long-term fulfillment and sustainable career success.
An Executive Growth Academy helps senior professionals enhance leadership, strategy, and business skills through structured executive-level training programs.
Stay professionally active without returning to full-time work. Discover flexible paths to build skills, income, and purpose in modern careers.
Age and experience enhance portfolio work by bringing depth, credibility, and refined skills that help professionals present stronger, more impactful results.
Rethinking how you approach work, time, and value can improve productivity, reduce burnout, and help you create more meaningful results every day.
Portfolio executives are used by private equity firms, venture capital groups, holding companies, and conglomerates to manage multiple portfolio companies and drive strategic growth.
Fractional leadership is becoming popular among SMEs as businesses seek experienced executives on a part-time basis. It offers flexibility, affordability, and strategic growth support.
Portfolio executives build lasting client relationships by fostering trust, clear communication, and delivering strategic value that drives long-term partnerships and business growth.
Portfolio executives oversee portfolios of investments or projects, ensuring strategic alignment, performance tracking, and value creation across business units.
Experienced professionals need a structured career transition plan to navigate change, reskill, and move into new opportunities with clarity and confidence.
Portfolio work introduces variety and challenge, helping you develop diverse skills, stay engaged, and grow through hands-on, real-world projects.
A portfolio executive workstyle offers flexibility, strategic oversight, and stronger leadership across initiatives, helping leaders manage diverse responsibilities effectively.
Deciding your next career chapter starts with understanding your goals, values, and strengths. Gain clarity and move forward with purpose and confidence.
Purpose plays a critical role in a portfolio executive career, guiding strategic decisions, strengthening leadership impact, and driving long-term fulfillment.
Explore how to evaluate your skills, interests, and opportunities before starting a portfolio career. Learn practical steps to design a flexible and fulfilling career path.
Before leaving a traditional executive role, evaluate financial readiness, career direction, lifestyle changes, and long-term goals to ensure a smooth and strategic transition.
Corporate leaders are increasingly stepping away from traditional roles to build their own ventures, driven by autonomy, flexibility, and the pursuit of financial independence.
Community plays a vital role in supporting independent executives by offering collaboration, accountability, shared insights, and growth opportunities that drive long-term success.
A Portfolio Executive Community is a network of senior leaders who share insights, align strategy, and drive growth through collaboration and peer learning.
Senior leaders are increasingly embracing portfolio careers, combining multiple roles and projects for flexibility, autonomy, and broader impact beyond traditional executive positions.
Preparing for an independent executive career requires strong leadership, strategic thinking, and a clear personal brand to succeed at higher levels of responsibility.
Portfolio executives require a blend of strategy, leadership, finance, risk management, and communication skills to manage portfolios effectively and deliver results.
Smaller organisations increasingly rely on part-time executive talent to gain strategic leadership, control costs, and stay agile while scaling operations effectively.
Portfolio executives help growing businesses align strategy, strengthen governance, and scale operations efficiently through expert oversight and performance management.
Fractional work helps experienced leaders expand influence, take on flexible roles, and adapt to evolving career opportunities in modern leadership.
Freedom and flexibility are key drivers in executive success, enabling better decision-making, stronger leadership, and improved work-life balance.
Rethink career success in the second half of life by shifting focus from titles and income to purpose, flexibility, and fulfillment in work and personal growth.
Portfolio work after a corporate career offers flexibility, creative freedom, and new growth paths for professionals seeking meaningful transitions.
Success today depends more on workstyle than job title. Skills, adaptability, and habits shape career growth and long-term satisfaction in modern workplaces.
Taking control of your workstyle helps you align tasks with energy levels, improve focus, and increase productivity. Learn simple strategies to design a workflow that works for you.
Portfolio careers combine multiple income streams and roles. Learn how this modern work model boosts flexibility, skills, and long-term career growth.
Senior professionals are increasingly shifting away from traditional employment, choosing consulting, entrepreneurship, and flexible roles that offer autonomy, purpose, and growth.
A portfolio career lets you combine multiple roles and income streams. Learn how to assess if this flexible work style matches your skills, goals, and lifestyle.
Learn the key differences between portfolio executives and fractional executives, including roles, benefits, and when each model is best for your business growth and leadership needs.
Fractional leadership allows businesses to hire experienced executives on a part-time or contract basis, offering strategic expertise without full-time cost commitments.
Experienced professionals are increasingly embracing portfolio careers, combining multiple roles or projects to gain flexibility, income diversity, and more meaningful work.
Portfolio executives are redefining leadership by overseeing multiple businesses and initiatives, improving agility and innovation across organizations.
Leveraging professional networks can drive fractional career growth by linking skills, mentorship, and opportunities, empowering professionals to advance flexibly and strategically
Portfolio executives master the art of balancing strategy and execution across clients, ensuring every project aligns with goals while delivering impactful results efficiently
Training programs prepare fractional executives by honing leadership, strategic, and operational skills, enabling them to deliver impactful results across diverse business environments
Fractional executives build lasting business relationships by fostering trust, collaboration, and strategic impact, ensuring sustainable growth and value in every partnership
Portfolio executives excel by adapting skills across industries, leveraging experience to solve challenges, innovate, and lead teams effectively in diverse business environments
Develop a sustainable model for multi-client advisory work to enhance efficiency, improve client relationships, and ensure long-term success in advisory services
Mentorship programs help executives smoothly transition into fractional roles, providing guidance, skill development, and confidence to succeed in strategic, part-time leadership positions
Experienced executives craft portfolio careers to juggle multiple roles effectively, boosting impact, income, and career growth while maintaining flexibility and professional fulfillment
Fractional leadership helps startups scale by providing expert guidance in growth and strategy without the expense of full-time executives, driving efficiency and informed decision-making
Portfolio executives strategically align their skills and experience with market needs, ensuring businesses innovate, stay competitive, and achieve sustainable growth
Measuring success in fractional executive roles involves tracking impact, ROI, and strategic contributions. Learn best practices to evaluate performance and maximize leadership value
Portfolio executives develop resilience to manage multiple clients effectively, using strategies that enhance adaptability, maintain performance, and navigate complex engagements successfully
Engaging with professional communities enhances portfolio careers by fostering networking, skill growth, and opportunities for diverse career paths and long-term success
Advisory work allows senior leaders to maintain career flexibility, explore diverse opportunities, and leverage their expertise while shaping professional growth and personal fulfillment
Fractional executives excel in client acquisition and retention by applying strategic, flexible approaches that grow business relationships, boost loyalty, and maximize long-term value
In the portfolio economy, C-Suite careers are evolving. Leaders embrace diverse roles, flexible paths, and innovative opportunities, redefining executive success in modern business
Fractional executives leverage strategic planning across clients, aligning goals, optimizing processes, and delivering customized growth strategies for diverse business needs
Discover inspiring portfolio career stories from seasoned executives. Learn how they balance multiple roles, build skills, and achieve long-term professional growth
Senior leaders use fractional work to unlock new opportunities, drive innovation, and expand their influence, enabling strategic growth without overextending resources
Successfully handling multiple fractional roles requires smart planning and self-care. Learn techniques to stay productive, maintain balance, and prevent burnout while juggling responsibilities
Mentorship and strong professional networks reduce risks in fractional careers, providing guidance, support, and connections to thrive in flexible and project-based work
Portfolio executives harness peer feedback to accelerate growth, refine leadership skills, and improve decision-making. Collaborative insights drive measurable career and business outcomes
Professional networks play a key role in portfolio careers by providing mentorship, industry connections, and opportunities, helping professionals grow and diversify their work successfully
Explore how experienced executives successfully pivot into fractional leadership roles. Gain insights on strategy, growth, and career development from proven industry leaders
Portfolio executives leverage strategic positioning, market insights, and leadership skills to stand out in competitive markets, ensuring growth and long-term success
Learn effective networking strategies for multi-client advisory success. Strengthen relationships, expand your network, and enhance business growth through proven techniques
Communities play a vital role in helping fractional executives build careers by providing networking, mentorship, and resources to grow skills, advance opportunities, and achieve success
Portfolio executives strategically navigate competitive market dynamics, using insights and innovative approaches to drive growth, optimize performance, and stay ahead of rivals
Running a fractional executive business comes with unique operational challenges. Discover strategies, workflows, and insights to manage clients efficiently and scale successfully
Building confidence for independent executive work requires developing self-trust, decisive thinking, and strong leadership skills. Embrace autonomy, overcome self-doubt, and position yourself as a capable, results-driven executive who thrives without constant oversight
Fractional leadership mentorship programs offer new executives expert guidance, real-world insights, and strategic support to accelerate growth and build leadership confidence from the start.
Fractional executives bring high-level leadership to critical business decisions, offering strategic insight and flexibility without the commitment of a full-time hire, driving growth and clarity.
Advisory boards play a vital role in supporting fractional leaders by providing strategic guidance, industry expertise, and accountability — helping organizations scale smarter without full-time executive overhead
Retaining clients in a portfolio executive career requires trust, consistent communication, and delivering measurable results. Learn key strategies to build long-term relationships and sustain a thriving portfolio career.
Fractional leadership lets startups tap into experienced executives on a part-time basis, delivering strategic guidance and proven expertise without the overhead of full-time salaries
Effective pricing strategies for fractional executive services balance market demand, value delivered, and client budgets. Learn the models that position your expertise competitively and drive sustainable revenue growth
Fractional C-suite engagements offer businesses seasoned executive leadership without the full-time commitment. Access strategic expertise, reduce overhead, and accelerate growth with flexible, high-impact leadership solutions tailored to your needs
Transitioning clients from full-time to fractional leadership requires clear communication, structured handoffs, and trust-building. The right approach ensures continuity, sustained results, and a seamless shift to a flexible engagement model
Measuring the ROI of fractional executive engagements helps businesses justify leadership investments. Track performance metrics, cost savings, and strategic outcomes to evaluate the true value delivered by fractional executives
Fractional executive contracts define scope, pay, and legal terms for part-time C-suite roles. Use proven templates and agreements to protect both parties and ensure a smooth engagement
Learn how to build a fractional executive practice from the ground up — covering positioning, pricing, client acquisition, and the key steps to sustainable growth
Fractional executives bring senior-level expertise to organizations on a part-time basis, driving strategic growth, improving efficiency, and enhancing overall performance without the cost of full-time leadership
Managing client expectations across multiple fractional roles requires clear communication, defined boundaries, and proactive updates. Master these strategies to build trust, avoid conflicts, and deliver consistent value to every client you serve
A well-structured portfolio career balances diverse income streams, skills, and opportunities. Learn proven strategies to organize your work, manage multiple clients, and build sustainable long-term professional growth
Fractional leadership offers companies access to seasoned executives part-time, bridging critical strategic gaps without the cost of full-time hires. It’s a smart, flexible solution for sustainable growth
Positioning yourself for high-value fractional engagements requires a sharp personal brand, niche expertise, and a clear value proposition that commands premium rates from the right clients
Multi-client advisory work demands careful balance of competing priorities, clear boundaries, and strong communication. Learn how successful advisors navigate complexity to deliver consistent value across diverse client relationships
Fractional leadership allows companies to tap into seasoned executive expertise on a part-time basis, reducing costs while driving growth. Access the right talent, exactly when your business needs it most
Fractional executives bring expert guidance on tax obligations and legal considerations, helping businesses stay compliant, reduce risk, and make informed financial and strategic decisions
Building a personal brand as a fractional executive sets you apart in a competitive market. Learn strategies to showcase your expertise, attract ideal clients, and position yourself as a trusted industry leader
Non-executive director positions play a vital role in portfolio careers, providing senior professionals with boardroom influence, governance experience, and flexible engagement across multiple organisations
Fractional executives bring a unique ability to read, respect, and align with different organizational cultures. Their adaptability allows businesses to gain senior-level leadership that integrates seamlessly and delivers impact from day one
Portfolio career planning helps professionals diversify their income streams by strategically aligning skills with market demand. Build a resilient, future-proof career across multiple roles and industries
Senior leaders today are rethinking traditional career paths, carefully weighing the stability of full-time roles against the flexibility of fractional work to align with their goals and lifestyle
Portfolio executives build authority by sharing insights, publishing content, and engaging in industry conversations. Strategic thought leadership positions them as trusted experts, opening doors to new opportunities and partnerships
Fractional leadership offers cost-effective access to experienced executives, helping budget-constrained companies drive growth, fill skill gaps, and stay competitive without the burden of full-time salaries
Pricing and negotiating fractional contracts requires clear strategy, market awareness, and confidence. Learn practical tips to set competitive rates and secure terms that work for both parties
Executive coaching helps leaders navigate the shift to portfolio careers by building self-awareness, defining goals, and creating a flexible strategy that turns diverse roles into a fulfilling, high-impact career path
Structuring a fractional executive business for growth requires smart positioning, scalable service models, and clear client frameworks. Learn how to build a practice that drives consistent revenue and long-term success
Fractional executives bring high-level strategic insight to businesses at a fraction of the cost, enabling companies to diversify and build multiple revenue streams through expert, flexible leadership
Thriving as a fractional C-Level executive demands strategic thinking, adaptability, and strong leadership. Master the essential skills to deliver impactful results across multiple organizations simultaneously
A portfolio career offers burned-out executives a powerful path to recovery — blending flexible roles, renewed purpose, and sustainable balance to reignite passion and professional fulfillment.
Starting your first fractional engagement can feel overwhelming, but with the right approach, clear communication, and defined goals, you can deliver immediate value and build lasting client relationships
Fractional executives bring diverse industry experience to organizations, offering strategic leadership on a part-time basis. Their ability to transfer expertise across sectors helps businesses scale efficiently and solve complex challenges
Managing multiple fractional roles demands smart scheduling, clear boundaries, and strong communication. Discover actionable strategies to stay productive, avoid burnout, and build a thriving portfolio career
Onboarding fractional leaders requires clear expectations, structured introductions, and cultural alignment. Follow these best practices to help them integrate quickly and drive results in established teams
Fractional executives bring C-suite expertise to businesses on a flexible basis, driving growth and solving challenges without long-term contracts — offering cost-effective leadership exactly when you need it
Mentorship plays a vital role in launching a fractional executive career, helping professionals navigate client acquisition, positioning, and business development with confidence and clarity
Building a client pipeline for multi-client advisory work requires strategic outreach, strong positioning, and consistent nurturing. Discover actionable steps to attract and retain high-value advisory clients
Marketing yourself as a fractional executive requires a strong personal brand, targeted outreach, and clear value communication. These proven strategies help you attract ideal clients and grow your fractional career
Fractional and interim executives both offer flexible leadership, but serve different needs. Understanding their differences helps businesses choose the right model for cost, commitment, and impact
Independent executives juggling multiple clients need strong systems, clear boundaries, and smart communication strategies. Discover how top consultants stay organized, deliver results, and scale their client portfolios without burnout
Pricing fractional executive services requires balancing market rates, experience, and value delivered. Discover key strategies to set competitive, profitable rates that attract the right clients and reflect your expertise
Structuring fractional executive engagements effectively ensures leadership alignment, clear scope, and measurable outcomes. Learn key strategies to maximize impact and drive business growth with fractional executives
Transitioning from corporate leadership to a portfolio career opens doors to flexibility and purpose. Discover proven strategies to leverage your expertise across multiple roles and income streams.
Senior executives are moving away from traditional full-time C-suite roles, embracing flexible leadership arrangements that deliver strategic value while offering greater autonomy and work-life balance
The fractional executive business model lets companies access experienced C-suite leadership on a part-time basis. It offers cost-effective expertise, strategic guidance, and flexibility — ideal for startups and growing businesses seeking senior talent without full-time commitment
Fractional leadership offers startups and SMEs access to seasoned executives on a part-time basis, delivering strategic expertise, reduced overhead, and scalable growth without the cost of full-time hires
Senior leaders transitioning to a portfolio career must rethink networking strategies. Building diverse, intentional connections across industries drives visibility, credibility, and a steady flow of meaningful opportunities
Fractional executives must master communication, adaptability, and strategic thinking to succeed across multiple clients. These key insights help you lead effectively, manage competing priorities, and deliver measurable value in every engagement
Fractional leadership gives scaling companies access to seasoned executives on a part-time basis, reducing costs while accelerating growth, improving strategy, and building resilient, high-performing teams
Successfully navigating client engagements across multiple businesses strengthens your portfolio and sharpens your professional edge. Discover key strategies for managing diverse projects efficiently
Experienced leaders are redefining success by adapting to the fractional economy — offering their expertise part-time across multiple companies, creating flexibility, deeper impact, and new career opportunities in a rapidly shifting business world
Fractional executive work offers seasoned leaders flexible, high-impact roles outside traditional corporate structures. Explore diverse opportunities that maximize expertise, drive business growth, and redefine modern career paths
Portfolio careers empower retired and transitioning executives to diversify their professional roles, monetize decades of expertise, and stay engaged — on their own terms.
Fractional leadership offers startups expert executive guidance on a flexible, part-time basis — eliminating long-term hiring risks while delivering the strategic direction needed to scale
Leadership careers are rapidly evolving as flexibility reshapes the workplace. Modern leaders must adapt their skills, embrace remote dynamics, and cultivate resilience to lead effectively in this new era
Fractional executives bring C-suite expertise to multiple organizations simultaneously, driving strategic growth and leadership without the overhead of a full-time commitment — ideal for scaling businesses
Fractional executive roles offer senior professionals flexible, high-impact opportunities to lead multiple organizations part-time, leveraging deep expertise while diversifying income and expanding their professional influence
Portfolio careers empower senior leaders to balance multiple roles, reduce burnout, and reclaim personal time. By diversifying income streams and commitments, they design a career that aligns with life priorities
Businesses are increasingly adopting part-time executive leadership to access senior expertise without full-time costs, enabling flexible, strategic growth in today’s competitive market.
Fractional leadership is reshaping how companies scale in 2026. Discover the key trends driving adoption of part-time executives across startups, SMBs, and enterprise teams
Corporate veterans are redefining their careers through multi-client advisory work, applying deep industry expertise across multiple organizations while gaining flexibility, autonomy, and renewed professional purpose
Independent executives are transforming traditional C-suite roles by offering organizations flexible leadership, diverse expertise, and innovative thinking that challenges conventional corporate structures and drives growth
Fractional executives provide businesses with on-demand strategic leadership during economic uncertainty, offering cost-effective expertise, agile decision-making, and proven experience to stabilize and grow
Companies are turning to fractional CFOs and COOs to gain senior-level expertise without the cost of full-time hires. This flexible model delivers strategic leadership, scalability, and measurable results
Part-time leadership offers senior executives a sustainable path to reducing burnout by balancing responsibility with recovery time, boosting long-term productivity and organizational well-being
The portfolio career model lets experienced professionals combine multiple roles, freelance work, and consulting to diversify income streams and maximize the value of their skills and expertise
A successful fractional executive brings strategic leadership, adaptability, and measurable impact to organizations — delivering senior-level expertise without the full-time commitment.
Fractional leadership offers companies access to experienced executives on a part-time basis, reducing costs while driving strategic growth. Discover how this flexible model benefits both businesses and executives seeking impactful, scalable opportunities
Senior leaders are increasingly exploring multi-client advisory roles to leverage their expertise, gain flexibility, and drive impact across industries. This evolving career path offers new opportunities for growth and influence beyond traditional leadership positions
Fractional C-suite roles are rapidly gaining traction in 2026, offering businesses access to seasoned executive talent on a flexible, cost-effective basis. Companies of all sizes are embracing this model
Portfolio work gives experienced leaders the freedom to choose projects, set their own pace, and leverage decades of expertise across multiple roles — delivering greater fulfillment and work-life balance
Fractional executive roles give corporate veterans a powerful way to stay relevant, maximize earnings, and lead across industries — all on their own terms and schedule
Senior professionals are redefining work by building portfolio careers — combining consulting, freelancing, and board roles to maximize expertise, flexibility, and purpose in their next career chapter
Fractional leadership is revolutionizing how companies access executive talent. Part-time leaders bring strategic expertise, drive growth, and reshape business operations without the commitment of a full-time hire
Fractional executives differ from consultants in accountability, decision-making authority, and long-term commitment. Understand the real distinction to hire the right leadership for your business growth
Fractional leadership roles offer a powerful path to career reinvention, allowing experienced professionals to apply their expertise across multiple companies, enjoy greater flexibility, and build a fulfilling portfolio career
Companies are shifting toward fractional executives to gain senior leadership expertise without the full-time cost. This flexible model offers agility, specialized skills, and faster results for growing businesses
Managing multiple clients in a fractional executive practice demands clear boundaries, structured scheduling, and strong communication. These strategies help you deliver consistent leadership value across every engagement without burnout
Fractional marketing leadership is gaining traction among mid-size firms seeking senior expertise and strategic direction without the overhead of a full-time hire, offering flexibility and measurable growth
Fractional executives provide businesses with experienced, senior-level leadership on a part-time basis, driving growth and strategy without the overhead of a full-time executive salary
Senior leaders are increasingly exploring fractional roles after leaving corporate careers, bringing decades of expertise to organizations part-time while enjoying greater flexibility, purpose, and work-life balance
Building a career across multiple leadership positions brings unique challenges and remarkable rewards. Discover how to navigate complex responsibilities, sharpen decision-making skills, and unlock lasting professional growth
Fractional executives are transforming startup ecosystems by providing seasoned C-suite leadership on a part-time basis. Startups gain strategic expertise, cut overhead costs, and accelerate growth without the commitment of full-time hires
Portfolio work styles are transforming how professionals manage their careers, offering greater autonomy, diverse income streams, and control over their schedules. Discover why this flexible approach is gaining momentum among skilled experts seeking independence
Succeeding as a Fractional Chief Financial Officer demands strategic thinking, adaptability, and strong leadership. Learn the essential skills and habits that help fractional CFOs drive financial growth and deliver lasting impact across multiple organizations
Portfolio executives are finding renewed purpose and direction through peer community and professional coaching support, gaining the tools they need to lead with confidence and achieve lasting career success
Part-time executive roles demand sharp, adaptable leadership skills. Learn how to build credibility, align with teams quickly, and deliver results in flexible, high-impact engagements
Former C-suite executives are increasingly choosing independent advisory roles, offering high-level strategic guidance to organizations while enjoying autonomy, diverse engagements, and lasting impact
Executives share firsthand experiences in fractional Chief Operating Officer positions, revealing key insights, challenges, and opportunities that define this growing leadership model in modern business
Interim and fractional roles offer businesses flexible, experienced leadership during uncertain times, helping bridge critical gaps, maintain momentum, and drive stability without long-term commitment
Landing your first clients in fractional executive work requires a strong personal brand, targeted outreach, and leveraging existing networks to build trust and credibility quickly
The demand for fractional expertise in finance and marketing is reshaping how businesses access top talent. Companies now leverage part-time executives to drive strategy, cut costs, and scale smarter
Professionals share candid reflections on leaving corporate roles for portfolio careers, revealing the rewards, trade-offs, and strategies that helped them thrive in a multi-income, flexible work lifestyle
Fractional operations leaders give companies access to senior-level expertise on a flexible basis, helping them optimize workflows, cut inefficiencies, and scale smarter without the cost of a full-time hire
Building a network as an independent portfolio executive is key to long-term success. Discover actionable strategies to connect with the right people, grow your influence, and create meaningful professional relationships
Executives are discovering how evolving professional networks unlock portfolio career opportunities. By leveraging strategic connections, leaders can diversify income streams, expand influence, and achieve sustainable long-term career growth
Like-minded groups play a vital role in helping independent professionals build sustainable practices by fostering collaboration, shared learning, and mutual accountability that drives long-term success
Professionals are weighing whether specialized communities play a key role in accelerating fractional work opportunities, offering niche networks, faster connections, and greater visibility in a competitive market
Executives navigating portfolio careers often face isolation without a traditional workplace. Peer networks offer connection, accountability, and shared wisdom to help them lead with confidence and clarity
Senior leaders are redefining how professional communities support career transitions, leveraging networks for guidance, opportunities, and strategic direction in their next chapter
Executives are increasingly questioning whether joining another professional network is worth their time. Learn what factors determine real value and how to make smarter networking decisions for career growth.
Fractional leadership models are gaining momentum as businesses seek flexible, cost-effective access to senior expertise. Future trends suggest wider adoption across industries, reshaping how organizations scale and lead
Portfolio careers are reshaping how professionals work, offering flexibility, diverse income streams, and greater control. Discover why more people are embracing multiple roles to align work with their lifestyle and goals
Non-executive director positions give senior leaders the strategic flexibility to shape organizations, diversify their portfolios, and drive meaningful impact beyond traditional executive roles
Effective expertise positioning helps you attract the right clients for fractional work. Learn proven strategies to showcase your skills, build credibility, and land ideal fractional opportunities consistently
Leadership skills are rapidly evolving to match the fast-paced demands of startup and scale-up environments, requiring adaptability, vision, and the ability to inspire teams through growth
Transition programs equip professionals with practical steps to secure their first fractional placement, offering structured guidance, real-world strategies, and the confidence needed to succeed in fractional roles
Fractional roles let skilled professionals deliver high-level expertise without full-time commitments. Organizations gain strategic impact while talent enjoys flexibility, making it a win-win for modern work
Top executives reveal what it truly takes to build a successful portfolio career — from managing multiple roles to staying relevant, these real-world insights help you navigate your own path with confidence
Independent leaders face unpredictable income streams that require smart financial planning. Learn proven strategies to manage cash flow, build reserves, and thrive in variable-income leadership roles.
The demand for fractional expertise is surging across industries as businesses seek flexible, cost-effective access to senior-level skills. Part-time specialists are reshaping how companies scale and grow
International networks give portfolio executives access to global opportunities, diverse markets, and influential connections that drive career growth, strategic partnerships, and expanded leadership across borders
Personal branding has become a critical differentiator for fractional executives. A strong professional identity builds trust, attracts quality clients, and drives long-term career success
Career coaching empowers executives to navigate the shift to part-time advisory roles, offering strategic guidance, mindset support, and tools to redefine their professional impact
Fractional leadership models give growing companies access to seasoned executives on a part-time basis, addressing talent gaps efficiently. These flexible arrangements deliver strategic expertise without the overhead of full-time hires
Professionals shifting to portfolio careers must embrace risk management strategies to safeguard income streams, health coverage, and financial growth while navigating the complexities of multi-income work structures
Securing initial clients in independent executive work requires strategic networking, a strong personal brand, and clear value positioning. These proven approaches help you land high-value contracts and build lasting professional relationships
Experienced operational leaders are embracing fractional COO roles as a flexible, high-impact career path — bringing strategic expertise to multiple businesses while achieving greater autonomy and growth.
Women in executive positions are reshaping traditional leadership by adopting flexible models that prioritize collaboration, well-being, and results — proving success looks different and better than ever before
Fractional work offers flexible, part-time expertise without long-term contracts, while traditional consulting provides project-based solutions. Understanding the differences helps businesses choose the right model for their goals and budget
Finance professionals are increasingly turning to fractional CFO roles, offering flexible engagements with multiple companies. These opportunities provide strategic impact, career growth, and work-life balance in today’s evolving financial landscape
Community networks play a vital role in building a sustainable portfolio career by unlocking opportunities, fostering collaboration, and providing support across multiple professional pursuits
Experienced marketing leaders are embracing fractional CMO roles, applying deep expertise across multiple companies to deliver strategic leadership, brand growth, and measurable results without full-time commitments
Executives launching a fractional practice face unique challenges, from positioning their expertise to attracting clients. Understanding these hurdles helps build a sustainable and successful fractional business
Mentorship programs empower senior leaders to navigate portfolio career paths by offering guidance, networks, and strategies to successfully manage multiple roles and create lasting professional impact
Fractional executives give startups access to senior leadership on a flexible basis, enabling rapid growth without the cost or commitment of full-time hires. Scale smarter with on-demand expertise
Transitioning from full-time work to independent leadership demands more than ambition. It requires a strategic mindset, financial readiness, and the courage to lead on your own terms
Companies are turning to part-time executives to balance rising costs with the need for specialized expertise. Fractional leadership offers businesses flexible, high-impact talent without the full-time price tag
Experienced C-suite leaders are turning to fractional leadership for flexible, high-impact roles. This growing trend lets top executives drive strategy across multiple organizations simultaneously.
Senior professionals are redefining retirement by building portfolio careers through structured transitions, combining consulting, freelancing, and passion projects to stay engaged and financially secure.
As corporate structures evolve, executives are embracing fractional roles for flexibility and impact. This growing trend reshapes modern leadership, offering new opportunities for seasoned professionals
Flexible executive models are reshaping how leaders manage their time and responsibilities, enabling better work-life balance, reduced burnout, and improved performance across modern organizations
Transitioning to a portfolio career requires planning, adaptability, and a clear strategy. Learn from professionals who’ve made the shift and discover how to successfully juggle multiple roles and income streams
Executive work is rapidly evolving as economic shifts reshape leadership demands. Today’s executives must embrace new skills, digital transformation, and adaptive strategies to drive success in an increasingly complex and competitive business landscape
Transitioning executives are discovering that fractional career paths offer flexibility, diverse engagements, and sustained income. These roles provide a powerful alternative to traditional full-time positions, enabling seasoned leaders to maximize their expertise
Flexible leadership models are transforming modern organizations by embracing adaptability, shared decision-making, and remote team dynamics — empowering leaders to drive growth in a rapidly evolving workplace
: Senior executives are redefining careers by shifting from full-time roles to independent consulting, gaining flexibility, autonomy, and new opportunities in today’s dynamic professional landscape
Fractional leadership is reshaping how experienced professionals engage with organizations, offering flexible, part-time executive roles that deliver real impact while creating new career possibilities beyond traditional full-time positions
Senior professionals are redefining their careers by embracing portfolio work amid shifting executive landscapes. Combining consulting, board roles, and freelance projects offers flexibility, renewed purpose, and long-term financial resilience
Companies are increasingly hiring part-time executives to balance flexibility and expertise. This growing trend helps businesses access senior leadership while managing costs and adapting to evolving workforce demands
Fractional leadership lets businesses hire experienced executives part-time, sharing their expertise across multiple companies. It’s booming as startups and SMEs seek top-tier talent without the cost of full-time C-suite hires
Fractional leadership is reshaping how businesses access top-tier talent. Learn practical strategies to implement this flexible model and drive sustainable growth without full-time costs
Fractional leadership offers businesses senior executive expertise without the full-time cost. Learn how to onboard, align, and leverage fractional leaders to drive measurable results and sustainable growth
A portfolio career lets you combine multiple roles, skills, and income streams into one dynamic professional life. Learn how to design a career that offers freedom, variety, and long-term fulfillment
Fractional talent enables businesses to scale efficiently by blending a stable core team with flexible expertise. The core-and-flex approach drives growth while managing costs and adapting to change
Fractional C-suite executives offer businesses strategic leadership on demand. Discover 3 actionable hiring strategies to bring in tactical leaders who drive results without full-time overhead.
A portfolio career lets you combine multiple roles, skills, and income streams into one fulfilling professional life. Discover why more people are ditching traditional jobs for flexible, diverse career paths
Fractional C-suite executives offer businesses expert leadership on a part-time basis, delivering strategic advantages, cost savings, and flexible solutions to accelerate growth
Your career isn’t a side hustle to manage — it’s a portfolio to build. Discover how shifting your mindset can unlock greater growth, purpose, and professional resilience over time
Fractional leadership is revolutionizing startups by giving them access to seasoned CFOs, CMOs, and COOs on a flexible basis, delivering executive expertise, cost savings, and scalable growth strategies
A portfolio career leader juggles multiple roles, skills, and income streams instead of one traditional job. Learn what it means and how to successfully build this modern career path
Full-time leadership is no longer the only path. Organizations are embracing fractional, interim, and shared leadership models that offer flexibility, expertise, and better alignment with today’s evolving workplace demands
Filling fractional leadership roles comes with unique challenges, from finding the right fit to managing transitions. Discover proven solutions to overcome these hurdles effectively
Nonprofits are increasingly turning to fractional leaders for flexible, affordable executive talent. Learn why this innovative model may soon reshape nonprofit leadership structures.
Choosing between interim and fractional leadership depends on your organization’s goals, timeline, and needs. Learn which model delivers the right expertise at the right moment
A portfolio career lets you break free from the traditional 9-to-5 by combining multiple roles, skills, and income streams into one fulfilling professional life tailored entirely to your strengths
Fractional leadership helps startups access top-tier executive talent without full-time costs. Discover 20 practical tips to leverage fractional leaders and drive sustainable growth
Fractional CEOs are reshaping modern leadership. Companies now hire experienced executives part-time, gaining strategic expertise without full-time costs — the gig economy has reached the C-suite
Portfolio careers are redefining success for ambitious women, offering flexibility, multiple income streams, and the freedom to align work with personal values and long-term professional goals
Fractional leadership brings experienced executives into organizations on a part-time basis, reshaping team structures and workflows. Discover how this growing trend directly affects your current role and career trajectory
Think a portfolio career is just for freelancers or those who can’t commit? Think again. Discover the 5 biggest myths holding people back and what it actually takes to make a portfolio career thrive
Becoming a fractional C-suite member offers executives flexible, high-impact roles across multiple companies. Discover the skills, strategies, and insider knowledge needed to thrive in this rapidly growing career model
Fractional leaders offer executive-level expertise on a part-time basis, but can they truly move the needle? Explore how businesses leverage fractional leadership to drive growth and results
Building a long-term career as a Non-Executive Director requires strategic networking, relevant board experience, and continuous skill development to secure and retain high-impact director roles
Fractional executives must master strategic leadership, communication, and adaptability to drive results across multiple companies. These essential skills help part-time executives create lasting impact and business growth
Pricing your services as a portfolio executive requires aligning your rates with the value you deliver across multiple roles. Learn how to set competitive fees, position your expertise, and attract the right clients
Choosing the right clients is key to thriving as a fractional executive. Learn how to evaluate fit, set boundaries, and build partnerships that drive real results and career satisfaction
Standing out as a portfolio executive requires a strong personal brand, clear value proposition, and demonstrated results across multiple roles. Master these strategies to rise above the competition
Stepping down as CEO doesn’t mean stepping away from impact. Learn how to transition into an advisory role with clarity, purpose, and lasting influence on the businesses you help lead
Fractional executives are transforming how businesses access top-tier leadership. Learn why companies are turning to part-time C-suite professionals to drive growth and cut costs
Portfolio careers are transforming how executives work, blending multiple roles, projects, and income streams. Discover the emerging trends driving this shift and what it means for future leadership
Fractional executive roles offer corporates flexible access to seasoned leadership, cutting overhead costs while driving strategic growth, innovation, and operational efficiency across departments
Transitioning into consulting? Your industry experience is your greatest asset. Learn how to package your expertise, build credibility, and land high-value consulting roles with confidence
A strong personal brand strategy helps portfolio executives showcase diverse expertise, build credibility, and attract high-value opportunities across multiple industries and leadership roles.
Building authority in a portfolio career requires showcasing diverse expertise, growing a strong personal brand, and consistently delivering value across multiple roles and industries
Non-executive director roles offer senior professionals a unique opportunity to leverage their expertise, provide strategic oversight, and influence business decisions while enjoying a flexible, high-impact career path
Transitioning to executive advisory roles requires a strategic mindset shift, strong networking, and leveraging years of leadership experience to guide organizations toward sustainable growth and success
Building a balanced portfolio of executive roles allows leaders to diversify their influence, mitigate career risks, and unlock new growth opportunities across industries and functions
Scaling a consulting business requires smart systems, the right team, and clear processes. Discover how to grow your client base and revenue without compromising the quality that sets you apart
Transitioning to a portfolio career in your 40s is achievable with the right steps. Leverage your experience, diversify your skills, and build a fulfilling multi-income career path.
Building a strong executive consulting brand requires strategic positioning, clear messaging, and avoiding critical pitfalls. Master the do’s and don’ts to stand out, build trust, and grow a consulting practice that commands authority and attracts premium clients
Your executive experience is a powerful asset in the fractional world. Learn how to position your leadership skills, attract the right clients, and deliver measurable results as a fractional executive
Transitioning from corporate life to consulting is more achievable than you think. Learn how to leverage your expertise, define your niche, set competitive rates, and build a client base from scratch
Leveraging your network is the most powerful strategy to secure portfolio executive roles. Build meaningful connections, seek warm referrals, and position yourself as the ideal candidate through strategic relationship-building.
Considering a boardroom role? Becoming a Non-Executive Director offers career growth, strategic influence, and valuable networking opportunities that can elevate your professional journey to the next level.
A portfolio career demands flexible leadership. Learn how to tailor your communication, decision-making, and influence skills to thrive across multiple roles, industries, and clients simultaneously
Transitioning to a portfolio executive career opens doors to flexibility and growth. Discover actionable tips to leverage your skills, attract clients, and build a fulfilling multi-role career
Transitioning from corporate leadership to fractional work lets senior executives monetize expertise flexibly. Learn how to position yourself, attract clients, and thrive in the fractional economy
Securing an executive contract requires strategy, preparation, and negotiation skills. This step-by-step guide helps leaders protect their interests, maximize compensation, and confidently close the deal
Finding your niche as a fractional executive is key to attracting the right clients and commanding premium rates. Learn how to leverage your expertise, define your target market, and position yourself for long-term success
Discover why portfolio executives report higher job satisfaction than traditional roles. Balancing multiple positions offers flexibility, variety, and a deeper sense of purpose in your career
Fractional executives build lasting client relationships by establishing trust, setting clear expectations, and delivering consistent value — creating partnerships that drive sustainable business growth
Senior executive career transitions demand strategic clarity, strong personal branding, and proactive networking. Discover actionable steps to lead your next career move with purpose and confidence.
A winning executive proposal for portfolio work highlights your expertise, aligns with client goals, and presents measurable outcomes. Master the structure and strategy to close deals with confidence.
Building a referral network as a portfolio executive requires strategic relationship-building, consistent value delivery, and staying top-of-mind across multiple industries and client circles
Starting as a non-executive director in your 50s is more achievable than you think. Leverage your experience, build the right connections, and follow proven steps to secure your first NED board role
Positioning yourself as a strategic advisor to CEOs requires executive presence, sharp business acumen, and the ability to deliver insights that influence high-stakes decisions and drive organizational growth
Securing your first non-executive director role requires strategic networking, a strong board-ready profile, and targeted experience. Follow these proven steps to position yourself as a compelling NED candidate
A long-term strategy is essential for Non-Executive Directors to drive governance, add board value, and lead with impact. Discover key steps to build influence and sustain success in your NED role
Negotiating fees as a portfolio executive requires strategy, market knowledge, and confidence. Learn how to position your value, set competitive rates, and secure better compensation across your roles.
Portfolio executives managing multiple investments face complex legal and tax challenges. Partnering with expert advisors ensures compliance, reduces risk, and optimizes returns across every asset in their portfolio
Building a solid financial plan for your portfolio career means managing multiple income streams, budgeting smartly, and investing wisely to achieve lasting financial security and freedom
Portfolio executives must strategically choose clients and projects that align with their expertise and goals. Smart selection builds reputation, ensures rewarding work, and drives long-term career success
Closing deals as a fractional executive requires building instant credibility, aligning with client goals, and showcasing measurable impact. Master these strategies to win more clients faster.
Transitioning from executive leadership to consulting lets you monetize decades of expertise. Learn how to position your skills, attract clients, and build a sustainable consulting practice from scratch
Portfolio executives often fall into costly traps that hinder growth and performance. Learn the 5 most common mistakes and proven strategies to avoid them, sharpen your leadership, and deliver stronger portfolio outcomes
Transitioning from a corporate executive role to a portfolio career lets you leverage your expertise across multiple ventures. Learn the key steps to diversify income and design a fulfilling, flexible career
Executive search firms specializing in portfolio roles connect experienced leaders with flexible, multi-client opportunities, enabling dynamic careers beyond traditional full-time executive positions
Fractional executives need the right tools and resources to manage multiple clients, streamline workflows, and deliver leadership impact. Discover what sets successful fractional executives apart
Discover how to monetize your knowledge and expertise through portfolio work. From freelancing to digital products, turn your skills into sustainable income and grow your personal brand effectively
Choosing between a board role and a fractional executive position depends on your goals, expertise, and desired impact. Explore both paths to make the right career move
Setting realistic goals for your portfolio career helps you balance multiple income streams and roles effectively. Learn practical strategies to prioritize, track progress, and build a fulfilling, sustainable multi-career lifestyle
Fractional executives must carefully evaluate new opportunities by assessing strategic alignment, scope, compensation, and cultural fit to ensure each engagement drives real impact and career growth.
Experienced leaders can unlock high-value consulting opportunities by leveraging expertise, networks, and strategic positioning to build a rewarding and impactful second-act career
Leverage data and insights to make informed decisions, identify opportunities, and strategically grow your portfolio career. Discover practical ways to track progress and turn numbers into actionable career growth
Determining the right mix of roles as a portfolio executive requires balancing workload, expertise, and impact. Discover strategies to curate a fulfilling and high-performing portfolio career
A strong business plan is essential for portfolio executives to define their value, target ideal clients, and build a sustainable multi-role career. Learn the key steps to create one that drives success
Flexibility empowers executives to navigate career transitions with confidence. By embracing adaptability, leaders can explore new roles, industries, and opportunities that align with their evolving goals.
Senior professionals transitioning to advisory roles need targeted training to sharpen strategic thinking, mentoring skills, and industry expertise. The right program builds credibility and positions you as a high-value advisor in your field
Executives exploring portfolio careers can diversify their income and impact by combining consulting, board roles, advisory work, and passion projects into one dynamic professional identity.
Standing out as a senior advisor requires a strong personal brand, niche expertise, and consistent client trust-building. Discover actionable strategies to rise above the competition and grow your advisory practice
Thinking about leaving full-time employment to become a consultant? Discover key steps, financial tips, and mindset shifts to launch your consulting career with confidence
Discover how to leverage your leadership experience in portfolio roles by highlighting transferable skills, building credibility, and positioning yourself for diverse opportunities across multiple professional engagements
Board roles offer experienced professionals a powerful way to leverage expertise, shape strategy, and build high-level connections. Learn why joining a board is a smart next step in your career
Building a strong network as a portfolio executive requires intentional outreach, strategic relationship-building, and consistent engagement. Leverage industry events, digital platforms, and peer communities to grow your influence and open doors to new opportunities
Consulting and fractional executive roles both offer flexibility, but differ in commitment, pay, and impact. Discover which model aligns best with your skills, goals, and lifestyle.
Transitioning to a portfolio executive role comes with real challenges — from redefining your professional identity to managing variable income and building a diverse client base that sustains long-term success
Landing your first fractional executive role requires a strong personal brand, targeted networking, and showcasing your leadership expertise to companies seeking part-time C-suite talent.
Discover what it takes to become a Non-Executive Director, from key responsibilities to boardroom influence. Learn if this strategic, part-time leadership role aligns with your career ambitions
Finding the right executive coach for a portfolio career means looking beyond traditional advice. Learn what to prioritize to grow across multiple roles and income streams.
Portfolio careers aren’t reserved for retirees — they’re a powerful strategy for professionals at every stage. Explore how juggling multiple roles can boost income, skills, and career fulfillment.
Fractional executives face unique time management challenges while serving multiple clients simultaneously. Discover actionable strategies to prioritize tasks, set boundaries, and maintain peak productivity across every engagement
Balancing multiple roles as a portfolio executive demands sharp prioritization, clear boundaries, and strategic time management. Discover actionable frameworks to lead across diverse positions while maintaining peak performance and long-term career sustainability
Becoming a fractional executive offers professionals flexible, high-impact leadership opportunities across multiple companies — maximizing expertise, income, and work-life balance without full-time commitment.
Crafting an executive CV for portfolio roles requires highlighting leadership achievements, board-level experience, and a diverse skill set. A well-structured CV positions you as the ideal candidate for multiple high-impact roles
Portfolio executives must craft a strong personal brand to highlight diverse skills, build credibility, and attract opportunities. A compelling brand communicates your unique value across multiple roles and industries
Senior professionals can market themselves effectively by leveraging their expertise, building a strong personal brand, and showcasing a compelling portfolio to attract meaningful project opportunities
Designing a career for impact and independence means aligning your strengths with purpose-driven work. Learn actionable strategies to build a fulfilling, flexible career on your own terms
Discover the essential steps to becoming a Non-Executive Director, from building the right skills and experience to understanding board responsibilities and securing your first NED appointment
Portfolio executives are transforming corporate leadership by offering strategic, flexible expertise across multiple organizations, driving innovation, agility, and long-term growth in today’s competitive business landscape
Senior professionals increasingly need career flexibility to adapt, grow, and thrive. Discover how embracing flexible work arrangements leads to better opportunities and long-term career satisfaction.
The portfolio executive model is transforming how senior leaders work, offering flexibility, diverse income streams, and broader impact. Discover whether this career approach is becoming the new norm in today’s evolving professional landscape
Portfolio executives face complex challenges including resource allocation, stakeholder alignment, and risk management. Discover actionable strategies to overcome these obstacles and drive portfolio success
Transitioning from corporate executive to board advisor requires strategic positioning, expanding your network, and showcasing governance expertise to secure influential board roles.
Portfolio executives play a critical role in driving company success. Explore 5 proven strategies they use to boost performance, align leadership, and create lasting value across their portfolio companies
More corporate leaders are stepping into advisory roles, using decades of expertise to mentor businesses, influence strategy, and create lasting impact beyond the traditional executive path
Senior professionals switching careers need smart networking strategies to open doors. Learn how to leverage your experience, expand your network, and confidently land your next role.
Managing multiple clients as a fractional executive requires clear boundaries, smart scheduling, and strong communication. Discover actionable strategies to stay organized, build trust, and deliver consistent value across every client relationship.
Portfolio executives need the right resources to manage complexity and drive results. From strategic frameworks to leadership tools, discover what it takes to excel in portfolio management and lead with confidence
A sustainable second-half career requires intentional planning, skill reinvention, and purpose-driven goals. This roadmap guides professionals through meaningful transitions, helping them thrive with clarity, confidence, and long-term career fulfillment
Explore how to build a career as a fractional executive. Learn the skills, strategies, and opportunities needed to secure flexible, high-impact leadership roles across industries.
A portfolio career offers flexibility and diverse income streams, but it comes with unique challenges. Discover the key factors to consider before making the switch to this modern, multi-role work lifestyle
Experienced leaders are shifting to portfolio careers to gain flexibility, pursue passion projects, and create lasting impact. Explore what’s driving this powerful career transformation.
Explore the top 5 skills every portfolio executive needs to succeed — from strategic thinking and risk management to stakeholder communication, leadership, and data-driven decision-making that drives growth
Transitioning to a portfolio career in your 50s opens doors to flexibility and fulfillment. Explore proven strategies to combine your skills into multiple rewarding income streams.
When I was about five years old, my parents took me to California. We stayed in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, known for its beautiful climate, abundant sunshine, and numerous swimming pools. I learned to swim quickly as a child and loved running around the pool. I was even tempted to learn how to dive—small steps: standing on the edge of the pool, putting my hands by my head, and gently leaning forward until, with a gentle push, I could fall into the pool, fingers first.
I won’t discuss how to overcome your fear in this article. Instead, I will focus on the fear that arises when you think you’re getting past it—the belief that you’re no longer capable of serving clients effectively or that you might become incapacitated at some point in your working life.
As we consider how businesses can and should respond to the challenge of ageism, it’s worth examining both the impacts on all companies and the resources they have at their disposal to influence the political debate.
When you’re working as a fractional executive, the primary model I recommend is the Extended Model which I call Portfolio Executive.
This is when you have a part-time, long-term relationship with a client, focused on taking responsibility for a particular capability—acting as the Head of, or Director of, a function for that client.
I came across a highly structured book-writing programme that guided you through the process of writing a book about your life for your children. It was a 12-month programme, where each month you wrote about a period in your life. At the end of that, you had a book that might never go beyond your family, but that you could publish in small quantities as a gift to your children and their children – a legacy of your life.
One of the great opportunities that a Portfolio Executive’s work-style offers is the freedom to reclaim your time. When I collaborate with others, this often serves as a powerful motivator for them to become a Portfolio Executive. However, there is a significant risk that you shift from being very busy in corporate life to being equally busy as a Portfolio Executive, which may cause you to lose the chance to free up time to create more space for love.
Are you one of those who loves reruns of classic crime dramas? If so, you probably have direct experience of ageist advertising. Regulators are noticing, but are they doing anything?
As I write this, in June 2025, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is proudly publicising research it commissioned from Strats to examine ageism in broadcast advertising.
As I work with Portfolio Executives in the early stages of developing their client portfolios, I encourage them to create compelling LinkedIn profiles. They should also post content regularly on LinkedIn and reconnect with their existing network.
Measurement has become something of a Holy Grail within management science. We are often told, “You cannot manage what you cannot measure.” However, measurement can be fraught with ambiguity and unintended consequences.
I was very impressed when I looked at Teach First (annual report 2022/23) and its key definitions of success.
I have noticed that if you can experience joy regardless of circumstances, you probably possess an extraordinary capacity for gratitude. Finding things you are grateful for will unlock the possibility of joy in your life.
I’m tired of 30 being the new 20, 40 being the new 30, 50 being the new 40 — all those phrases that seek to keep us locked into numbers to frame age and buy into the idea that a higher number is undesirable. So, how can you reframe your age past 48 so it feels positive?
Over the last 10 to 15 years, discussions about the gig economy have become more prevalent. The concept of individuals working on zero-hour contracts, where a platform dictates their schedule, has gained prominence. More people are using platforms to seek employment, whether in food delivery or low-value knowledge tasks like website design and transcription.
I’m not sure who coined the phrase impostor syndrome, but over the past ten years, it has become a feature of many different views about how we perceive ourselves in the workplace. This fear—that we will be discovered to be the impostors we believe ourselves to be—and the promise that all you have to do is “fake it till you make it” has become common advice.
When working for myself, I was willing to work absurd hours on absurd occasions because I felt it was all for me. But when I entered big international consulting and joined the Andersen Business Consulting organisation, I realised that they believed they owned you, in principle, every waking hour of my life.
We have explored the journeys of many senior professionals from success to significance. But what does it mean to be significant, and particularly to whom?
You may discover an alternative pathway to significance as you explore the options surrounding that question.
As the people I work with start to transition from toil, slavery, and fear to joy and freedom, they begin to cultivate their appetite for love and their capacity to love. You start to believe that you can love the work you do.
When you think of measurement of impact, particularly in the role of a Portfolio Executive and especially when seeking to influence organisational operations, you will notice that most organisations tend to concentrate heavily on activities.
I was very impressed when I looked at Teach First (annual report 2022/23) and its key definitions of success.
You may become so absorbed in an activity that you lose your sense of time and space. You focus solely on what you are doing and feel as though you can continue without interruption, effortlessly flowing with the activity indefinitely.
Over the last 10 to 15 years, discussions about the gig economy have become more prevalent. The concept of individuals working on zero-hour contracts, where a platform dictates their schedule, has gained prominence. More people are using platforms to seek employment, whether in food delivery or low-value knowledge tasks like website design and transcription.
Procrastination arises from various reasons, but often, at its core, lies the fear of taking the first step. Typically, this fear is rooted in the fear of failure. Perhaps you’ve attempted something numerous times, failing to achieve your goal each time. A classic example is trying to establish a dieting habit.
It was a famous American president who, during the Great Depression, said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.
When I speak to people about finding freedom, they often mention various fears—reasons why they can’t, mustn’t, or shouldn’t do something. However, these reasons are usually just a reflection of fear itself. So, how can you examine and assess the reality of your fears? Allow me to outline the ones I observe most frequently.
As I write this in late 2024, Joe Biden is coming to the end of his term, and people are discussing his legacy. Legacy is often a question we ask ourselves as we seek significance. But is legacy all it’s cracked up to be? For Joe Biden his legacy may be considered what’s left over after the end of his presidential term or what’s left over after he’s passed away.
In your corporate life, you may have found yourself in fantastic teams, relishing the experience immensely. It was incredibly thrilling and enjoyable. Conversely, there may have been times during your career when the individuals around you, including those to whom you reported, exhibited the most negative traits associated with corporate narcissists or psychopaths.
Once you start measuring impact, it becomes fundamental to understand what effect you want to achieve. Many organisations face the challenge of having too many different impacts to achieve.
I was very impressed when I looked at Teach First (annual report 2022/23) and its key definitions of success.
When contemplating joy, it is common to equate it with happiness. Is happiness sufficient? My concern regarding happiness is that it is too often viewed as something that can be manufactured. It is perceived as a temporary state entirely contingent upon external circumstances. We might ask, “Do you find happiness in your work?” the response could be affirmative—or perhaps not. However, happiness is frequently linked to an event, occasion, or experience.
In late 2024, I had an opportunity to review an extraordinary report prepared by Wendy Garcarz of Refirement UK. It was looking at attitudes and barriers to entrepreneurship amongst women over 55. There are a whole series of implications that, I think, extend more widely to women in general and people over 55.
In a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world, we are constantly faced with ambiguity. But what does ambiguity mean for us as portfolio executives and the organisations we serve?
As humans, we have extremely powerful imaginations. Our imaginations allow us to build things in our minds before we create them with our hands. We envision, plan, strategize, and execute. For example, a chess player uses their imagination to consider all the different moves that could arise from a given position. Our imagination is a potent tool but can also be a source of fear.
It may not be the most attractive metaphor, but I often talk to people about living in a gilded cage or being held in golden handcuffs.
When we start our working lives, our culture encourages us to aspire to success. We are driven to set goals for progress and define success according to cultural norms or the context in which we are raised. Often, this leads to a relentless pursuit of success.
As part of my commitment to supporting people in finding more freedom and joy in their work and moving away from the slavery and toil many have experienced in their corporate lives, I constantly encourage them to look at their choices through the lens of love.
Impact, outcomes, activity, SMART goals, KPIs, and OKRs—this smorgasbord of management jargon too often belies the reality that activity is not enough.
How do you ensure that activity delivers the impact you aspire to?
One of the most potent barriers to finding joy in our work is the amount of toil we endure.
What do I mean by toil? In any work, there are tasks you simply must do because they make everything else possible. But too often, as senior professionals, you can spend more time on tasks well below your pay grade. This contradicts the values you aspire to and fails to reflect your hard-won skills, knowledge, and experience.
Interestingly, a report from the Women and Equalities Committee recommended the creation of a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing in England. Yet, we still don’t have one (as of December 2024). Age UK and the Centre for Ageing Better have made multiple submissions to the Committee, repeatedly emphasising the need for a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing in England. They argued that such a commissioner should have the power to conduct class investigations into any particular abuses that came to light, report them, and then ensure their recommendations are taken up.
The ‘C’ of VUCA is complexity. Complexity arises from multiple moving parts. The traditional approach separates each part and develops an understanding of its behaviour before addressing the whole system. But other things start to emerge in a world of complexity.
There are two elements to this: What does it mean for you? What does it mean in the context of the organisation you’re seeking to operate in?
It would be great if there were a ready-made community that you could join. However, this opportunity is not always available. So, how do you start a community?
As a Portfolio Executive, I recommend that you become very sophisticated about narrowing down the initial niche in which you work. Consider what is your best niche based on the company life stage, headcount, geography, and sector. As you build your expertise in a niche, you can get recognition from your niche as the go-to person around a particular narrow segment.
It might seem futile to believe you can prevent crises. However, there are a whole series of well-understood techniques that can prevent crises. Ironically, one of the most powerful techniques to avoid crises is having a crisis management plan and a clear set of procedures used if something becomes acknowledged as a crisis.
Pillar Five is to consider introducing paid or extended unpaid carers’ leave and a full right to flexible working from day one.
This feels like a double-edged sword to me. We know that the 50 to 64-year-old age group already provides more caring than any other age group. We recognise increased pressure for carers to require leave both as parents and for parents.
In a VUCA world, we are faced with extraordinary uncertainty. If you are going to be the trusted advisor to the CEO and build the most powerful capability you can for the clients you serve, then uncertainty has to be part of your recognition of the world in which you operate.
There are two elements to this: What does it mean for you? What does it mean in the context of the organisation you’re seeking to operate in?
Community doesn’t just happen; it’s not the same as a network. Nurturing a community requires intentionally finding opportunities for groups to come together. Whether online, through specific social media platforms, or in person, the value of one-to-one contact cannot be overstated.
In retrospect, too often, we can see that a potential crisis has been building over an extended period. The warning signs were there; the rats started fleeing the sinking ship. The smouldering had been noticed. The red flags had been raised. Whatever metaphor you want to use, few crises come out of nowhere. Avoiding a situation is often about seeing trends and identifying that there will be a crisis if you continue in the direction you expect.
The Centre for Ageing Better employment commitment is not just a desire; it has articulated six distinctive elements to bring this commitment to life.
While the new government (2024) is pursuing a growth agenda, it must be hoped that they will recognise that implementing these commitments will increase GDP by £9bn per year and increase income tax/national insurance contributions of £1.9bn per year (on conservative assumptions based on tax rates Sept-24).
In Part One, we outlined the VUCA framework, its context, and how to respond. This article will examine what it means to be a Portfolio Executive working with smaller organisations in a volatile world.
There are two elements to this: What does it mean for you? What does it mean in the context of the organisation you’re seeking to operate in?
As you enter the second half of your working life, you may naturally transition from seeking success to seeking significance. In that context, finding a community of purpose can be a powerful way to build relationships with others who desire to deliver a similar purpose, creating a sense of belonging and value.
This might feel counterintuitive—why do you need your peers to recognise you? Why do you need to be more established within the professional group that you’re working in? There are several good reasons why you need recognition from your peers.
One of the critical things that bedevils crisis response is denial. You can refuse to confront the unpalatable truth of the circumstances and act as though this is not a crisis.
At one level, these terms—fractional Director, Fractional Executive, Fractional Leader and Portfolio Executive—could be seen as interchangeable. Still, with the rising popularity of fractional, I am keen to preserve the term Portfolio Executive as different from a Fractional Executive.
During the general election campaign of June 2024, the Centre for Ageing Better set out a framework for the 50+ employment commitment. Simply, they were calling on all parties to drive up the employment rate of people in their 50s, 60s and beyond, including ensuring that the employment rate for people aged 50 to 64 should rise above 75% by 2030.
For those who haven’t heard of VUCA, it is a military doctrine developed after the Second World War when people recognised that conventional warfare wouldn’t be the only way to respond to military threats. They realised that the world was Volatile (V), Uncertain (U), Complex (C) and Ambiguous (A).
When you step out as Portfolio Executives, you risk becoming isolated. Often, you are recommended to go out and ‘do networking’. Networking is a valuable business development activity, but I believe there is a much richer way of thinking about what we need.
Many of the Portfolio Executives and Fractional Directors I work with have a level of personal humility that means you take it for granted that you’re doing a good job and don’t crave explicit recognition. However, as you build and develop your portfolio and want to create long-term sustainable relationships, you must get explicit recognition from your clients. How do you go about this?
I attended a fascinating workshop delivered by an individual who had been working in a crisis service built up from scratch over many, many years. He and his group of volunteers based themselves at the notorious UK suicide spot, Beachy Head.
I’m encountering two types of individuals keen to develop a Portfolio Executive workstyle that involves engaging Middle Eastern or Asian clients.
The other aspect of business development is growing and strengthening your value to current and potential clients. Here, I think there are four crucial areas that you need to consider.
There is so much in the media about how young people are not what they used to be. How young people are seen as flaky. How young people are seen as without ambition. How young people are seen as presenting a whole range of mental health issues. How young people are addicted to social media and destructive behaviour. Categorising young people with these negative connotations is ageist because it’s creating stereotypes.
As a Portfolio Executive, North America can be a very attractive market. The exchange rate is very favourable (June 2024) and the fee rates that people are commanding for Portfolio Executive work in North America are generally higher than we can easily achieve in the UK.
The answer to this question will vary enormously but I think for many of us, when you’ve been in full time, permanent employment in very demanding roles for an extended period, you just don’t know what you want to do with your spare time – you’ve never had any!
As people living in Britain, we often underestimate the influence that the Commonwealth has in setting the agenda internationally.
If you have a portfolio executive offer that has some success in the UK and you’re now thinking to develop a European presence, then it can be a great way to extend what you’re doing. But recognise some of the barriers to going beyond your existing client base in the UK and consider what tactics you want to use and the trade-offs you are prepared to accept.
One of the great things about your portfolio executive workstyle is, if you set it up correctly, it can be a really powerful platform for having different experiences of holidays and travel.
There’s been lots of talk about Millennials and Boomers and Generation Z but the most encouraging phrase that I’ve heard that characterises an age group is Perennials.
As you build your portfolio executive client base you may, from day one, want to be international. There are a number of people that I’ve worked with where, because of their existing relationships, when they step into a portfolio executive work style it makes sense for them to start with an international perspective.
For many of us, when we have been in full time permanent employment, often in demanding roles for an extended period of time, we just don’t know what we want to do with our spare time – we have never had any!
We have seen for centuries how women have been discriminated against because when they become available to have children, employers have seen them as ‘at risk of pregnancy’. When they take time out to bring up their children, their future careers are constrained.
As your portfolio matures, there are opportunities to add additional elements to your offer and use that to increase your effective fee rate. So, if your primary offer as a portfolio executive is part-time responsibility for a function in a smaller organisation then that’s great, but now consider these other two offers that you can add to the picture.
As a portfolio executive, fee earning is clearly the core and the priority of everything you do, but alongside fee earning, I do believe you need to spend some time in what I would call business development or practice development..
I was intrigued by an article in The Guardian, in November 2023, where they were talking about how work has conquered every day of the week and how do we remain human in a world that worships toil? This is a particular challenge as we get older, when we recognise that our capacity to provide the same level of activity and, our desire to provide the same level of activity, can be significantly diminished.
It’s really interesting to see how as your portfolio matures, there are opportunities to add additional elements to your offer and use that to increase your effective fee rate. So, if your primary offer as a portfolio executive is part-time responsibility for a function in a smaller organisation then that’s great, but now consider these other offers that you can add to the picture.
I think there’s a very big difference between the pleasure from an activity and the sense of achievement. So, what is rewarding after 70 for me comes most closely to understanding what will feel like success? What will feel like achievement?
Just to imagine that you are confronted with these positive and negatives views of people in the workplace. I invite you to go through this list and answer this question, “which relate to younger people which relate to older people”?
Let’s imagine you’ve got the stage where you’ve got two or three clients. You’ve got a basic Portfolio Executive workstyle, but you want to scale this. Of course, it would be nice to have another couple of clients to move to four or five, maybe even six. It would be attractive to perhaps be a little bit busier with some of your existing clients. But my advice to people at this stage, when they’re trying to scale their Portfolio Executive business is to focus on pitching at a higher fee rate for your next client.
I remember a very, very experienced professional who’d had some big corporate jobs and as he got older and more elderly, I would meet with him regularly. He told me that now, as he moved into his mid-seventies, all he believe he should do was watch and pray. To acknowledge this, he had a lapel badge with a heron. This is a bird that stands very still watching and then goes in and makes a brief intervention to catch a fish.
From the research that The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Report on Ageism drew upon, there is a very useful catalogue of different stereotypes, based upon different institutional settings that are represented across different countries.
Let’s imagine you’ve got the stage where you’ve got two or three clients. You’ve got a basic Portfolio Executive workstyle, but you want to scale this. Of course, it would be nice to have another couple of clients to move to four or five, maybe even six. It would be attractive to perhaps be a little bit busier with some of your existing clients. But my advice to people at this stage, when they’re trying to scale their Portfolio Executive business is to focus on pitching at a higher fee rate for your next client.
It is well worth considering the options that you will have around the location if you want to enjoy your work after 70. It may be that what suits you best is to work from home, to have a minimal amount of travel and then find the clients that will respond to that.
We can get caught up in moving forward with our Portfolio Executive workstyle and lose sight of what we’re really trying to achieve. We can lose sight of why we are motivated to do this in the first place.
That’s what I mean by back to basics.
If you have been following the different things that we have been talking about over the previous weeks and months, you will understand that I’m passionate about people having a working life that makes the most of everything they were created to be and enables that working life to support the wider lifestyle that they want now and in the future.
I recently came across a report, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) : The Global Report on Ageism in 2021.
One of the things that is interesting in this report is how they see the definition of ageism.
I remember a very, very experienced professional who’d had some big corporate jobs and as he got older and more elderly, I would meet with him regularly. He told me that now, as he moved into his mid-seventies, all he believe he should do was watch and pray. To acknowledge this, he had a lapel badge with a heron. This is a bird that stands very still watching and then goes in and makes a brief intervention to catch a fish.
In the first article we looked at the cycle of the financial year and the cycle of the school year to explore how much this impacted the way your clients and their customers respond to sales and marketing activities.
In this article we will look at two longer running seasons: the economic cycle and the season of your life.
Lots of people like the idea of some kind of side hustle, but what does that really mean? What are the choices you face?
As I work with Portfolio Executives, there are two things that become increasingly important. One is to help them to have a distinctive point of view about the world in which they inhabit and the second thing is for them to develop a stronger sense of personal purpose about what they’re trying to do through their work. One of the very powerful ways to start to articulate this and bring it into focus, is to develop a document that I call a manifesto.
Within the AQai model of adaptability, Environment is a critical dimension reflecting the impact of company, team and the experience of individuals at work.
As city dwellers, too often we lose track of the seasons. For many of us we step out of one climate-controlled environment into another, home to car/bus/underground to office to gym or home to shopping centre, restaurant or cinema. There are no seasonal foods any more with everything available anywhere anytime. We are insulated from the rich experience of spring, summer, autumn, winter.
It is incredibly valuable as a senior professional to get experience as a board member. There are three reasons that this really can make a difference to your career.
When the Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, in August 2023, suggested that older workers consider work in the ‘gig economy’, such as being a Deliveroo rider, it was immediately controversial.
Within the AQai adaptability framework there is a substantial domain called Character. You may be familiar with conventional psychometric tests: these rest upon the assumption that your psychological preferences are intrinsic and fixed for all time.
I was struck by the pejorative attitude with which so many commentators in the entrepreneurial world refer to a lifestyle business. Somehow the suggestion is you’re not a real entrepreneur if you’re running a lifestyle business. Somehow you haven’t got what it takes. You haven’t got the ambition. You will not be successful if you have a lifestyle business.
There are many situations in our lives where we start to realise that full-time employment is just not working for us. It may be that we are coming into a season where we want to look after our families, we want to have children, we want to spend time with our children.
It was in 2022 that the BBC published an article about whether delaying ageing can be achieved by refusing to act your […]
The AQai framework has a key dimension of Ability. These are five different subdimensions where you can build your skills and equip […]
What is the ‘Capability Attitude’ and why is it about ‘Build not Fix’? For senior professionals, whether as employees, interims or consultants, they are indoctrinated with the mantra: ‘don’t just bring me problems; bring me solutions’.
With the recent excitement around ChatGPT and Google’s response with Bard, Artificial intelligence is on the agenda as never before. With the Goldman Sachs report highlighting the threats to employment for certain classes of workers, it has become something that is central to people’s perception of how our working lives are going to change.
When I am working with you to help you think about your future, there are two crucial dimensions that I encourage you to examine. One is ‘need to work’ and the other is ‘need for new’. Let’s start with the ‘need to work’ dimension.
The AQai model has three strands or domains.
Things you can learn to get better at; things that reflect your response to the challenges of adaptability; things that relate to the environment within which you operate
The way that you engage your first client is going to set the template for success in the future.
As you get more senior in your career, increasingly what people are going to value is less of what you do. Now what matters is what you have learned, what you known, the different range of experiences you have got and the skills you’ve developed. Skills, knowledge and experience are the future for you as you become more senior.
There are number of ways in which you can maximize your learning and development.
In an earlier article I talked about how the media has so much impact on the way we see ourselves. It is interesting how a current campaign of the Centre for Ageing Better is calling out many of the things that the media do by default.
Within the AQAI framework one dimension is Character. Character is a way that you can understand how people are motivated best in the context of change. In this article we are going to look at what the Character of Thinking Style means and how it can affect your organisation.
When I work with Portfolio Executives, at the beginning of our relationship the most crucial thing is to get really clear about the niche that you can use to present yourself to the world.
When you join a new employer, they haven’t hired you just for what you can do today, they have also hired you with a view of the potential you have to contribute to the business in the future. To create the very best in environment in order to thrive, you need to start to plan your promotion from Day One.
Wales is the first country in the UK to appoint an older people’s commissioner for Wales. We’ve had Children Commissioners for a long time and the Welsh commissioner has been in post for a number of years now. She has stated four key objectives as her commissioner priorities.
Within the AQai framework there is a dimension called Ability. Ability assesses the skills that you can develop to be more effective in your adaptability and one of those key skills is Unlearn. Unlearn may feel a very strange term. Let’s explain what Unlearn really means
You need to establish your credibility and visibility and start initial conversations with a small number of potential clients. You need to be able to take control of the buying process and find the clients you want to work with.
When I have been working with young people who perhaps are not as familiar as they could be with what it means to be an employee, I say to them, you’ve got two jobs here. One is to get the task done that I ask you to get done, that I need to get done. And the second thing is to be a great employee.
As I write this, in March 2023, we have just had the most recent iteration of the Oscars and there has been some backslapping, I would say, about the fact that an older woman has won an Oscar. It is very interesting to see the way that awareness of promoting older women has grown within the acting community. Coincidentally, I listened this morning to Desert Island Discs, the Michael Caine celebration, where he was talking about his life and his continuing role as an actor into his late eighties, early nineties.
The AQai framework assesses how you experience key aspects of your Work Environment from an adaptability point of view. For an organisation to be adaptable, individuals within that organisation need to experience a high Work Environment score.
I have now worked with more than 50 people to help in the transition to a Portfolio Executive workstyle. Over the last five years, we’ve developed and refined a process, which I’m confident can work for anybody who’s committed to making the journey
When you get a new position, either because you’re joining your employer for the first time, or you’ve got a significant change of role, the first 90 days will set the scene for how you’re perceived within the organization. Your first 90 days will often afford you opportunities to do things that will become more difficult as time passes.
The most recent census in England and Wales was conducted in 2021, relatively recently. Census Day was during lockdown and the pandemic. Many people were on furlough or working from home. But there are still some very interesting things that emerged, which I think make a big difference when we start to think about the opportunities for us to make the most of our working lives as we get older.
Within the AQai adaptability framework, a key dimension is Character. Character is your preference for a particular way of responding to the challenge of change. One of the things that AQai feels it’s important to measure is your Motivation Style. As with all the character traits, there’s no right answer or wrong answer. Motivation Style is measured across a spectrum where at one end you have those who prefer to ‘Play to Win’, and at the other end, a preference to ‘Play to Protect’
As you start to review what you want out of your working going forward, consider what is most important to you.
You hear plenty of conversations about lifestyle. You may even hear conversations about work/life balance. But how seriously have you thought about the workstyle you really want?
Building an intergenerational workplace can bring many benefits, including increased diversity of thought, access to different skill sets and experience and a richer understanding of the needs and perspectives of different age groups
Within the AQai framework, one of the dimensions of adaptability is Ability. This represents the sub-dimension of adaptability skills that you can learn, develop and strengthen through explicit intervention. One of these things is resilience.
In Part 1 we looked at your working schedule and activities. In this second part, we are looking at aspects of your new environment.
When you come into a new job and as you start to build your presence at your employer, the temptation is to focus your network on the people that are immediately around you
When you are used to working in a corporate environment then you derive huge comfort from the fact that others are holding you accountable for what you do. There are a whole set of external interventions that keep you on track. People working for you demand your attention.
In autumn 2022, the Centre for Aging Better launched its challenge to sign up employers to the Age-Friendly Employer pledge. It is fascinating to see what that pledge consists of. The Centre for Ageing Better believe that as well as being a good thing and the right thing, there is a compelling business case for employers. The job market is changing.
The Adaptability Quotient (AQai) framework is seeking to help you to understand what influences your capacity to adapt and one of the key things is the environment in which you’re operating.
One of the things that I have constantly been surprised about is how, even if I go through all the logical reasons why you need to plan for your 2nd Half Career, people like you are very slow to act. It may be clear why you’re not going to be able to sustain your corporate career for the rest of your working life and why a Portfolio Executive workstyle makes absolute logical sense for you.
It’s very easy for us to just continue doing what we’re always doing. To assume that the next step is the same as the step before.
I try to keep an eye out for recent cases where ageism has impacted the future of an organisation. The truth is that more and more employment-related issues that come to dispute are featuring ageism as one of the reasons that employers are having to pay out at industrial tribunals
The AQai assessment framework is the first time that I’ve seen people measure hope or hopefulness as a character trait, particularly in the context of how well you respond to the challenges of change.
One of the groups that struggle most to make the transition to a Portfolio Executive workstyle are those who have had an extended period working as an interim.
The work of people like Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology, recognizes the power of a positive approach to the way that you see the world. In the Adaptability Quotient, one of the abilities that you can develop and grow is the ability to have a mindset that is adaptable, a positive mindset.
It’s very interesting to look at how different societies are responding to the changing age of their populations. Some societies, with a rapidly growing young population, are responding to the challenge of providing futures for younger people by introducing lower retirement ages.
It is interesting when I get approached by somebody who has got a lot of experience as an Independent Consultant and they’re wanting to transition to a Portfolio Executive workstyle.
Most of the people I work with have not had experience of being in a sales facing role, but as a Portfolio Executive they need to enable other people to buy.
As far as the environmental profile is concerned in the AQai assessment, environment is all about the situation that you find yourself in and your ability to influence, adapt or renegotiate that environment. The emotional health score is characterised as how often do you feel sadness or stress.
We are strongly influenced by images in the way that we think about groups of people. What comes to mind for you when I say pop star?
I am constantly surprised how people’s 2nd Half Career milestone creeps up on them without them being aware. Then, as the forces come into play that limit their future career progression, they are surprised that they’ve run out of options and they’re looking at a future of work that is entirely unsatisfactory.
My father was an academic. He did a PhD and then became a lecturer and ultimately spent most of his life in a Laboratory of Molecular Biology amongst a clutch of Nobel Laureates. As I was growing up in Cambridge, the academic life was everywhere.
Within the adaptability framework there are five character traits that are important to understand in order to be as adaptable as possible, both as an individual, at a team level and at the organisation level.
I’m increasingly noticing that ageism is coming up the corporate agenda: very, very slowly, very gently, but it is beginning to emerge. However, for senior professionals working in large organisations who are becoming aware that ageism is an issue, there’s a real dilemma.
It’s amazing that the more senior you get, the less time you have to do useful work. It feels like the whole of your life becomes meetings and that so many of those meetings feel meaningless.
Your Portfolio Executive Workstyle needs to be sustainable, rewarding and enjoyable. It’s not enough, in my view, for it to just keep you busier and busier. You don’t want to be moving from being enslaved by a Corporate Workstyle, to becoming enslaved with your own Portfolio Executive Workstyle.
When I started working with senior professionals in corporates who wanted to transition to a Portfolio Executive Workstyle, many of the people I started working with were chartered professionals chartered in accountancy, HR, or marketing.
Mental flexibility in the Adaptability Quotient framework promoted by AQai.io is a learnable skill. It’s something that you can develop and grow in over time. The simplest way of thinking about mental flexibility is that it’s your ability to hold apparently contradictory or paradoxical ideas in tension.
There are very good reasons that most discussion about ageism has focussed on discrimination against older people. However, ageism for younger people is deeply engrained in government policy and social norms.
More and more employers are recognising the benefits of flexible working. In fact, some employers are actively moving towards a four-day work week. Whatever the implications of a four-day work week or flexible working, it can be extremely valuable to negotiate to reduce the number of days a week you work for your current employer.
Adaptability and the measures that the AQai adaptability assessment provides look at three dimensions: Ability, Character, and Environment. Within the Environment dimension, Company Support is a critical measure of the extent to which your employees feel the organisation values their contributions and cares about their well-being.
Many of the people reading this will be in their forties and fifties. They will have senior, responsible roles in organisations. They’ll have huge capacity to influence the environment in which they operate today.
It is certainly better to transition to a Portfolio Executive workstyle sooner rather than later. When I first started working with people wanting to transition to a Portfolio Executive workstyle, the people that I was working with tended to be 5 to 10 years younger than me.
If you’re currently employed as a senior professional in a larger business, the very strong likelihood is that most of your network will be within that business. It may be that you’ve also got some contacts with people in the industry.
Your adaptability is often very context sensitive, understanding your own character preferences is incredibly important, so that you can make choices about how you respond to the changes that you come to
The number of ageism cases coming to Employment Tribunals has been steadily rising. Recently I had a look at the report of a case because I wanted to understand what kinds of things are going on when ageism becomes part of court litigation.
For many of us, we have had a working life where we have one job where we’re accountable to one set of people and we are doing one thing. When you become a Portfolio Executive, this no longer applies. You will have multiple clients who expect the best of you.
‘Grit’ is a colloquial term we use to express persistence and the capacity to push through. In the context of the Adaptability Quotient, it has a much more specific meaning. Being adaptable is strongly correlated with your capability in Grit.
You would imagine that success is something that we all desire. You would imagine that when we have it, we are delighted and we celebrate it. But there is a strange phenomenon, that many, many people have lurking in their subconscious, which can ultimately undermine their ability to be successful.
Too often, “old” and “vulnerable” are brought together in describing how we should respond to a certain group of people. But the assumption that because I’m old, I am vulnerable is a classic ageism trope.
As a Portfolio Executive you will have a level of confidence in your professional skill, wisdom and insight that you bring into the role as a trusted advisor to your clients. You may often believe that your client is less expert than you in the field that you’ve chosen.
In our current society, we are always encouraged to set goals, set milestones, set KPI’s, in other words, define over and over again what success looks like. But we are less comfortable with recognising that every time we don’t hit those goals or milestones or KPI’s we are failing.
When I first looked at this, I was very sceptical. What does adaptability really mean? There are lots of responses to this rapidly changing world. One of the most common things that people are demanding of their teams and organisations is resilience.
The cry of the youngster is, ‘when I grow up, I want to…’, sometimes I want to become…, sometimes I want to do… . When I leave home, I will be able to … .Maybe it’s get that job, be with that person, go to that particular part of the world, have the travel, have the house.
One of the biggest concerns that I hear from people, when we start talking about a Portfolio Executive workstyle, is that they feel they’ve got to learn how to sell. Many senior professionals have never been in the situation where they’ve seen themselves as a salesperson.
We are very poor judges of risk as human beings. In our society we invest huge amounts of money in reducing some risks, then are very careless about other risks.
We are in a VUCA world : a world in which Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity dominate the environment in which we operate. This creates all sorts of challenges for individuals, teams and organisations. We are creatures of habit.
Sexism and racism provide a continuing challenge to the attitudes and culture of organisations and society at large, and have now been adopted under a broader agenda of diversity and inclusion. In the UK the Equality and Human Rights Commission has responsibility for encouraging equality and diversity, eliminating unlawful discrimination, and protecting and promoting the human rights of everyone in Britain.
There is huge publicity for successful entrepreneurs. There are lots of people who have aspirations to be an entrepreneur. Too often, however, people have equated starting a business, as being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a very particular kind of individual.
There is some very interesting research, which has looked at the attitude to learning in young people, which, I think, translates very strongly to anybody, in whatever walk of life they are.
Earlier in my career I was an IT contractor, working as a software developer, introduced by agencies. Projects typically ran from three to six and sometimes as long as nine months. I understand the opportunity that being a contractor can be for people. It can appear to be more rewarding than permanent salaried employment.
Back in March 2021, Jonathan MacDonald, Kaur Lass and myself had conversations about Mental Wellness Habits, this series of articles is based on those conversations. You can read the previous articles in the series here and here.
We are all leaders of some sort or other. We don’t need to have a senior position be a leader. We lead others positively or negative, simply by the way we are with other people. Ultimately, it’s our attitude to those other people that will determine the leadership that we offer them.
Many people as a first step to leaving permanent full time salaried employment think, ‘I can just carry on doing what I’ve been doing, but as an independent freelancer working for my existing employer, then go and find some other organisations that I can be an independent freelancer for’. This can be a great way to start, if you have a plan to move on from that.
I talk to many people who have enjoyed the interim workstyle. They like the excitement of working in a new situation every three to nine months. The challenge of sorting things out and learning new things suits them.
In my work with CEOs, Portfolio Executives and Charity leaders, I regularly see things that are stress factors. Addressing these is a critical part of what we do with people. I have had people come to me sent by their business partner because their partner recognises that they are literally working themselves to death.
So much of lasting change that we can embed in our lives comes through establishing habits, our attitude to habits is crucial to our long-term success. We can go out and do a big push to make something happen but the change you can create by doing 1% better every day for 90 days is almost 2.5 times. Habits are the key, once you’ve established a habit it’s a foundation on which you can build.
I have spent all my working life around professionals who have sought to build a career through their professional skills. But very early on in my working life I realised that, for me, being in full-time professional employment, wasn’t going to Make my Future Work.
I meet many, many people who are freelancers or interims or who have moved into the Portfolio Executive workstyle and see themselves as almost self-employed. The mindset of people who are in that time for money business is, every day that I’m not looking for more work or not earning fees, is a cost. It’s a lost opportunity to make money.
When I was a partner at Arthur Andersen, we were enveloped by the Enron scandal and suddenly a business of 60,000 people came to an end. It was a personal tragedy for many. What struck me was the difference in attitude around the offices.
Your attitude to self is a critical component of your success. I’ve recently become very interested in the thinking behind the model of Voice Dialogue. The people who founded the movement that has become Voice Dialogue realised, in summary, we don’t have one self.
As I work with people who’ve got through the initial part of getting their Portfolio Executive workstyle started, I often find there is a tension between taking cash out of the business versus investing in their future. I was talking to one of the Portfolio Executives I work with last week, and he explained that he’s now earning more money than he’s ever earned in his life before then, nearly £120,000 in the last 12 months and yet he feels that he’s constantly short of money.
When people first start out as a Portfolio Executive. I believe that having their own website is unnecessary. But over time, people do want to have their own web presence and I’m often asked, “What should I have on my website?”
You don’t need to be alone in making your decisions. Maybe you had parents, friends or partners as key supporters in the past for key decisions. This can be all a bit ad-hoc.
In my experience there are very different ways in which people carry an attitude to challenge. I see there are some people who want to go out and pick a fight with the world, and there are others who, when confronted run away and hide. Between these extremes some will step forward in response to those who move towards them, while others will step back.
Starting out on any kind of business on your own, is a lonely, and often scary, process.
It’s hard to push through the disappointments but it’s equally hard to understand when you’re doing well.
One of my friends was recruiting a recent graduate in IT. This interviewee started to tell him about his time at university organising the annual ski trip. He enthused about arranging it, negotiating deals with the bars, dealing with illness, accidents and unfortunate behaviours, and getting everyone home in one piece. The story was nothing, and yet it was totally relevant to his job.
It may be a trite truism that failing to plan is planning to fail but planning is an essential attitude for success. Planning is part of an overall process which is often initiated by goal setting. I want to focus on a rhythm of planning that reflects a powerful attitude for success.
The youngest age a child can work is 13, unless they obtain a performance licence. Generally, there is no compulsory retirement age (with the exception of age limits set by law or jobs that require certain physical abilities).
A significant proportion of the people who come to me to develop a Portfolio Executive workstyle have been working as interims. And at first sight. they’re not very different. You’re coming into a business and helping them build a function or rebuild a function or cover for a function that for some reason needs external help.
If you want to be known for everything, you’ll be known for nothing. Most of us have multiple talents and skills. However, others want to know us as the person who can solve specifically this, or address that. “She’s the fix-it person for turn arounds”. “He’s the guy you call on when you want to launch a product”. Whatever you choose to be, your story, background, and personality, all contribute to this persona or brand.
Success can often be a lonely journey to achieve and there are many bumps along the way but there is a really powerful psychological tool that I have found makes a huge difference to how we see our world. And as we shift our attitude to our world with an attitude for gratitude then somehow the pathway to success seems smoother.
It’s hard to miss the increasing call for us to talk about our mental health. The guilty secret of mental illness that has haunted individuals and families is giving way to increasing openness and recognition that mental health is an issue for us all. If this was 25 years ago, I’d be very reluctant to share my experience of a very severe manic episode that I had in my late teens.
As I write this (Oct 21), the headlines trumpet that job vacancies are at an all-time high. Workers are expected to have more choice and opportunity than ever before. But for many of us, as we consider our future, we are confronted by two, seemingly unresolvable tensions: our working future with our employer and our career path has lost its promise and yet our financial commitments stretch into a future beyond our hopes of early retirement.
I am talking to more and more people who are attracted to the idea of the Portfolio Executive workstyle and are keen to develop a different approach to their Second Half Career. But often they feel quite confused about being an Independent Consultant versus being a Portfolio Executive.
We may not often see the choices we make as requiring courage. In fact, too often, we find rational excuses to justify avoiding difficult decisions rather than recognise that we are motivated by fear, uncertainty, and doubt: deep seated emotional responses to the challenge of particular choices.
Underpinning any desire for success is a desire that things should be different. If you have already achieved success, then you may not want anything to change but most of the people I meet who are successful are not prepared to rest in the status quo.
We all want more success don’t we! When I look back through my life almost all my success has come from my attitude to opportunity. It was Napoleon who said, “Don’t give me great generals, give me lucky generals” and I think the attitude of a lucky general is to see opportunities and then seize them.
Many years ago, I trained as a coach and as an executive coach you are taught to ask powerful questions and to engage in conversations which leave people at choice. I firmly believe that the most effective conversations with potential clients are conversations where you enable them to buy, particularly if you are offering them a professional service.
You are recognising that the 2nd half of your career will not be a continuation of your current path of advancement and opportunity.
So, what do you do?
We can so often get drawn into taking the next step up the ladder because it is expected of us without checking whether it really takes us further to fulfilling our purpose and passion.
In a world in which working from home has meant that too many of us are ‘always on’, the idea of a 4-day week can seem like an extravagant fantasy. But there is increasing evidence that limiting work hours increases productivity of individual workers and increases the economic productivity of whole nations.
Working in a big professional services firm, I was waking up the train driver at 5:15am to get into the office by 7am and lucky to be home by 8pm. I was often at an airport on Sunday afternoon so I could be in a foreign city the night before a time zone shifted start at 8am. Even on holiday, I needed to reply to e-mails and deal with voicemails for an hour a day.
Audio podcasting has now become a mainstream medium. You only need to see how the BBC has jumped on the band wagon to realise that it now stands alongside TV, radio and audiobooks as an essential ‘broadcast’ medium.
Social Media organisations have been promoting video as their preferred engagement medium for quite a long time now. Making videos is more accessible for the average person than ever before. But I think you want to consider very carefully how you want to use video to build your profile as a Portfolio Executive.
‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ This inter-generational opening gambit to elicit a conversation from a reluctant niece, nephew or grandchild can be a high-risk tactic. For my jungle obsessed younger brother, the response for many years was ‘a gorilla’.
Many of the Portfolio Executives I work with have had no experience of going out and doing anything more in terms of self-promotion than applying for jobs with a CV through an agent. The idea of doing some kind of outbound marketing and some kind of focussed selling can be very very challenging
Has the pandemic given you an opportunity to re-think your personal priorities and re-assess your relationship with your boss? Perhaps you have been on furlough or suffered redundancy and you are ready to make a fresh start.
Most of us are not natural authors, natural writers and yes, we can probably write a highly structured report or yes, we can put together some PowerPoint slides for an in-house presentation, but the thought of writing 800 – 1200 words on some kind of topic that is going to build my presence on LinkedIn can feel insurmountable.
There are some pretty scary statistics out there about what can happen as you move beyond 45 in to your 50’s and later.
One of the great advantages of a Portfolio Executive working is that once you’ve got a mature portfolio of 4-6 clients who are staying with you for 4-6 years, then the number of new clients you need to find per year goes down to about 1.
We explore what ‘enough’ means both in the 8 Essentials 30-day challenge (see http://8essentials.biz/) and in some of other blogs about the different life stage at which you want to adopt a Portfolio Executive workstyle.
I had seen the Portfolio Executive as a 2nd Half Career option and assumed that 2nd half starts at 45 i.e. half way between 20 – 70 years old.
Becoming a portfolio executive is not for everybody and as I’ve been talking to people for the last 5 years, I feel that there are 10 good reasons not to become a Portfolio Executive. For the first five look here.
Becoming a portfolio executive is not for everybody and as I’ve been talking to people for the last 5 years, I feel that there are 10 good reasons not to become a Portfolio Executive. Here are the first five.
There are some impressive young people out there who have found Covid has stopped their career ambitions dead. At a similar stage in my life, it was the kindness of both strangers and family contacts that enabled me to get started and I have never forgotten all that they did for me.
Students were hoping to be home at Christmas. Many would have been disappointed by positive Covid tests. Then they were hoping to return for the Spring term and some will have been hindered by the most recent lockdown. Summer vacation, 2021, seems a way to go and an overseas holiday seems more dream than hope.
You can easily become hopeless making application after application for advertised positions. Often, you need to customise your CV, write a tailored covering letter and fill in a detailed application form. Typically, you get no feedback but an automated acknowledgement.
March is usually the time when the wedding fairs start anew with all the hopes of new life – spring lambs, bluebells in the woods and cooing pigeons across the city. But the wiser amongst us will nod sagely and tell us that marriage is so much more than a wedding.
There are a whole host of other professionals, some which are fairly sector specific and some which are much more general. Perhaps you have got 15-20 years’ experience in a particular field and you are wondering whether you can become a Portfolio Executive.
There are quite well-established patterns of work for part-time Finance Directors and HR Directors and increasingly for people in Marketing and in Sales. I am also seeing more and more people being part-time CIOs and part-time CTOs. But what about some of those other professional roles that don’t feel quite so mainstream or that are not quite so well defined.
As you start to engage with potential clients beyond your immediate network, you need to find a way of pitching your value to people who don’t already know you. You may be recommended, introduced or just connected on LinkedIn. How do you start that first conversation with someone who you don’t really know?
What do AirBnB, Uber and Groupon have in common? They were all founded during the 2008 banking crisis.
In fact, it was Andrew Wolstenholme who coined the phrase “Never Waste a Good Crisis” in his visionary report on the future of the construction industry as a sustainable, low-carbon industry at its lowest point in 2009.
When I start working with people who want to build a Portfolio Executive workstyle, one of the key tools for them to develop their presence, build their reputation and find new clients is LinkedIn. But, before we can do any of those things, we need to spend some focussed time thinking through who they want to be known as on LinkedIn
Some of the people that I am working with to build their Portfolio Executive workstyles, are at a life stage where they want the flexibility to spend more time with members of the family. There can be a variety of reasons for this and the motivations can also be radically different.
I knew the axe was going to fall; I knew when it was going to fall and now my job was over. I thought I was mentally prepared. I had some dreams for the future. There was a bit of a financial buffer but now I need to get out there and find my next role.
The relentless tyranny of the urgent and the ever-growing pace of challenging change can slowly erode the joy from the passion that brought you to your chosen career.
When I am working with people who are building up their Portfolio Executive workstyle, very often they start working for smaller businesses than works best for them. They are also offering lower rates than they eventually can demand from the market. I encourage them to just get started.
When people come to me and they are exploring whether a portfolio workstyle is right for them, I tend to feel that people fit squarely into one of two camps.
The first challenge for a Portfolio Executive is to work out what the ‘Director of’ or ‘Head of’ function you are going to adopt.
The second challenge is to work out what is the right size of business for you. Like Goldilocks you don’t want something that is too hot or too cold, you want something that is in the middle.
Many of the people who come to me who want to become a Portfolio Executive, were in a full-time salaried position, but have stepped out to become an Independent Consultant. They may have been able to work with a previous employer to do some consulting work.
It is very interesting to see the ‘Older People and employment: Women and Equalities Committee report’ developed by the House of Parliament Select Committee published almost a year ago, and the response to it.
You are an experienced professional. You know your stuff and are successful in your own field. Why can’t you just step out on your own and become a Portfolio Executive? Why can’t I do it myself? And if I’m not going to DIY my Portfolio Executive future then what are the other options?
I am very struck by the way that I am continually approached by individuals who are setting themselves up as virtual assistants or remote PAs or whatever they want to call themselves.
I’ve been very impressed by the thinking of Daniel Priestley and his book “Key Person of Influence”. He tells a compelling story about how you build profile in your market place so that you become a key person of influence in order to attract people to your offer, to make your offer a premium offer and to build your business around being a key person of influence.
So you have got your day job but you are recognising that this is not forever, and you would like to do something that you can enjoy, that is going to earn a bit of income, and that maybe something that will help you to create your future.
At its simplest a Portfolio Executive is spending their time being a part-time head of or part-time director for a portfolio of businesses. In essence what they are doing is acting as part-time employees for each of those businesses.
It is very easy for us to stay focussed on the next promotion, the next job, the next assignment and to see our career as moving up an escalator one step at a time. But when we are asked to plan our finances, we recognise that there are times of investment and there are times of harvest.
Finding your role as a Portfolio Executive is a different kind of journey than finding your next job and often if we have been in corporate life for a long time, our network can be very limited in scope. Our network tends to be within the organisations in which we work and sometimes with our suppliers and with our clients.
For many of us we get to a stage in our lives where we have built up a series of obligations and commitments which rely on a certain level of income. We are used to a standard of vehicle that we change at a regular frequency.
As I work with people who are developing their Second Half Careers, a pattern is beginning to emerge. It seems that there are eight essentials that will enable people to really set out a future which is going to work for them into the second half of their working lives.
Word of mouth marketing is recognised as the most powerful marketing tool we have in our armoury and as we build our portfolio of clients then word of mouth will be crucial to bring in new clients. This is simulated on social media, but true word of mouth marketing is one person talking to another.
In 2019, BBC Radio 4 celebrated the fact that the long-standing actress playing Peggy Archer was still working in her 100th year. The famous matriarch in The Archers continues to feature in the story line while being played an actress several years older.
Having worked to help people build their portfolio executive proposition and to go out and win their first client. I increasingly hear them telling me that they are too busy to find anymore clients. At one level this is a great success story. They have more work than they can cope with. Fantastic!
I am continually active on LinkedIn and I am incredibly open to signing up to various email newsletters. As soon as I had ‘Director’ in my job title, I was approached by several different organisations that promised me that they could make me a successful Non-Executive Director. Maybe you are too?
I have worked for a global professional services practice where I was a partner and where I was consulting for large and medium sized businesses. After being in that firm for five years I became very disenchanted with what big consulting did for its clients.
You are a professional who has worked perhaps ten, fifteen, twenty years in your chosen profession and you have achieved a level of success. You have a senior role, a reasonable salary and you are looking forward and thinking about what you want to do with your 2nd Half Career.
Can I only be a Portfolio Executive? Or can I have a richer portfolio than that?
As I continue to work with people building up their Portfolio Executive Workstyle, I am finding an increasing trend that people want to mix it up a bit.
So much has been written about millennials and their preferences and attitudes towards work and as I review these thoughts about millennials, there are three things that strike me:
As I work with people developing their portfolio executive workstyle, one of the biggest challenges we come across over and over again is pricing. There are two very different ways of thinking about pricing
Probably the context in which you have the strongest relationships and the strongest potential to develop your 2nd Half Career is actually with your current employer. At first sight, you may question how favourably your employer will look at your proposal to become independent.
I am working with former Finance, HR, Marketing and Sales Directors as well as CIOs / CTOs and a variety of other experienced professionals to build a Portfolio Executive workstyle. I have come to believe that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ answer to how big a company you should target for your services.
As soon as you start to be intentional about shaping your 2nd Half Career, you will be faced with important choices. These are the top 10 ‘gotchas’ that I have seen amongst professionals as they begin to move forward.
You may be aware that for many people the kind of annuity rates they can get when they cash in their pension have become very disappointing. I did a quick review of the kind of annuity that you could get for a million pound pension pot, aged 65 as a man and £50,000 a year, five percent, is high.
You have decided that you want to have a radical change of direction. You want to move on from your current employer. You want to step out into a new workstyle. You want to build a new career for the second half of your working life.
A critical part of your role as a Portfolio Executive is to build a relationship where you become the trusted advisor of the CEO. Sometimes your role won’t bring you direct access to the CEO, but you should still become a trusted advisor to whoever is your sponsor.
As you start to engage with clients as a Portfolio Executive one of the key tools you need is a diagnostic to enable you to demonstrate the value you bring as early as possible in a relationship.
This article explores the three powerful way a diagnostic works for you:
Can you have your cake and eat it? Can you be a Portfolio Executive but be able to minimise the transition to this new workstyle? Can you get someone else to do all the things that you do not feel you are very good at doing?
As I work with people building a Portfolio Executive workstyle, one of the biggest challenges I come across is “how do you maintain a role part-time?”. In this article I explore what is different from full-time and what stays the same.
As you start to identify clients, one of the things you need to do is establish a compelling reason for them to buy now. You want to build a long-term relationship, but most people won’t commit to a long-term relationship until they have worked with you.
When I was in my early twenties people would introduce me as a computer ‘whizz kid’ and that was really exciting! It was in the early days of the whole micro-computer revolution and being considered a ‘whizz kid’ was the equivalent of the fashionable ‘geek’ of today’s current generation.
It’s a very noisy market place, particularly if you are just setting out to establish yourself as an independent Portfolio Executive working with several clients.
Are you considering becoming a Portfolio Executive as the next stage of your career but aren’t sure if your professional background has given you the right skills?
You have made the decision that you don’t want to stay in your current position in corporate life, despite the salary and the benefits. You also recognise that the transition to the more fulfilling Portfolio Executive workstyle isn’t going to be straightforward.
You are a highly experienced, seasoned professional, and you have stepped out on your own to become an interim manager. You’ve started working at very senior levels, where you get drafted in to sort out a significant challenge in an organisation.
Anybody who is working as an interim, contractor or even an independent consultant, should have heard of IR35. IR35 is an HMRC regulation that seeks to ensure that taxes relating to employment can’t be avoided by the use of an intermediate company.
When you are building a portfolio executive workstyle, your client will want to be clear about the value and quality you bring. Demonstrating that clarity will be beneficial for you too and will help you keep the relationship going for as long you want.
I’m a firm believer in the power of dreams when it comes to achieving what we want from our relationships and our working lives.
Are you setting up as a Portfolio Executive or planning to? The chances are you’ll have a long list of things you want to get in place, the reality is you won’t need half of them, at least not yet.
In the era of the #metoo movement, there are many voices suggesting that organisations should actively manage the power relationships between employers, managers and staff to avoid situations of potential abuse.
Harry has taken the courageous step to reshape his working life and there are lessons for us all:
One of the toughest things to deal with when you are setting out as a Portfolio Executive is disappointment. You may have felt less sensitive to it when you were in your previous corporate life because you could always tell yourself that the ‘no’ wasn’t really about you – it was because of the organisation.
As a senior executive, you’ll have developed very good networking skills within your corporate environment. You were good at connecting with other senior leaders across your corporate structure, you’ll also have built networks with suppliers and customers.
If you are in the 2nd half of your career and exploring possible new directions, you may have considered training to be a coach. Or, perhaps you’ve already trained and are looking to build a business around those new skill sets.
There is a real hankering for many to start their own business – and there’s no shortage of empowering television, especially for younger people it seems. The Apprentice is now on season 15 and Lord Sugar’s search shows no sign of slowing down.
So, you’ve reached the point in your career where becoming an interim looks attractive. You’ve taken stock of your knowledge and experience and it feels like a route that’s worth exploring – and it may well be. But, as with any form of career change, there are pros and cons.
When you are working in a permanent salaried position, contracting can seem like quite an attractive option. You see contractors join your organisation, they seem to have less responsibility, they do their hours and go home (without taking work with them!).
The reality for many of us is that we spend far too long at work. The baffling part is that we’ve let it become the norm. Why is that? What does it actually mean for this precious life that we only live once?
The recent announcement by Deutsche Bank of 12,000 job cuts reminds us all that there is no such thing as permanent employment any more. And yet for so many of us, our parents’ aspiration for us (and perhaps ours for our children) is a permanent full-time salaried job as a qualified professional in a leading organisation.
Many of the people I talk to about their 2nd Half Careers are keen to make the second half count. They want to look back and see not only success but also significance for their lives, particularly their working lives.
Corporates have created an ‘up or out’ culture, one that will ultimately lose the experienced professionals they’ve worked so hard to attract and retain. It’s a mid-life career crisis that’s impacting some very talented people, many with years of valuable experience.
You might recall the film ‘The Perfect Storm’ with George Clooney. It should have been blue skies and plain sailing for the highly experienced skipper and his crew – except for a combination of events and conditions that no one saw coming.
If you’ve reached 45-50 then you’ve probably been working for 25-30 years. In theory, you should be at the top of your game, enjoying your career and the quality of working life it brings. However, research consistently says otherwise.
If you’ve read our previous blogs, you’ll know about the benefits of this workstyle and career path and how you can build a portfolio of rewarding part-time executive positions. But to make this new world a reality, you have to be able to demonstrate the value you’ll bring to the clients who are going to be paying you.
It’s a scenario facing many of us at some point in our lives. We want to make a decision but something holds us back. Will caution or fear stop us making that move – or will we jump and discover it was well worth the risk?
What can you do when you’re twenty plus years into your career, age between 45 & 55 and you realise it’s only half time?
Being a Bruce Lee fan doesn’t make you an expert at kung fu any more than reading a book about leadership makes you a leader. That’s why I joined the FuturePerfect CEO Growth Academy.
If you’re tired of company politics, getting stuck in a rut and hitting the hamster wheel when you least want to, then perhaps it’s time to consider your alternatives.
Do you ever dream of a different life? Perhaps the 9am-5pm corporate world has run its course in your life? Or was it really 8am to 10pm, and you want more flexibility and variety in your work?
You may not have reached the main board of the company you work for, but you are identified as a seasoned, experienced professional. Maybe you are a finance or an HR director. Perhaps a senior role as a change, creative or product director.