Fractional resources are people who are often freelancers, consultants and contractors whose involvement with a company falls outside the standard 9 to 5 or 40-hour a week setup. Through her company, Khazana Inc., Suraya Yahaya provides fractional resources at the executive level for companies looking to scale their businesses up. Suraya allows founders/ CEOs to focus on growth and investment while she runs the day-to-day operations using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). In this conversation with Stephen Jaye, Suraya discusses fractional resources, as well as other aspects of work culture important towards achieving employee satisfaction and growth.
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How To Use Fractional Resources For Your Business Effectively With Suraya Yahaya
I am a big fan of the idea of fractional resources. In our work culture, we oftentimes assume that every single job needs to follow the same format and what people call the 9:00 to 5:00, 40 hours a week when not every need matches that exact paradigm and not every person necessarily wants to work in the same way. My guest has started a business that has a new feel to the idea of a fractional resource. I tend to think of the fractional resource as your freelancer who does twenty hours a week digital design. My guest, Suraya Yahaya, started a business where she acts as a Fractional Chief Operating Officer. Her business is Khazana Incorporated.
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Suraya, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, Stephen. I appreciate it.
This is an amazing idea. You are a Fractional Chief Operations Officer. Tell us about how that works?
It’s a little bit of a niche business now. Typically, you see chief operating officers in a company on a full-time basis because the chief operating officer is effectively running the company while the CEO is off doing market impact, talking to investors, large customers and the board is the face of the company. A fractional chief operating officer is to serve businesses that are pivoting, transforming, going through a ton of change and/or growing really fast so they need immediate support but not in a full-time scenario yet. There’s so much change, transformation and growth happening that they don’t quite have a niche carved out for a full-time person for a variety of reasons. There are cashflow issues and a lack of clarity on what a full-time person would do as the business continues to change, grow and transform fast. There are also a lot of transformation that needs to happen with a growing team. The idea is bringing someone on a fractional basis, still have them do all the work that a full-time COO would do, and help the company grow, transform, scale and work very closely with the CEO on the timing of when the business is at an inflection point to take the next step.
Am I correct in characterizing this as people will talk about the entrepreneurial experience in starting a business? The common phrase you hear is that people are “wearing many hats,” or if it’s individual, it’s you starting the business. As you build it out, you are maturing and eventually, if you build it up to a large business, all your C-Suite leadership is going to be full-time people but there’s a period of transition in between when you are growing from 1 to 300 people. Is that the correct understanding of how this works?
I came from a very diverse background myself. I started as an attorney, went into operations strategy and ran big P&Ls. I had GM responsibilities growing and scaling a variety of different functions. The benefit of having someone come into a company that is itself growing and scaling so quickly is someone like myself can wear multiple hats. That’s a great benefit of other fractional resources. That person is not coming in and saying, “Stephen, you hired me to be an accountant. That’s all I’m going to do.” That person coming in is going to be like, “How can I help you with whatever you need?” With the legal background, I’m able to look at things like mergers and acquisitions, deals, write policies, procedures, and support the members of the organization that need that help.
Being honest and authentic about what you can do for the organization, but also who you are. There are going to be tons of opportunities that pass you by… but it’s a better thing for you long term. And then there will be that right match out there.
With the operations and the strategy background, I’m able to create scale plans, roadmaps, growth plans and help the organization do that. I also am a specialized COO in that I am an integrator for companies running the EOS model. I have been working with a lot of companies who are running the Entrepreneurial Operating System models called EOS. I’m an integrator, which means COO in EOS language. I’m able to help companies who are running EOS in their organization. I merge and run the company according to the EOS rules. Those are a lot of moving parts that need to be coordinated.
Tell us a little bit about the EOS system. Is it a system or a paradigm?
It is. It was started by a gentleman named Gino Wickman. He has written a large number of books about the topic. They are very interesting. I encourage a lot of entrepreneurs who are interested in running their business in a scalable, systemic, organized fashion, who wants to cut the swirl that’s going on in the company and wants to be on a path to create traction for the organization to move forward, to read those books. The first book is called Traction, which explains the EOS model and how organizations and entrepreneurial companies can gain traction in their company. There are coaches in the EOS system. They are called implementers. They come in and they teach the operating model to the leadership team. The integrator/COO is the person who ensures that the organization keeps marching down the path of the EOS model. That’s through managing their resources, holding people accountable and making sure that the plan that has been set quarterly gets executed.
Let’s say someone reading is starting up a company now. Is this something that should be implemented right from the get-go or the seed stage?
I think so. It’s easy in the seed stage to get lost with funding, growing the team, scaling the business. One of the fundamental things that the EOS model has people do is figure out the right seats that you need to build and scale your business. That’s very helpful for companies in the seed stage. “What are the right seats that I need in the organization?” You figure out, “Do you have the right people to sit in those right seats?” If you don’t, you start to prioritize and figure out, “Maybe Stephen can do the seat.” As I need to scale, I need to figure out the right person in the other seats so Stephen can move back to what he’s traditionally good at.
One of the things that I have always wondered about in putting together a team is how people go about putting the team, thinking about the different personality types, personality traits and how they fit in together? We often hear about people who are naturally idea starters and people that are good at operationalizing an idea. Does that factor into putting together these seats in the EOS model?
The CEO in an EOS company is called the visionary. We talked about the big picture, ideas, I want to go this way or I want to take the company this way. The integrator, which is the COO of the company, helps put together the execution of the big ideas. All the operating functions report to the integrator, which is the COO so that those operating functions are working on their pieces. We are not going to expect a person who’s in the seat of marketing to pivot and be very detail-oriented when it comes to looking at budgeting and financing. They have to be accountable to their own marketing budget but you are not going to expect the marketing person in that seat to be sitting in the CFO seat as an example. Those are totally different skillsets. What I like about the EOS model is the right person, right seat and make sure that you are putting together a team where people are aligned with the role. Everyone has a skillset that’s perfect for the role that they are going to be in. You put together a diverse team and they execute the company’s vision.
How often is the makeup of the team, whether you are looking for the right diversity of different backgrounds or personality traits? How the personality traits and the skillsets fit in together? How often should that be re-evaluated under the EOS system?
You do a quarterly check-in to make sure that people are aligned with their role accountability, values of the company and rocks. Rocks are initiatives that have to be done in a 90-day timeframe, much traditional or non-EOS companies. You do an end-of-year check-in to make sure that all the quarterly rocks have been accomplished and that the company’s one-year plan has been executed. It is a very scheduled check-in that you do against your rocks, which are your quarterly initiatives. You are also checking in to make sure that people are still aligned with the company values. The idea in EOS is you have core values. You hire, fire, promote according to your core values. People have to be a fit with the company culture.
One of the things that I often wonder for people who are looking at this whole thing from a high level and EOS system, what do you think is the biggest difference between the organization implementing EOS and a standard organization that you would see out there?
One is the alignment with the core values. Two is the alignment with role accountability. If you are an accountant, it’s very clear what you are responsible for. There’s constant check-in with your role accountability. Three is your accountability towards the execution of your rocks. There’s nowhere to hide. Every 90 days, you have 3 to 5 big things that you have to complete that you signed up for. There’s no running away from that. There are weekly meetings to track progress, and the rest of the time, you are working towards it and at the end of 90 days, you are accountable to show that you did what you were supposed to do.
If you were to measure the average employee working in an organization using the EOS system versus employee anywhere, would you think that the average EOS employee is happier? We have all seen the statistics around workplace satisfaction over the past decade and it has not been very pretty.
There’s another book called The EOS Life, which is a little bit geared more towards the entrepreneur and the CEO. When your company is running well, you can take the time off or not be so involved in the business because the company is effectively running on a scheduled program. Employee satisfaction is increased with EOS because there’s so much clarity in the process. I know what core values are, I’m being held accountable for that and what my role accountability is. Someone strolls in and tells me, “Stephen, you serve the accounting, how come you are not working on that marketing plan?” It’s like, “No, that’s not me.” There are very clear role expectations and expectations of performance against your 90-day rocks.
People know what’s expected of them and people also know that that’s not going to suddenly be up and changed on them without some conversation. It sounds like alignment with company values, personality and all these other things that some organizations may tend to ignore as they move the pieces of the puzzle around on the board.
There are also very clear measurements in EOS. There’s a scorecard that gets measured weekly. If things are turning in a not-so-great direction, there’s the ability to pause and take a look and see what’s going on that’s impacting that, so that at the end of the quarter or year, there’s not a, “I was worried about this whole year. I didn’t want to say anything but now you have missed your goals so we have to have a different conversation.” There’s going to be clear that the goal is in jeopardy throughout the year.
There are a lot less spinning your wheels for months on and being another week in, week out. I still don’t know what I’m doing, why I’m doing this or that type of thing.
Be honest and authentic in what you do.
No one wants to be surprised in a performance evaluation conversation at the end of the year. “It looks like you didn’t make this happen so here we are having a tough conversation.” There are going to be those leading indicators that tell you that stuff is not trending in the right direction so you can dive into that. In EOS speak, it’s called IDS, which is Identify, Discuss and Solve the problem.
One of the things that remind me of is not doing your company or your organization a disservice but doing yourself a disservice because it’s my sincere belief that the world of trying to find people the right employment should not just be about finding a job. It should be about finding the right job for the right people. One of the things that keeps a lot of people stuck in the job that they are in right now is the fact that finding another job is such a daunting task. It’s the whole process and interview. I would love to see people make improvements to that world but also make improvements to try to find someone to say, “I need a job now.” More be like, “I need to find something that fits what makes me shine.” When you have to have one of these IDS discussions or if you have to let go, as you say fire, according to your values, that’s also hopefully what’s best for the employee as well so that person can find something that’s a better fit for themselves.
During the conversation about, “You are not meeting your core values or you are not meeting your role expectations,” if your core values are to take care of the people in the company, that conversation is not punitive. That conversation is, “How come this is not working out? Why is the scorecard not turning in the right direction for you?” If your core values are to take care of your people, it becomes a conversation of you are not in the right seat, this is not the right role for you or your skillset is better aligned with a different seat. Hopefully, it doesn’t become a punitive conversation.
In your role as a Fractional COO, how does that manifest in making sure that this conversation doesn’t become a “you are not doing well” but it becomes more of a supportive conversation like, “Something is not working out? Maybe you are in the wrong role or there’s something else going on in your life.”
The people side of any organization, EOS or not EOS, is always the tricky part to get right. You can have the best plans and metrics in the world but you need to dig down and understand what’s going on. I practice a lot of cross-functional communication as a COO. I’m not one of those COOs who sit and look at the scorecard and be like, “Bob, it’s red. You are out.” I practice a lot of communication, coaching, mentoring, digging deep and understanding why did this not work out. “The pandemic impact you. You have had something else happen to you.” The hope is that as a fractional resource or even a full-time resource, you have picked a company that aligns with your values. Empathy and caring for other people, etc. Those values drive my conversations as a COO to dig down deeper.
As a Fractional COO, when you are doing some of the fillings of the seats as you call them in the EOS system, do you end up bringing on a lot of other fractional resources for these other seats?
It’s a mix but by nature of the companies that I work with and help, a lot of change and growth, transformation, full-time is not necessarily the right fit for a variety of different roles. HR people, for example, legal people or different facets of finance like tax, the company may not want a full-time tax person. I’m working with a client where we are in the midst of a massive transformation from an HR perspective and it doesn’t make sense to have a full-time. It makes sense to have a fractional HR resource onboard. My job as the COO is to work with the other leaders in the company to figure out what the best fit would be from a fractional standpoint.
In general, when you look at what’s going on in the world in our work culture, is anyone else looking for resources in the same way? I have never heard of fractional resources at the C-level. Some of these people you talk about lawyers, I feel like lawyers are always fractional resources. Accountants, quite frequently. How many other people out there are looking at it in the same way that you are?
Start small and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
At the executive level thing?
Yeah.
It’s becoming an increasingly more frequent occurrence. I was interviewed for an article about executive fractional resources. It’s on my LinkedIn Khazana, Inc. company page. It talks about the value of executive leadership in nowaday’s gig economy. The gig economy is such to your point that it’s not just the graphic designer, marketing copy person and accountant. It is becoming more of a common occurrence at the executive level to try leaders out or spend a fraction of what they would normally spend on an executive leader full-time. Try out a person to get the company to a certain point and not spend and not be committed full-time. Once you are committed full-time, if there are issues with fit or the company has transformed, you don’t need that role. It’s much harder to be like, “I don’t need those roles now.” It is becoming a much more frequent occurrence.
The other thing that I’m finding is CEOs and boards. I have been hired by a couple of other boards to help some other companies. Boards are liking the fact that they can hire an executive resource with a ton of diverse skills. Fractional executive resources have run a lot of different companies and seen a lot of different things happen. You bring that collective expertise to say, “Newly acquired company. I know how to get this going, get this off the starting rocks. Companies going through a lot of transformation, seen this before, I know how to help that.”
Since you brought up your LinkedIn and your website, please inform my readers here, how would they go about finding out about your services and getting ahold of you?
On LinkedIn, I’m Suraya Yahaya. The location is Denver, Colorado. My company has a LinkedIn page Khazana, Inc I also have my own website for my own company KhazanaInc.com. It talks about some of the case studies of companies that I have worked with, explains a little bit about fractional COO and fractional EOS integrator, how that helps the business, some articles and things that I have been involved in.
You told me before you work with a few different companies at once. How does that work out in your personal schedule and the work that you get to be involved with?
I go back to core values. Part of the reason I started down this journey is I had a ton of diverse experiences and it was like, “What do I do with all these skills, all these experiences I have had.” Running businesses, scaling organizations, managing P&Ls, being in charge of deployment and operations, and legal skills and stuff, I thought, “How do I add value to other organizations while being true to my core values?” I have three young children at home. I wanted to build a business around my life as a mother and a working mother and still do things that I enjoy like mentoring, coaching, service and giving back to the community. Full-time seemed a very daunting task to do all of those things. It is achievable but it does seem very challenging to live my core values and to do some of those things. I have been fortunate to find companies that are aligned with my core values of service, family, giving back to the community and helping others. I’m grateful to be able to work with companies that have my full-time and attention but also understand that as a fractional resource, my time and attention are divided. I have other things going on.
It’s naturally going to be elsewhere. The whole point of view fits not for people who are working 2 or 3 different fractional resources but anyone working any job, employers should understand that your job is not the only thing in your life going on. You are going to want to do things like go to the family, hang out with your friends, do other things that take care of your mental health and there’s always going to be a time when you are simply not available. “I want to get ahold of you but you are not available. You have another aspect of your life going on at this moment in time.” That’s one of the keys to improving our work culture in the long-term. The whole idea, “Do I need to talk to you now? Can I set up a meeting for next week or later this week to talk to you?” You know how to fit the pieces of your life together with the way you want them to fit.
I tell my clients that I am available even outside of my time with them on a fair and reasonable basis. Meaning even if I’m not there with them, they can call or text me and if it’s within reason, I will respond. When you are the COO, emergencies do happen. By and large, especially if you are a company running on the EOS model, there’s a prescribed cadence to how things are working. This idea that I’m going to text or call you in a non-emergency situation and I’m expecting an immediate response because of culture, we need to start moving away from that.
How do you go about distinguishing in your communications the difference between an emergency and a non-emergency? A lot of people talk about having Zoom, Slack and all these communication channels but some people will Slack you no matter what. How do you communicate to someone, “This is an emergency, I need to talk to you now versus I had a question?”
It’s through relationships. You have aligned yourself with the right company. The right company and you are aligned and you will know. Some of my clients sometimes want to call me to run things past me because I make myself available even outside of working hours. I look at the issue that comes up on my phone or email and I’m like, “I do have 10 minutes or 15 minutes while I’m waiting for something.” I will respond. It may not be a non-emergency but I have the time and my clients know that I’m engaged with them.
Sometimes, I look at something and it’s like, “We have an HR violation. The computer system has been hacked.” That is an emergency that the COO needs to respond to. I’m stopping what I’m doing and I’m responding to that issue. You do that by aligning yourself with the right organization, whether you are full-time or fractional. If you are in a full-time job and finding that you are getting ping left and right for things constantly but that’s not how you find value in things or want to live your life in terms of your value, then you are not aligned with that organization.
What you are saying is that the key to finding that right alignment and balance between being there for your organization when they need you, whether it be these emergencies or some of these even unprompted conversations but also being able to live your life the way you want to live it building the right relationships. One of the things that I do observe is those aspects of finding a job. They are often underrated or ignored in a way compared to matching this skillset like you know this particular program and this job needs that. Do you see that as something that’s changing over time?
I don’t want to assume that everybody has the freedom and the flexibility to align themselves with an organization from the get-go every single time. I certainly have had this experience. We have to take jobs because we have to. We have to pay bills, take care of our families, there’s a mortgage that’s due every month, rent, whatever and some of us don’t have a choice. There are going to be instances when you have to do that. I would say skills alignment is important because it’s a right seat, right role but culture fit, personality fit, alignment with your values. If you can seek those things and be aligned with those things, that’s going to create a much better fit for you and the organization
It sounds like you found a lot of organizations that you have worked within fractional resources over the last several years that do align with your values. How did you go about finding those organizations or the people who match your values?
I have been grateful to have been referred to great companies through a lot of great friends and colleagues. It’s putting yourself out there and being honest and authentic about what you can do for the organization but also who you are. There are going to be tons of opportunities that pass you by, which is all of us entrepreneurs know when you are first starting is the worst thing that could happen. You need the gig but it’s a better thing for you long-term to keep putting yourself out there authentically and saying, “Here’s all my skillsets and diverse background but here’s also who I am.” There will be that right match out there. I have been grateful to be able to find companies that aligned with who I am and have been grateful to be working with them. There are also a lot of companies that I have had to say no to or said no to me because there’s not an alignment there.
For the readers out there who are stuck in that situation that you alluded to, “Where I had to take this job, I need the money, I have the mortgage, bills to pay,” and everything but they are in a job that’s not a good alignment, what do you think someone should do to start seeking out that role or niche that is more aligned with what they value?
Put yourself out there, be kind to yourself and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.
A couple of things. Start small. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. We all have to do what we have to do at certain points in our life. Figure out parts of your life that you can live out authentically. It may not be in a job initially. It may be mentoring, volunteering, painting, repairing cars or cooking. I love to cook.
It doesn’t have to be the job necessarily?
It doesn’t have to be the job. As you live parts of your life out authentically, one, you are not so focused on what a crappy situation you are in in your current job. Two, you expose parts of yourself to the world and universe that helps people go, “Stephen is a great cook. We should think about introducing him to so-and-so because those guys could sit around and talk about wine and food all day.” Your circle starts to grow. Even if it doesn’t lead to you being able to set up your own fractional business or start to do some freelancing on the side, it helps lessen the stress and the focus on the job that you currently have.
The key is to avoid the trap of say, “I’m going to go home. I’m going to get drunk and whine about how crummy my situation is,” and to say, “Here are the things I like doing. I’m going to go do it, put myself out there. Maybe the people and the opportunity will come about.” Maybe but not even necessarily have that at the front of your mind and you say, “I’m out in nature hiking. I am helping my friend fix his bicycle and this is bringing me joy at this very moment.”
It’s funny I told one of my clients and they were at a crossroads. It was like, “At some point, all the plans, map, roadmaps, operational strategy in the world is great but at some point, is the business bringing us joy?” I would say the same thing applies to your personal life exactly. There’s the going home, getting drunk and being upset about the situation you are in and there’s the, “I’ve got to do this for this period and make it happen but because I’m a great cook, I will make soup at the soup kitchen on Thursday nights.” That gets you out of that space and focused on something else. You start to build a life around you that’s more than the work that you do.
One thing I have noticed is a person who has gone through some high and low points in life is that starting to feel a little bit better getting out of that low point. You are more likely to make a good impression on the people around you.
They are more likely to make a good impression, you are not as stressed out about the crappy situation you are in and it comes across. You don’t know whom you are going to meet and what situations you are going to run into when you start to expand your value in other areas.
That’s a great thing because I would very much love to see more people and more of my audience who are tuning into this program for that antidote to the mindset that keeps you set in for less getting out of that situation and something better. One last question about getting to something better or opening up new ideas to people. You work in fractional resources. You are a Fractional COO. You hire a lot of people with fractional resources. What do you think is the main thing stopping most people in the world from adopting a mentality that says, “We don’t need to make everything 40 hours a week. It can be different paradigms to fit different needs?”
One is the idea that, “I’m going to hire fractional but Stephen will leave at the end of six months or the company would have grown to a certain point where I don’t need Stephen. He’s not in the business with us anymore. He has taken all that knowledge and left the business.” The idea of hiring a fractional resource, if you find the right fit, that person is giving you a ton of their skills, experience and also coaching and developing your people. They were not the graphic designer who’s doing the work there and leaving.
They were the graphic designer who’s doing the work there but also adding value in other areas, talking about overall projects, initiatives and giving the organization much more than the skills they were hired for. One is the concern that the person is going to leave and take all their knowledge with them. That idea is slowly being debunked as more fractional resources add over and above the value, they were hired to provide. The other concern is, “What does fractional mean? How is this going to look to my competitors and peers in the marketplace? I don’t have a full-time chief marketing officer.” As more companies do that, that stigma is being removed.
It seems like it’s a mindset issue from the organization’s point of view as well as a concern about perception. I feel like a lot of people limit themselves in so many areas of life-based on this concern about how something they do is going to be perceived. I am of this age, race and gender. I’m supposed to be doing this or people are going to look upon me weird because I’m doing this instead of that. You see this mindset gradually improving.
The pandemic has taught us a lot of things. We are a lot more flexible and adaptable than we think. We are a lot more resilient than we think. This idea that I can hire fractional executives, fractional resources or I can grow and scale my business, it’s not as scary anymore. Businesses have been through tough things and they are ready to grow and scale.
I sincerely hope that is correct because of so many people in many situations that, first of all, would like to have a fractional resource for many reasons. As you say, these companies are scaling up in six months. They are not going to be the same company the ones you work with as they were before also, people with different needs. Say a new parent should be able to be a fractional resource and to have that time to witness their child’s childhood, that sounds like an amazing world that you are helping create.
That was another article I was involved in about working mothers during the pandemic. Melinda Gates cited this in an article she wrote, “A lot of mothers have carried the brunt of being the primary caregiver for children and other members of the family that need care during the pandemic. Being able to be a fractional resource has allowed a lot of working mothers to continue to add value and to contribute in a significant way to the economy and the reopening of the economy.” I think that is a trend that is going to continue.
Anyone that I have talked to becoming a new mother tends to be two ends of the spectrum. The one that stays home and they are like, “I need something outside of the house and my baby. I need something else to do.” The ones that are still working full-time are like, “I have no energy to even think anymore.” Having that in-between option was helping so many people. I wish you the best of luck with continuing this operation and hopefully inspiring others even in went out there reading to open up more possibilities to people to orient our lives the way that would naturally feel right.
Try it, put yourself out there, and be kind to yourself. You don’t know what’s going to happen.
Don’t forget the message of “be kind to yourself” because a lot of us are throwing shade on ourselves pretty hardcore and it’s not helping. Once again, Suraya, I would like to thank you so much for joining me on the show. I would like to thank all you out there reading and encourage you to join us for more episodes where we will be talking with more inspiring individuals who have come up with ways to improve their own lives and aligned themselves properly with what they care about.
Important Links:
- Khazana Incorporated
- EOS
- Traction
- The EOS Life
- Article – Fractional Gig Executives
- Suraya Yahaya – LinkedIn
- Khazana, Inc – LinkedIn
- Article – Working mothers during the pandemic
About Suraya Yahaya
Suraya started out as an attorney. She would later run operations and strategy prior to starting Khazana Inc. Khazana provides fractional COO resources for entrepreneurs running a system called the E.O.S, which approaches operations and workforce from a different perspective.