Sam Altman and his associates reportedly have a betting pool about when there will be a $1 billion company staffed by a single person. The premise, of course, is that AI agents can carry out all the other functions that companies would ordinarily need, so the company itself can be run by a singular human being who has created or purchased custom agents to complete said functions.

This has obvious and wide-ranging implications for business leaders around planning and strategy. Should business leaders be thinking about new sets of business tools and vendors? Should business leaders be thinking about new operational models? Should business leaders be thinking about new organization charts? And maybe most obviously, and starkly, how should business leaders be thinking about their current staffing needs and capacity?

Sam Altman is a genius and far be it for me to argue with him. On this point, however, he is wrong, and here’s why. Sam (Yes, I’m on a first name basis with him even though he does not know who I am) is looking at companies in terms of how we define and understand a company today. However, as soon as the development of AI tools allows people and companies to automate today’s functions and turn their focus to new functions, ideas, and ways to service customers, people will optimize themselves and companies will look very different than they do today.

Let’s look at this another way. Human Resources does not have a long history; it’s existed for a much shorter time than you think. But over time, companies started to make more money, and people began to find new ways to exploit companies. Companies became more efficient through automation and technology, and therefore more protective of their money, property and the status quo. They also had more money around because of said efficiency, and built HR teams to protect themselves legally.

Of course, HR teams have evolved to do more than that, but the basic function of an HR team is to protect a company, legally, and the need for that functionality only exists because it can exist. In other words, greater efficiency has led to the ability to add functions that are now necessities, but would have been seen as luxuries in the past.

It’s similar to Parkinson’s Law, which states “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In his 1955 essay, historian C. Northcote Parkinson also talked about the idea that the number of workers within public administration, bureaucracy or officialdom tends to grow, regardless of the amount of work to be done. This he attributed mainly to two factors: that officials want subordinates, not rivals, and that officials make work for each other. As our corporate environments continue to look and feel more bureaucratic, we can clearly see the crossover between the public domain discussed by Parkinson, and the private corporate domain.

I gave the example of human resources above, but let’s also look at customer success teams. The customer success function, like HR, did not exist in the not-too-distant past. Organizations had product, sales and administration departments/areas, and sellers dealt with clients, so there was no need for a dedicated client success or service function, specifically in the B2B world.

Over time, as markets became more congested and fragmented, and switching costs decreased, it became easier for clients to churn, so it made more sense for companies to start hiring more people and spending money to keep clients around. As the technology fueled competition, and made room for more slices of the pie to be cut, it also grew the size of the overall pie, and therefore freed up money for businesses to focus more on interpersonal interaction and relationships. In other words, more technology made it so that companies could find a competitive advantage in spending more time on the non-technical pieces of their business in order to differentiate.

We can argue about whether this is good or bad for business, or for clients, or for the economy, but the point is that, historically, step function leaps in technology have not led to smaller workforces. In fact, they have led to larger workforces once the market has adjusted and companies have figured out what to compete on. Sure, Sam may be technically correct in a kind of transition period, as there may be companies who find efficiencies before the overall market adjusts. Once we reach economic equilibrium, or anything close to it, companies will find something to compete on, or something to leverage for efficiency, and will therefore not want to cut resources. It will be more efficient and profitable to add resources to improve their abilities in these areas, and that will include adding people.

Let’s look at another historical example for fun: spreadsheets. Electronic spreadsheets vastly diminished the amount of time that an accountant needed to spend building reports. Could you imagine writing numbers into graph paper every time you needed to build a revenue model? However, the advent of Excel and Google Sheets did not lead to smaller accounting teams, it led to more historical modeling, and the need for higher levels of certainty and greater reporting detail which has led to larger accounting and finance teams, and the proliferation of forward-looking modeling and financial analysis. Reporting that was unimaginable 40 years ago has become table stakes for any business.

“I get it,” Sam might say, “but AI is different because it can do anything that humans optimize themselves to be able to do.” In other words, we no longer need an accountant to run that report, because an AI agent can do it. So we are in a fundamentally different place in terms of technology development. He has a point here, but let’s clarify.

As it stands now, we don’t have Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and we won’t have it until mid-century at the very earliest (according to the most recent predictions). AGI will conceptually be able to ingest wide arrays of inputs and act with human levels of expertise across many areas of function as opposed to what we have now which is limited by task and breadth of function.

But even as we develop AGI, assuming it plays out as we expect it to, AI already is, and will always be better than humans at many things and not as good as humans at other things. The most successful companies will know how to leverage comparative advantage. AI models will have to compete with other AI models and there is a significant cost to customize and host, so humans are likely to retain a comparative advantage in the areas where we are more efficient, like human interactions, judgement and planning.

Think about it: as AI models continue to improve, and are forced to compete against each other, we will need humans to build those ever-improving models, so at a certain point, it will make more sense to find the jobs that humans do best and and focus the AI on the things it does best rather than continually iterating on new AI models for each and every function. This is what mature markets will bring to AI development, when we get there.

We can also look at this from a very human perspective. Fads tend to change over time to reflect what is hard to acquire. We see this with the retro bespoke style movement. We can also see this, interestingly, through sociological studies on skin color treatments. In most northern European and North American countries, historically, tanning and skin darkening has been a sign of beauty, while in tropical countries it has been much more likely to be the case that skin lightening treatments have been signs of beauty. Simply put, things that are harder to come by are seen as valuable for the very reason that they are harder to come by.

So, it is very likely that over time, as it becomes increasingly easier to execute on functions and outputs that differentiate businesses today, it will end up being the things that businesses cannot do today, that new technology will eventually allow them to do, that will be competed on most fiercely. Those new functions and outputs will be harder to execute on, and therefore more valuable to customers. Those new functions and outputs will be at the cutting edge of technology, and therefore necessarily need human input and humans to work alongside the technology. And because those new functions and outputs will be harder to compete on, businesses will look for ways to gain an advantage. And that will often mean hiring more people to perform in very different-looking roles, but nonetheless, hiring people.

This will mean that in the not-to-distant future all the functions that we currently understand that need to be accounted for in a company may be able to be executed on by one person and a cadre of AI agents. However, the new frontier in business will be the functions and outputs that differentiate one business from another in customer service, in efficiency, and in product-to-market capabilities. These things will always exist at the vanguard of technological improvement, therefore always necessitating some level of human involvement and teamwork between humans and technology.

So, what does this all mean for planning and strategy decisions in the coming years? We don’t know exactly what the world will look like once AI tools are more ubiquitous, but it seems a safe bet to assume that it will be very important to focus resources on how to build productive relationships between AI tools and highly skilled workers. In many cases, this will mean investing in people and processes that focus on how to input information into tools, and how to extract information and usable outputs from those tools that can be leveraged by those highly skilled workers in order to make themselves more efficient.

Thinking about the problem from this angle can help business leaders think about tools, operational models, and organizational charts in a way that supports the world as we know it and the potential future world that is still unclear and evolving.

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Canopy Expert Advisor Dan Greenberg is a revenue leader with general management background and an outstanding track record of growing revenue organizations through thought leadership and operational rigor, as well as developing internal and external relationships and partnerships.

Interested in bringing top-tier fractional experts like Dan into your organization? Tell us about your project here.

The post The AI Economy: Why The Reality Is Likely Different Than the Hype appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

A great hire can push a team to unprecedented levels of success, while a poor one can cause problems well beyond sunk costs. And the stakes are even higher at the executive level. There’s more money, more responsibility, bigger expectations and often, a greater need. Most organizations can’t afford to get these hires wrong.

By now, you’re well aware of the fractional trend sweeping through the U.S., in which organizations are choosing to bring on high-level, high-skill talent on a part-time and project basis in a range of different C-Suite roles. Organizations can save money while getting access to a leader they could not afford otherwise, while also de-risking the hiring process through contract lengths and the ability to turn support on and off based on their needs.

But like any other type of working arrangement, a fractional executive will work extremely well in some situations and be less effective in others. While every organization is different and every situation has its own nuances and complexities, the following scenarios were identified by Canopy’s own experts as those in which a fractional executive would be the ideal choice.

1. Unlimited ambitions, limited budgets

Cost effectiveness is routinely listed as the top benefit for organizations in bringing on a fractional hire versus their full-time equivalent. Whether or not you agree where that benefit belongs on the list, our community of experts agrees that it should be a factor you consider in approaching any executive hire.

It’s well-documented that hiring a fractional expert, especially at the executive level, can save organizations a bundle. When you factor in the timebound nature of the work and the fact that most fractional experts will not receive health insurance or other benefits, the savings can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the case of a financial executive, assuming an average per hour rate of $350 per hour and a year-long contract, hiring a Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO) might cost an organization close to $168,000, while total annual pay for a full-time CFO might run an average of $742,011.

If you have large projects on the horizon or you have critical needs that can’t be filled with your internal team, and you’re limited on budget, it makes economic and strategic sense to consider a fractional expert first.

“Even for organizations with a lot of resources and reserves, it can take months or even years to recover from a bad hire. The ability to de-risk an executive hire, even slightly, continues to be a powerful selling point for fractional experts,” said Griffen O’Shaughnessy, founder and CEO of Canopy Advisory Group. “Significant cost savings aside, fractional hiring offers a way to access expert, executive-level talent without locking you in if things go sideways.”

2. Executive leader transitions

An executive-level hire is a big deal in any organization. Even if these hires don’t work out as planned, there’s a ton of pressure on founders and CEOs to “make it work,” at least for a certain period of time. On the flip side, when the new leader performs extremely well, founders and CEOs need to worry about how to retain an individual who will be in high demand.

Regardless of how an executive leaves the business, the hole they leave in the organizational structure presents both opportunities and challenges. From the perspective of the founder, CEO and Board of Directors, the opportunity is to bring in new skill sets and new thinking. The challenge is to minimize the disruption and, in the case of losing someone valuable, limit the damage from their departure.

The situation is often extremely suitable for a fractional hire given the need to bring someone into the business quickly, the strategic nature of the position in a period of transition and the level of experience required to navigate a potentially difficult situation (including the possibility of preparing for a full-time hire in the role within the next year).

“When you lose a high-level executive who was important to the business, there’s often no clear direction, and the team may not know where to turn,” said Canopy Marketing Expert Kate W. “A fractional executive immediate senior-level expertise without the full-time cost, no annual salary, no benefits overhead. They can step in quickly, stabilize the team, assess the landscape, and drive strategic action.

3. Periods of rapid growth

Early on, much of the messaging around fractional hiring centered on the use of fractional experts as stop-gap measures in transition periods. While many organizations continue to use fractional hires to bridge these gaps, a growing number are discovering the value of fractional experts in accelerating growth plans.

Whereas the first two scenarios are clearly tailored more toward hiring a fractional expert than a full-time resource, the growth stage is a situation where you’re making more of a strategic choice. Regardless of the discipline for the role (e.g., CFO, COO, CRO, CMO, etc.), a full-time hire can certainly prove to be an excellent choice, especially if the individual ends up being a longer-tenured member of the organization and is a leader that the founder and CEO wants to grow a team around.

Reasons a founder or CEO may wish to go with a fractional expert in a growth scenario include:

• An interest in keeping costs down while maximizing impact
• The need for speed-to-impact, including areas like faster onboarding and truncated time-to-result
• A desire to bring in an executive leader with very specific situational experience
• A market or organizational situation that prioritizes agility and the ability to react and adjust quickly

4. Navigating large-scale change

While the departure of a leader or leaders certainly qualifies as change, these are far from the only situations where fractional executive hires can be instrumental in helping an organization withstand turbulent times. And unlike a situation where a single leader leaves an organization and the founder, CEO and Board are forced to move quickly to replace them, a large-scale adjustment to the direction, model or structure of an organization can (paradoxically) provide a bit more breathing room for leadership to approach the problem more strategically.

Similar to the rapid growth scenario, founders, CEO and Boards have the potential to be successful in this situation with either a full-time or fractional hire. In this case specifically, the choice can be largely dependent on the strength and clarity of the organization’s business plan. Clarity on direction often brings with it an understanding of the team that’s likely to be able to fulfill the long-term vision, and in these instances, leaders tend to lean toward full-time hires who can grow with the organization. While fractional experts can perform quite well in this scenario, organizations may choose to skip a bridge option and move straight to a longer-term hire.

Conversely, for all of the reasons fractional experts thrive in any organization, founders, CEOs and Boards may choose to bring in an experienced expert to help them build the future direction of the organization. In this case, they can also provide recommendations on who to hire to build a full-time team, and when it makes the most sense to hire those roles. 

We have also seen leaders set a new direction and then compile a group of the best fractional experts available to drive the plan forward. Whether or not this is a longer-term solution, it invariably helps the organization gain the traction and foothold necessary for a new direction to get off the ground.

Canopy Nonprofit Expert Meg G. described what a fractional expert engagement can look like during a major organizational change: “Sometimes during the life of a nonprofit, the Board of Trustees may find that a total restructuring of staff and mission is required. I went through this for a magazine, during which I was called in to supervise the restructuring and to shepherd how the magazine approached production, management, marketing, fulfillment and more. The process took approximately nine months.” 

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Thank you for reading! If you’re interested in hearing more from our experts on when and how to hire fractional executives, check out our guide, Demystifying Fractional Executive Hiring.

The post Hiring an executive? Here are the top four scenarios where fractional makes sense. appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

I say perceived obstacle because I do believe it’s an issue that organizations and leaders can solve through proactive and reactive means. It is, however, a valid and important concern to discuss and plan against before moving forward with any fractional or consulting engagement. 

The best leaders know that issues with team dynamics and communication can effectively cancel out even the best-laid plans. Thus, if you’re bringing up these concerns, there’s a good chance you are a strong people leader. Thank you for being a leader who is doing it right!

In this post, I’ll share my tips on where and how to focus on preserving internal dynamics as you and your team work with external consultants and contractors, including fractional experts. In looking at engagements with contractors on the whole, you have opportunities at key phases throughout the process to make an impact.

Before the Engagement: Goal and Priority Setting

The first, and likely most important, opportunity is making sure you answer key dynamic questions during the goal-setting and priority-setting sections of your project.

There is no bigger risk to fractional projects than a lack of clarity around goals and expectations. In addition to the alignment around what success looks like at the end of engagement, what the project is aiming to resolve (and what it’s not), and communications agreements, this is a step in the hiring process for outside support where I advise leaders to document their answers to the following questions:

• How will this project affect the priority list, capacity and workload for key staff who will be involved? 
• Which, if any, projects will be halted or slowed to introduce capacity for work on the fractional project?
• What do you need to do to rally the members of your organization to ensure they’re a help instead of a hindrance throughout the project?

You can obviously take a much more in-depth approach at this stage, including bringing in the relevant members of your team to help you uncover any blind spots you may have on potential impacts to team dynamics. If you’re in a larger organization, your managers likely have their finger closest to the pulse on morale and the different dynamics that exist with individuals in the organization. Use their knowledge!

Even if you only answer the three questions above, it will get you thinking about how you and the consultant, fractional expert or freelancer will work with your team before the engagement begins.

During the Engagement: The Importance of Day One and Frequent Check-Ins

As leaders, it’s easy to make the mistake of assuming that, because we understand the value to the business of bringing in outside support, our team will immediately feel the same way.

It can certainly happen that way, but it also has the potential to stir up resentment and distress, and not only in lower performers. More concerning, these issues likely won’t arise before the engagement begins.

To proactively counteract some of these feelings at the beginning of an engagement with a consultant, fractional expert or freelancer, I recommend leading a meeting for all of your staff on day one. The goal of the meeting is to introduce your expert or experts and the project itself, and to get your team excited about it. While this alone may not remove some of the obstacles the expert might run into, such as people delaying the project by dragging their feet or pushing back on every detail, it’s always helpful to get everyone else on board. And if enough of your people are enthusiastic about the project and want to be involved in making it successful, that will do a lot more to bring the skeptics along for the ride. 

The day one meeting also helps you avoid putting your project in a silo. If everyone is in the know at the very beginning, you can eliminate a fair number of project-delaying issues, such as unnecessary confusion between internal teams about responsibilities, having to hold multiple onboarding and informational sessions throughout the project as new people are brought in, and general lack of understanding about the project strategy, goals and placement on the priority list.

Post day one, as the engagement becomes a part of every day work for at least some members of your team, making time for separate one-on-one conversations with your outside and experts and the members of your team involved in the project becomes critically important. This way, you can see the warning signs of major issues before they happen. I also recommend leaning on your most trusted people at this time, as they are likely to tell you the truth about how things are really going in an engagement, especially as it relates to dynamics. And if you don’t think they’re telling you the full truth, be direct and let them know you want to hear it, warts and all.

The Post-Engagement Phase

It’s important for business owners and leaders to remember to continue to focus on dynamics after a consultant or fractional expert is no longer working with their teams. Schedule at least one post-engagement meeting to talk through all of the great, the good, the bad and even the ugly. Position the meeting as a way for the team to contribute directly to improving the next engagement with their feedback. Generally, individuals are happy to be involved in these sessions, nearly everyone has an opinion on how something can be improved, and it sets the stage for your transformation into more of a blended team vs. a self-defeating “in-house vs. the world” mentality.

It’s Doesn’t All Have to Be On You

Congratulations again to you for focusing on your team dynamics. I’ve never met a business owner or leader who wished they had spent less time in this area.

The last point I’ll make about dynamics relative to engagements with outside experts is that, if you bring on the right consultant or fractional expert, they can take some of the work off of your shoulders. You and your team can do everything right, and if the wrong person comes in to support your organization, they can damage even the most pristine dynamics. On the flip side, the best fractional experts can bring their knowledge and experience to bear to help you make sure that you’re setting yourself and your team up for success. Because of the way they work, they will do more to allay concerns and fears about their work and their role in the organization than you could on your own.

As we prepare to transition into a new year, I wanted to take a moment to say a heartfelt thank you to each of you. 2024 was another wonderful year for Canopy, and our success is a direct result of the contributions of every member of this incredible community.

The work you do to guide organizations as fractional experts, as business owners and leaders bringing the agility and impact of a blended team to your companies, as members of our local community helping the city, state and its people thrive; it matters. Reflecting on Canopy’s first 15 years, one of the things that strikes me most is the power of being part of a movement. Together, we are building the future of work and ushering in a more effective way for organizations of all sizes and types to compete and win. That matters.

The post How to Preserve Team Dynamics When Working With Outside Experts appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

On the surface, though, the concept can seem counterintuitive. Why wouldn’t an in-house team, made up of people who are often experts in their own right and who have a much stronger sense of the business and brand, be set up well for success without considering expert help? Taking the question further, couldn’t an outside expert actually have a detrimental effect on a project due to disruption of team dynamics and a lack of organizational knowledge?

And yet, it’s a fact that many of the projects in which organizations choose to hire an external expert are deemed successful, and especially relative to what in-house teams internally may have been able to achieve in the past. Why is this the case?

Organization-Wide Investment in Project Success

It’s an uncomfortable truth that, in many corporate environments, being on the same team doesn’t always mean being on the same team. Certain people in certain roles may stand to benefit if projects fail, and they often act accordingly. 

More often than not, projects are not killed in one fell swoop, although that does happen. Instead, failure comes from a thousand different cuts, including unnecessary bureaucracy, last-minute stalling on reviews, sidebar conversations and sudden shifts in prioritization. Regardless of the reasons a person may have for slowing down or upending a project, it can be an incredible source of frustration and affect even the most talented and high-powered in-house teams.

An engagement with an outside expert can eliminate a lot of that bureaucracy and politicking for a simple reason: the money for the engagement is coming from a line item and not from people costs. 

This may not seem like a big difference; in many companies, however, it means that the project receives far more scrutiny. And by extension, there are more internal team members who are invested in its success due to their responsibility for the budget, the referral or a variety of other factors. The organization is paying directly for a positive outcome on an important project, and that alone makes the project more likely to get the resources and support it needs from leadership.

For the fractional expert or freelancer, the investment in success is more obvious. The value of their work, what it’s like to do business with them and their overall reputation is on the line. It will either earn them more business and future clients or it won’t; even an engagement that is “fine” but not Earth-shattering is likely more of a negative than a positive.

And for the internal staff that’s not on the company’s leadership team, while they may truly be invested in the success of the company long-term, their surface-level investment in an outside engagement is more tactical. If a fractional or freelance project fails, it means more work on their plates, which, in the age of ever-leaner teams, is something most employees are desperate to avoid.

Access to (Real) Experience at an Affordable Rate

You can have the world’s most capable in-house team, and they will still struggle without the necessary resources, budget and support. Too often, leadership’s response when looking at an area that’s not performing as well as they had hoped is to assume they don’t have the right people or that their people aren’t working hard enough. While either could certainly be the case, it’s more often that the in-house teams don’t have what they need to be successful. As of August 2024, only 33 percent of U.S. workers in Gallup’s Engagement Survey strongly agreed that they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day, and only 46 percent strongly agreed that they knew what was expected of them at work.

Even if you’re the type of leader who understands your team needs help, you still face challenges. Most notably, adding headcount is one of the most difficult processes in any organization, and for good reason. According to the Paycor, labor costs can account for as much as 70 percent of total costs for a business. Thus, even if you are somehow able to get new headcount for your team approved, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to free up enough budget to hire top talent.

Paradoxically, cost is an area where engaging an outside expert can be extremely attractive. Yes, these outside parties are paid at a higher rate that represents their experience and expertise. They are also paid on a time-bound basis, either by project or hourly, and are not paid benefits like insurance or bonuses. As a result, organizations can afford to bring in higher-level experts at a lower overall cost than a mid-range full-time hire. 

Importantly, if your company works with an organization like Canopy Advisory Group who heavily vets every fractional expert in its community, your company will be bringing on an expert with actual experience in the problems you’re trying to solve. If you choose to scroll through LinkedIn to try to find an “expert,” you risk ending up with a consultant who is good at selling themselves but who has never executed anything at the level you need. 

The best experts will provide value well above their overall cost, in both the work and in their impact longer-term, supporting your in-house team with the guidance and in-the-weeds help that they need to make real progress on key projects.

A Blend of Strategic and Tactical Support

Many in-house teams are composed of employees who are meant to play extremely specific roles. Leaders create strategy and manage large teams, specialists support platforms and operations, junior team members focus on blocking and tackling work – you get the idea.

Once again, there are a lot of reasons for this, and it’s not necessarily the wrong approach. It can, however, hamstring in-house teams when it comes to agility and execution. If, due to hierarchy, approval process and extreme specialization, a team takes three weeks to complete a project that should take one, you have a big problem.

Unlike traditional consultants, fractional experts bring a blend of strategic acumen and execution ability, meaning that they can become a contributing member of the team almost immediately. What often helps in-house teams most is working collaboratively with fractional experts and seeing the output, which then helps them adjust and improve their work. This is the longer-term value of fractional engagements that isn’t talked about enough; the impact of ideas, concepts put into practice and inspiration often lingers long after the fractional expert has completed their project.

Outside Support is Often Necessary Due to Barriers Facing In-House Teams

For the most part, organizations don’t need to bring in consultants because in-house teams are incompetent. They need to bring in outside experts because of how hard it can be for in-house teams to get things done.It’s not an indictment of organizational structures and processes as much as it is a fact of life within many companies. 

Organizations look at hundreds of different metrics to determine business health, prioritization, and the success or failure of projects. Smart business owners and leaders are greenlighting fractional engagements to help solve key business problems for a wide range of reasons. The one that will almost always matter most is better outcomes.

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Are you looking for a better way to get your projects across the finish line, on time, and under budget? Canopy can help you find the right fractional expert, onboard them quickly, and ensure a speedy and successful engagement. 

Tell us about your project today at canopyadvisory.com. 

The post Why Does Adding Outside Experts Help Teams Deliver Better Outcomes? appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

In business, however, and especially when it comes to different ways of working, myths can be more dangerous. They can set us down a certain path, false assumptions held tightly in our hands, without the benefit of real experience and knowledge.

The reason myths persist, however, is that there is some level of truth in them. If they were wholly unbelievable, they would slowly fade. Many of the myths about fractional work and consulting fall into this category. Someone, somewhere had an experience with fractional work or consulting that spawned the idea that “every fractional and consulting engagement is or will be just like this.”

In reality, these outlying experiences tend to be more exception than rule. To help us layer reality on top of some of the biggest myths about fractional work, we asked our Canopy expert advisors for help in identifying those they hear the most (and what the actual truth is in nearly every case).

MYTH #1: “Fractional hires are too expensive for non-profits and small businesses.”

THE REALITY: Interestingly enough, startups and early-stage companies were among the first to embrace fractional work. The reason? Because hiring fractional team members is often the more cost-effective option than bringing on full-time employees. In some cases, those savings could be significant, with Forbes estimating that the fractional model could cut employers’ payroll costs 30-40% vs. full-time employment. For organizations with tight budgets like many small businesses and early-stage companies, and those who need to keep overhead minimal like non-profits, fractional can be an extremely attractive option precisely because of its cost-effectiveness.

MYTH #2: “Fractional experts run up big bills and don’t deliver results.”

THE REALITY: This myth is derived, whether right or wrong, from a negative view of the value of consulting at a general level. While consulting and fractional work are similar, there are critical differences. Most notably, while all fractional work is consulting, not all consulting is fractional work. True fractional experts offer a “best of both worlds” approach between high-level consulting and freelancing in that they provide both strategy and tactical execution; consultants generally offer only strategy while freelancers generally offer only tactics.

Due to the nature of the work, both the perceived and actual value of fractional work is likely to be more in-line with expected outcomes and results. In terms of the “big bills” myth, while it is true that many fractional experts are paid at significantly higher hourly rates than freelancers, because fractional resources primarily work on a project basis, the costs for an organization remain far lower than other options, including hiring full-time staff members. Organizations hiring fractional resources get access to the very best in expert talent without paying benefits, longer-term salaries or bonuses, driving better results at a much more reasonable cost.

MYTH #3: “Fractional experts don’t care about the company they’re working with.”

THE REALITY: In a recent survey of our community of experienced Canopy fractional experts, this myth came up in many of the open-ended responses. Fractional experts want companies to know that, although they are often working for a limited time or in a limited capacity, this does not affect their interest in integrating themselves completely into organizations. Most take pride in learning company core values and becoming a true part of the team during their engagements. There may be isolated situations where a fractional resource remains detached from a team or organization throughout a relationship, but that would be the rare exception.

MYTH #4: ”This fractional resource will solve all of our problems.”

THE REALITY: The “fractional expert as business panacea” trap can be surprisingly easy to fall into. After all, you’ve chosen and vetted an elite expert to come into your organization and you want to believe that pulling the fractional lever is the one thing you need to do to get your business moving in the right direction or growing faster.

Make no mistake, if you bring in the right fractional expert and set the right expectations, a single project can have a tremendous impact on your business. That said, one of the things that makes fractional work so valuable is that a fractional resource is brought in to solve very specific problems based on their expertise. Imagine that it’s the heat of the summer and you’ve inflated and filled up a kiddie pool. Unfortunately, the pool is leaking. If you’ve identified a single hole in the fabric of the pool, there’s a good chance that you could stop the leak by plugging that hole. If there are multiple holes, plugging one might slow the leak, but will not solve the overarching problem.

The point being that it’s important to look at the value of fractional work for what it’s meant to do: solve specific problems with project-based work (not magically cure every organizational ill in a six-month timeframe).

MYTH #5: “They create a plan then leave chaos in their wake.”

THE REALITY: The “drop a 50-slide PowerPoint deck on the team and leave” myth about fractional work is another that is a result of poor consulting practices. As noted, the critical difference between consulting and fractional work is that most fractional resources participate in the execution of the strategy vs. providing only recommendations.

Beyond the fact that this provides better value for most organizations, the greatest benefit often comes in the positive impact of fractional engagements on internal company staff. Because fractional experts are both creating strategy and implementing it, most make a concerted effort to coach and train employees in their clients’ organizations to ensure that those employees can take the strategy and run with it when the engagement is complete. Watching how a fractional expert works in-real time can provide an incredible amount of value from a development perspective.

MYTH #6: “They use generic playbooks for every engagement.”

THE REALITY: There’s nothing inherently wrong with having a playbook. Every consultant, fractional expert and freelancer is likely to have one, as they need to have a framework or model to be able to articulate and sell their services. The issue arises when a consultant keeps the playbook at too high of a level, providing a generic framework that doesn’t customize to fit the true needs of a business.

That’s precisely how this myth was born, and it’s one of the most common complaints from clients of some of the large consulting shops. For fractional experts, it’s about providing a balance between having a strong framework to apply to organizations and ensuring that they’re providing differentiated value within that framework that the client couldn’t get anywhere else.

MYTH #7: “Being an outsider means they can’t understand our problems.”

THE REALITY: This extremely common myth is a function both of poor experiences with consultants and the resentment that can arise when an organization brings in an expert from the outside to look at any part of a business. Sure, there are likely situations where a consultant or a fractional expert doesn’t do the work to really get to know a business, and those relationships are doomed to fail from the very beginning. In most cases, however, understanding the root business problems, what’s been tried before and the overall dynamics of the business are all implied in the mandate of a fractional expert. It’s part of what they’re paid to do.

In our survey of Canopy expert advisors this year, our fractional experts told us that bringing an outside perspective is often precisely what does help solve problems that may have been difficult for internal teams to see or execute against given their other responsibilities. So this myth can be flipped on its head; an outside perspective can be the most valuable part of a fractional engagement.

MYTH #8: “They’ll just tell us what we already know.”

THE REALITY: Is there an outside chance this could happen? Sure. But the odds are extremely low. While every recommendation may not be brand new, the role of a fractional expert is to provide the right guidance needed to solve business problems. If they’re doing their jobs, known issues will certainly be a part of what a fractional expert uncovers. Fractional experts are paid what they’re paid for a reason, and as a result, what an organization gets back will go far deeper than a surface level.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to bring the right fractional experts into your organization, check out our guide, Making Fractional Work for You, or send us a note here.

The post Myths and Realities of Hiring Fractional Experts appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Click Here to download a PDF version of the eBook.

The post Making Fractional Work For You appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Fractional experts can join organizations quickly, onboard at high speed due to expertise and experience, and start making an impact almost immediately. Fractional hiring is also more targeted than hiring for full-time employees, because you’re hiring on a project basis. That means you’re able to bring on the right expert to solve a specific problem or problems, as opposed to trying to overcome every business challenge all at once. Last but not least, you get the very best talent without having to foot the bill for benefits or being on the hook for a salary long-term, which can save you quite a bit of money.

Like any type of organizational decision, however, bringing in fractional experts is not the right move in every situation. We asked our community of expert advisors to identify specific scenarios when a full-time employee could make more sense than a fractional hire.

Scenario 1: Organization Needs Support Above and Beyond a Project Basis

As one of our expert advisors noted, one way to identify this scenario is when your fractional expert’s hours are closer to 35-40 for a period spanning around 6 months. Even if you don’t use those numbers, you will know when you’re starting to move from a fractional engagement to something that more closely remembers full-time. From the perspective of the fractional expert, reaching this type of milestone represents a positive longer-term outcome of fractional work, as it means that the expert has brought the organization to a place where it can now sustain the work on a longer-term basis.

Many fractional experts prefer to work with a variety of different clients and would be ready to move on to a new client in this scenario. Others may be open to considering a full-time engagement with your organization.

Scenario 2: Organization Has Reached a Growth Tipping Point

When an organization reaches a certain stage of growth, needs often arise that only full-time employees can fill. This isn’t to say that the organization shouldn’t hire on any fractional experts; far from it. It simply means that there are likely to be both tactical and executive-level roles that the organization may wish to bring on instead of using fractional talent to fill those needs. As mentioned above, hiring for executive-level full-time roles could be partially based on the sheer number of hours needed to get the work done in specific functional areas. It could also be driven by the number of projects necessary for the resources to manage. For more tactical or mid-level roles, it could be an increase in the number of tasks that require constant interaction with customers or suppliers, the need to be available and/or tied into communications during business hours, or the need to manage other staff.

Similar to Scenario 1, Scenario 2 could also be a situation where your organization has worked with a fractional expert and reached the point where a full-time hire simply made more sense. As noted, organizations don’t outgrow all fractional expertise. They reach a point where both full-time and fractional experts should work hand-in-hand.

Scenario 3: Organization Only Needs Tactical and Operational Support

The primary difference between consultants and fractional experts is that, while all fractional work is consulting, not all consulting is fractional work.

Fractional experts actually provide a best of both worlds between consulting and freelancing in that they offer both strategy and tactical execution. Consultants, for the most part, offer the strategy piece through expert advice and guidance, but not the implementation. That’s what makes fractional experts so valuable. They give you the roadmap and then drive you at least part of the way there.

For organizations that are not in need of the strategic or expert-level portion of the equation, hiring fractional doesn’t make business sense. These resources come at a higher cost due to their expertise and experience, and the fact that they provide both strategy and execution. Freelancers or junior full-time employees are often more cost-effective if an organization is looking only for tactical support.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to bring the right fractional experts into your organization, contact Canopy Advisory Group today.

The post When Does a Full-Time Employee Make More Sense Than a Fractional Hire? appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Fractional work is defined as an arrangement in which an individual provides specialized skills or management services to multiple organizations on a part-time or project basis. An alternative form of work gaining some traction is one thing, but the fact that half of Americans are projected to be participating in this kind of work, and that soon? That qualifies as a seismic shift in the relationships between employers and employees.

So how did we get here? Since 2020, workplaces in the U.S. have been in a near-constant state of turmoil. A pandemic forcing workplaces into full-time remote work, widespread leaks of footage showing how disconnected executives are from their teams, The Great Resignation, return-to-office mandates, mass layoffs, lack of backfills for departed employees, economic uncertainty. It’s created what could be termed a perfect storm for hiring and retention across nearly every industry and vertical.

For businesses, tighter budgets, expanding growth targets, a focus on efficiency and high people costs are making fractional resources more and more attractive. For talented workers, stagnating corporate salaries, poor executive leadership and the constant drumbeat of draconian and impersonal layoffs are fueling a move away from full-time employment. As talented employees leave to pursue the freedom of fractional work, organizations that either do not support side hustles for their staff or exhibit the qualities that tend to push employees out are at the highest risk. And when those companies go to rehire, they will have access to fewer and fewer of the very best, as those experts are more likely to be pursuing alternative work options.

Fractional work is only a threat, however, for organizations who fail to embrace it. The organizations who win in this new world will be those who commit to understanding and embracing fractional work right now. Learning how fractional workers can integrate into their business model, learning which projects are best suited for fractional support, learning how to meld fractional resources with full-time staff. Because those companies will already be far ahead when other organizations are still scrambling to shift when they’re forced to change.

These organizations will understand that they need to change how they staff their companies and complete projects in a work world that’s already undergoing a transformation in how people work. Even more importantly, they will know that sticking with the status quo won’t allow them to achieve their most important goals. Organizations embracing fractional work will:

• Save Money: Hiring a fractional worker saves a company an average of 30-40% over a full-time worker due to a variety of factors, including a shorter, time-bound tenure and lack of benefit payments.
• Increase Agility and Speed: Not only can you hire fractional workers far more quickly than full-time employees, most come with reduced training time and expenses given their experience and high level of expertise. 
• Increase Effectiveness: Expert-led, project-based work will result in more projects being completed on time and at a high level of quality, as fractional resources are unlikely to be slowed down by traditional internal company challenges.
• Innovate With Purpose: Innovation is driven by creativity, knowledge, technique and motivation. The outcome-based nature of the engagements, the level of expertise of the individual consultants, and the limited time they have within organizations inherently makes innovation more of an imperative for fractional workers than their full-time counterparts.

There are, of course, cons of hiring fractional experts into your business instead of full-time staff. While fractional experts are cost-effective due to the fact the organizations don’t pay for benefits or other overhead and because their projects are time-bound, they are also paid as experts, and so become less cost-effective the longer they are under contract. There are also leaders who believe that, because fractional workers are hired on a project basis, they may be less committed to the organization they work for than a full-time employee. Finally, because they often exist outside of the traditional interviewing process for full-time hires, it can be more difficult for organizations to vet the experts effectively (without help).

So, while fractional hiring isn’t likely the hypothetical silver bullet to slay all of your organization’s werewolves, it very well may be the right munition for some of them. If you’re ready to learn more about why fractional work could be right for your business and how to find and hire the expert talent you need to move your most important projects forward right now, set a meeting with our team at Canopy Advisory Group.

The post Why Embracing Fractional Work Can Change Your Business for the Better appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

With companies looking to hire more workers in 2024, the tight labor market can seem like a roadblock. While upskilling can solve some hiring difficulties, filling talent gaps might take a different type of workforce, not just increasing compensation and benefits — perhaps opening the doors for fractional workers to enter more companies. 

“Finding and recruiting talent remains a persistent challenge for small businesses, with 54% of employers identifying that as an operational challenge in a recent Small Business Credit Survey released by the 12 Federal Reserve banks.”

Read the BizWomen article: https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2024/04/small-business-ceos-hiring-job-market-pay-2024.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=nch&ana=e_n_bizwomen_tease

Canopy has extensive expertise placing expert advisors within businesses of all sizes based on their needs. Speak with us about what roles you need to fill.  

Contact us at (720) 989-1705 or email info@canopyadvisory.com.

The post Solving Hiring Concerns with Fractional Employees appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

It’s helpful to hear the pitch for hiring high level fractional works from those in the field. A recent Forbes article includes a great interview with Abby Sugar, a CEO and consultant for mid-stage startups, that highlights her insight into fractional hiring in the startup world. 

“You get to have a high-level strategic executive thinker that you might not need on a daily basis,” Abby Sugar, fractional employee expert, shares during her interview. “You don’t need to be paying a super high monthly salary for somebody if you’re not that large enough yet. As a solo founder, or maybe in a startup, the founder and a technical cofounder are building the code, and you need support, vision, funding, or help. Maybe it’s your first company, maybe it’s your third company, but you know that there are 500 things to do all the time. And so you need a higher level person to help you strategically execute and bring on a fractional COO instead of a lower level person at a low hourly rate.”

Read the Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylrobinson/2023/12/08/why-companies-should-embrace-the-fractional-employee-business-model/?sh=7d87e25a58b9 

With over 15 years in the executive on-demand talent industry, we have supported growth in some of the world’s biggest brands. We work to create strategic partnerships with growing companies and can curate a select advisory pool for your company’s needs.

Connect with our fractional pool of talent. Speak with us about what roles you need to fill.  

The post Fractional Workers at the C-Suite Level appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

EQ is a hot topic in business today, and with good reason. According to Harvard Business Review, EQ accounts for 90% of what sets high performers apart from peers. The good news: EQ can be developed and improved. But how? In this session, Cynthia shares her own EQ journey, starting with a career setback that forced her to build her EQ to be a better leader, colleague, friend and partner. Using an accessible model of EQ as the foundation, she’ll lead attendees on an exploration of the components of EQ and how they impact our ability to build relationships, manage stress, navigate change, and lead courageously. She’ll share tangible approaches to explore our EQ strengths and weaknesses, and build our EQ skills so we show up as our best each day.

The post Canopy Virtual Event: EQ: The Magic Leadership Ingredient appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Fractional or part-time CFOs have extensive experience, but are generally brought in by startups to help on a temporary basis. A fractional CFO in Denver can deliver a range of financial services and strategic guidance for growing organizations through this part-time offering, helping businesses stay on track without breaking the bank.

Fit Your Strategy to Your Goals

Fractional CFOs offer a wide scope of financial expertise, and delivering the right financial strategy is one of their most important areas of knowledge. They can help develop and refine the financial strategies to fit with the organization’s goals through guidance on everything from budgeting, to forecasting and giving analysis to support decision-making. They can also ensure accurate and timely financial reporting by interpreting financial data to identify opportunities, risks, and trends for better insight into financial management. 

Creating a streamlined financial process is imperative for any business, and fractional CFOs can act as strategic partners – offering financial advice and guidance on an array of critical business decisions. Helping create and write business plans that fit in everything from financial risk assessment to creating the right funding strategy. Many business owners don’t start a business with these tools, and a fractional CFO can help bridge the gap to make sure that you’re on the right track. 

Tackle Today’s Shifting Market

Making sure your financial systems keep up with your particular market is critical – particularly in the growing stages of your business. Fractional CFOs can evaluate and enhance your financial systems and process to bolster accuracy, efficiency, and compliance. This can involve implementing the right accounting software, establishing policies and streamlining financial workflows. Some of this comes down to getting the right bookkeeping and accounting, but the fractional CFO can assist with all of that as well as delivering the right financial data analysis.

Analyzing costs and profitability to identify areas of for cost reduction or revenue enhancement is another area fractional CFOs can assist. Organizing cash-flow statements and conducting a cost-benefit analysis can help improve operational efficiency. They can also help assess the financial viability of potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as well as offering support in the negotiation and integration processes. Getting the correct business valuation in the current market is also something the fractional CFO will be able to assist with. 

It’s important to understand that the specific services provided by fractional CFOs may vary based on the needs and size of the organization. For more information on how a fractional CFO in Denver might be right in helping your business, reach out to the experts at Canopy Advisory Group today.

The post What Types of Services Do Fractional CFOs Provide? appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Why On-Demand Consulting?

Customers can benefit from on-demand consulting through a wide range of services, including strategic decision making, leadership development, and refining workflows and processes, to name a few. Companies that use on-demand consultants typically already have several full-time staff members, but still require specialized solutions to complex problems, answers to executive-level questions or knowledge of best practices. Additionally, customers use on-demand consulting for complete end-to-end implementation of the identified solutions from your engagement. On-demand consultants are accessible anytime for one-on-one support, regardless of how small or big the challenge may be.

Client Services

On-demand consulting through Canopy Advisory Group provides the expertise, proven skills, and industry knowledge that fulfills our clients’ needs. Our client services include:

• Vetting top-tier consultants from a wide range of industries.
• Identifying what clients value and devising unique strategies to serve every client’s needs.
• Selecting the best consultants that fit each client’s company culture
• Offering access to our team of thought partners and experts
• Being proactive, pinpointing possible problems before they happen
• Developing a process to ensure that each engagement runs smoothly

Resource Support

With on-demand consulting, you’re leveraging the power of years of experience in multiple industries and situations. Every on-demand consultant has an unparalleled depth of expertise and knowledge in their field and is available to address your needs as they arise. Because we familiarize ourselves with your business model, any consultant assigned to you can quickly hit the ground running. We remain connected during the project to make sure the on-demand consultant is providing value and satisfying your expectations.

Top On-Demand Consulting in Denver, CO

Our on-demand consulting services focus on a clear-cut premise: to offer you skilled resources that are thoroughly vetted and selected to meet your timeframe and requirements. 

Hundreds of clients have relied on our on-demand consultants because our experts bring vast, deep knowledge to any situation. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about us and our network of top-tier on-demand consultants.

The post What are the Benefits of On-Demand Consulting? appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

What does a culture that cultivates personal and professional growth look like in an office?

It depends on the culture of the company, but I start with thinking about a culture I would like to work in. You want a culture where people can be their whole selves and be comfortable – if you accomplish that, creativity will be less stifled and energy will come more naturally. Creating an office environment where employees don’t dread Mondays, where they feel valued, they have opportunities to grow, they are trusted, they are treated like adults, and they are engaged in problem solving is a good place to start. 

How can HR advocate best for employees?

Professional and personal worlds are one and the same. You want people to be learning and improving to benefit not only their work, but themselves. HR plays a role in advocating for professional growth opportunities, putting training opportunities in place, and giving and receiving feedback.

What types of problems are you often brought in to solve?

Companies bring in an HR consultant when they are facing a challenge with things like building culture, scaling quickly, hiring the right talent, inclusivity, diversity, job satisfaction, how to keep employees engaged, and avoiding employee and leadership burnout.

The post Q&A with Human Resources Expert Derek J. appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

When you meet with a new company, what do you start by asking?

Some of the first things I ask clients are what are your pain points, what are your Sunday scaries, what keeps you up at night, and what problems can we solve today to help with revenue.

Recruiters begin problem solving with questions like what is your turnover rate and why are people leaving, how do you actively retain and engage your employees, are you open to hybrid and remote work, and when was the last time you did an employee engagement survey to really listen to your employees.

What are you seeing in the world of recruiting these days?

For companies, pertaining to the fact that the workforce is changing with about 4-5 million people per month resigning and remote or hybrid work being almost expected, companies need to be open to adapting their work requirements and be prepared to confront what workers are asking for.

For people, because of the shift towards remote work, networking is more important than ever because companies are looking at a global talent pipeline not just within their city, state, or the US anymore.

What are some common pain points for companies at the moment?

Pain points I’m seeing for companies include things like how companies are starting to call workers back to the office and strict work hours and people are not wanting to go back to business as it was. In response to worker’s preferences now, there are some types of companies that are just not easily switched to remote or hybrid and that’s a pain point for them. The supply chain issues are also making work harder and making it take longer and those are pain points. Then there’s also the labor shortage to manage – what was once acceptable, employers saying ‘this is how it will be,’ is not the case anymore with employees gaining more of a voice regarding what is acceptable to them.

The advice that I would give companies in today’s labor market is to be open to anyone who has the right attitude no matter what age they are or what background they come from. If they don’t have a degree that’s ok, do they have the life experience that could make up for it instead? A lot of companies are switching to skill-based job descriptions over specific experience which is great but it is a slow shift.

A personal note or something you’re passionate about?

I like to think, how do you amplify your awesome – how do you go from negative thoughts and fear-based living to soul inspired, heart centered, focus on your life and what you’re doing.

The post Q&A with Human Resources expert Chelle Johnson appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Answer:  COVID-19 has impacted nearly every aspect of our professional lives – businesses have been restructured entirely and many of us are overwhelmed by added pressure and demand resulting in high levels of chronic stress and workplace burnout.

We all have unique responses to stress, which are shaped by factors, such as: our family of origin, level of resilience and locus of control.  Some have an intrinsic locus of control, where difficulties are approached as “challenges that can be overcome” and others have an extrinsic locus of control and see obstacles as “problems that are happening to them”. 

​We, as humans, have far more authority over our mind and body’s responses to stress than we often realize. The key to understanding the signs and symptoms of chronic stress/burnout is to understand that they don’t appear all at once or overnight.  They tend to sneak up on us. It’s important to pay attention to the symptoms or cues our minds and bodies are telling us about our cognitive, physical and emotional wellbeing.​

When you are operating at a high level of stress and not recognizing symptoms, the likely result is workplace burnout.

​Common symptoms of burnout:

• Fatigue​
• Difficulty focusing​
• Lacking satisfaction with work and achievements​
• Feeling disillusioned​
• Lack of motivation​
• Feelings of guilt

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s time to implement some self-care strategies.  Self-care doesn’t mean upending your entire life. It means making room for small, mindful, realistic shifts.  Here are some ideas:

​Mind & Body: ​

• Get adequate rest​: Incorporate a nightly routine to help prepare you for sleep.
• Choose healthy foods​: Be mindful that during times of chronic stress, the brain will transmit messages craving high sugar, empty calorie food and beverages.   ​
• Move your body​: Find creative ways to remain active throughout your day.  Schedule ”standing breaks” chair yoga, dedicated time for exercise, going on a walk, ​
• Engage in active relaxation​: Active relation activities like journaling, walking in nature, reading a book, meditation, and breathwork promote long-term health benefits for physical and emotional well-being. ​
• Keep things in perspective​: Maintain realistic and attainable expectations.​

Work/Life Balance:

• Set up for success​: Establish a morning routine​, set scheduled breaks​ in advance and honor your lunchtime​.
• Protect your workspace/home space​: Be deliberate about setting boundaries, create a dedicated space conducive to work and productivity​
• ”Book-end” your workday:​ Consider how you will know when work life is done, and your personal life begins (ex: visual cues, closing the laptop, cleaning work area, taking a brief walk or step outside for fresh air) ​
• Take time to connect: Reach out to family, friends, and your colleagues.

The post Chronic Stress, Burnout & Self-Care appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Question:

What’s the biggest obstacle for women in STEM today?

Answer:

I’ll tell you what the biggest obstacle is not: confidence. Despite the catchy refrain that says women in STEM are less confident than men, we can’t point our fingers at the “confidence gap” to explain what’s really holding women in STEM back.

That’s because the “confidence gap” is a product of our culture. And our culture tells us that girls and women aren’t fit for math, science, and engineering. If this explanation sounds too soft, take a look at the data.

Culture (not Confidence) Explains The Gender STEM Gap

In their pre-teen years, boys and girls have similar levels of confidence in their ability to forge a career in STEM. But as they grow into adolescence, stratification in STEM confidence occurs along gender lines: boys become more confident in their ability to succeed in STEM, whereas girls become less confident in their ability to succeed in STEM.

Why does this divergence appear as children grow older?

We can’t blame test scores. Despite their reported lack of confidence in STEM, girls outperform boys in STEM: 68% of 16-year-old girls vs. 65% of 16-year-old boys score highly in math and science exams.

What actually explains the divergence in STEM confidence is gendered cultural norms. The signals we take in from our culture (e.g. Hollywood, the media, children’s toys) play a large role in deciding who is fit for a career in STEM. 

These cultural norms tell girls they aren’t cut out for STEM, which in turn feeds a baseless narrative that girls and women should be less confident than boys and men in STEM.

But culture only tells the pre-labor-force story. What happens after women break the cultural barrier and enter the STEM labor force? Now that’s another story.

What Happens After Women Enter The STEM Labor Force

The Center for Talent Innovation found that 80% of US women working in science, engineering, and technology love their jobs. Eventually, however, 52% of highly talented women working in these fields leave their jobs, churning twice as fast as men.

Here are the top reasons why women leave their STEM careers:

• Lack of career growth. This was the most common reason given, with 28.1% of women in STEM saying the lack of career trajectory was the major factor influencing their decision to leave their jobs.

• Poor management. This was the second most common reason women gave (24.6%) as to why they left their STEM careers.

• Slow salary growth. This was the third most common reason women gave (24.4%) as to why they left their STEM job.

The Takeaway

The takeaway from this data is not that women need to be more confident or competent to succeed in STEM. It’s that:

a.) our culture needs to normalize women in math, science, and engineering, and

b.) our workplaces need to close equity and opportunity gaps for women in STEM.

The post This Is What’s Really Driving the Gender Gap in STEM appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

GOAL

Jennifer* was at a professional crossroads. She had experienced a disruption to her career and needed to determine what her next steps would be, professionally and personally. She wanted to reconnect to what matters most in her leadership and life, rediscover her professional identity, clarify the value she brings to the market and increase her self-confidence to transition her professional skills into a new context.

RESULTS

Jennifer engaged Canopy leadership coach, Kellie to partner with her in clarifying her professional and personal ambitions and reimagining how to bring that to life. Kellie met with Jennifer for six one-hour sessions over the course of 3-4 months.

Kellie supported Jennifer through a process that began with envisioning her ideal life, from her desired working environment to the way in which this would integrate with her personal circumstances. She focussed not on details, but on drawing out themes and feelings, to help Jennifer articulate the essence of the professional life she wished to create. Together they explored what was most important and the self-imposed assumptions that were limiting the scope of possibilities. They also identified transferable skills to get to the heart of the professional value that Jennifer had to offer.

With a clear vision of what Jennifer was searching for, Kellie worked with Jennifer to determine how she could authentically explore and identify professional opportunities that matched with her ambitions. They practiced articulating the message, devised a plan for next steps and partnered in the assessment of opportunities as they arose.

Jennifer said “One of the biggest benefits that came from working with Kellie was the way her process helped me identify factors that made me more effective when it came time to communicate my professional goals. Once I realized and prioritized the dynamics at play, I was able to frame my value and expertise in networking situations, which ultimately led to interviews and a job offer.”

By the end of the coaching engagement, Jennifer had two attractive professional offers to choose from.  With the clarity she had gained around the most important elements she wanted for this next chapter of her career, Jennifer was able to thoughtfully and intentionally assess the options. Jennifer has now accepted a new role that allows her to leverage her considerable skills and expertise in a new way, while meeting her personal priorities and curating a sustainable work/life balance.

*Note: to uphold the confidentiality standards established by the International Coaching Federation, the client name has been changed.

The post Support individual career decision making appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

But how do we sustain and build on our business relationships, remotely? These are more crucial than ever for your business and for the extra strength and support needed for/from your extended community. We are all navigating this transition in our own way and it’s important to give teammates/clients time and space to talk about it as needed. Integrating some small relationship-focused habits into your work routine will go a long way during this pandemic and beyond.

Some tips to integrate into your new work routine:

1. Over-communicate. These three small actions will save time and energy for everyone:

– Prior to the meeting, set clear goals and objectives by email or chat tools to be reiterated at the start of the meeting.

– Follow each meeting with a brief email with bulleted summary and action items.

– During or after the meeting, give everyone the opportunity to ask questions and voice opinions.

2. Stay consistent with communication methods to keep projects organized and streamlined – a key to remote work.

– Learn teammate/client preferences.

– Once a routine is in place, switch it up once in a while for a resilient relationship:

– Emails and chat tools help projects stay on track

– Phone calls bring tone, clarity, and context sometimes missed with emails

– Video calls help with eye contact, body language, and strengthening the feeling of being connected.

-During this COVID-19 time, video calls may increase feelings of connection, even for those who don’t typically do them. However, if either party has a tricky internet connection or does not have privacy, save added stressors and skip the video call.

3. Weekly or bi-weekly check-ins help boost morale, reinforce the connection, and increase productivity:

– 30 to 45-minute video calls are ideal, especially for small teams and more hands-on projects

– Use the first 10 minutes for checking in. Ask how everyone is doing. Now more than ever, acknowledging our mental health is vital to productivity

4. Chat tools such as Slack are key to keeping projects on track, reducing emails, and staying in touch – jokes and daily wins included.

– Whatever your team/clients like to geek out on, dedicate some time to it each week. If operating on your own, include an informal, social note of encouragement in your email or call – a reminder that we are all in this together.

– Some quick, fun approaches to lifting the mood through chat tools:

– On Mondays, each team member shares a photo highlight of the weekend

– For parents working from home with kids, create a Slack channel dedicated to sharing age-appropriate activities/links/inspiration

– For food lovers, create a Slack channel for home-cooked meals + recipes to inspire others

– For folks living in one area: create a channel on local businesses to support, including virtual yoga and exercise, food and special celebration deliveries

5. Build on your most valuable and established relationships. Outside of group check-ins, take the time to check how individuals are doing – the introverts and the extroverts:

– Generally, we hear more from the extroverts, so it is especially important to actively keep the door open for all voices, insights, questions, and needs.

– Whether it’s a 5-minute Slack chat, text or quick email, be sure to connect privately with at least one team member a day.

– For consistency, set a calendar reminder for yourself to check in every few weeks.

At the end of the day, building remote relationships takes a little more effort from the get-go but the overall impact is worth it. Focusing on communication, managing expectations, giving extra attention to logistics, and being flexible – these are great traits to build on whether virtually or in person! Feel free to share recent successes and solutions in your own efforts around this, we’re happy to hear from you.

About Jossie Auerbach

Jossie has worked on distributed teams, built global partnerships and initiatives, and worked remotely for local and global clients, often without ever meeting her collaborators in person. In recent years, Jossie’s family decided to work remotely while traveling for months at a time (with their toddler in tow!). COVID-19 has them grounded in Denver, listening and sharing insights with clients, colleagues, and friends who have all had to transition quickly into the world of remote work.

The post Building Relationships while Working Remotely appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Human-centered design (HCD), also known as design thinking, is an innovative approach that puts consumers in the driver’s seat. Using this perspective can help your organization to design programs, projects, and products that better meet the needs of the populations that you serve, building empowerment in the process. It has been used successfully by for-profits and nonprofits alike, and is particularly favored by organizations that seek to address social and public health-related problems. A human-centered design lens is a great option for organizations seeking to reach their target populations in a more effective and inclusive way.

The HCD process involves several distinct stages, which are repeated after receiving feedback from consumers. The beginning of the human-centered design process involves observation, inspiration, and empathy. This is where designers must do whatever they can to put themselves into the hearts and minds of the people for whom they are designing. This is a phase where openness is valued, and receiving is better than giving. Tools and approaches in this stage include individual and group interviews, expert research, and basic observation of conditions, habits, and environments. It is important to identify pain points, and to continue to ask, “why is this important?”

Following this initial phase, designers begin to narrow in on a definition of the problem at hand, making sure that any potential solutions are designed with ultimate impact in mind. Designers zero in on the identified problem using observations and input gathered in the first steps of the process. It is crucial that all team members share an understanding of goals and purpose, and are designing around this shared understanding. This stage involves discussion, more listening, and creative thinking. The challenge and goal within this phase is to frame the issue at hand as a design question.

Once designers have jointly and specifically identified the problem that they are trying to solve, exploration and brainstorming begin. Within this phase solutions are explored, tested, and iterated. Human-centered design does not demand immediate perfection, and so leaves room for the development of a “more perfect” design over the course of the process. After receiving feedback on initial ideas on potential solutions, designers go back to the drawing board again and again. This approach allows designers to use feedback from potential users to inform more and more improved versions of a product or program over time.

Human-centered design is inherently empowering. It taps into and assumes the presence of an innate human creativity that has the potential to solve whatever problems present themselves to us. It also assumes that individuals are the best source of information for what is important to them, what they need, and where they want to go. This stands in contrast to the philosophy of aid programs of the past that assumed the stance that if poor and underserved populations would just “do this” or “do that,” then they would be able to advance. Programs with this attitude so often fell short because they failed to empower the people that they were meant to serve, and so ended up badly missing the mark.

Using this approach can present some internal obstacles for those accustomed to a different way of doing things. Firstly, it’s important to name that it can be a bit of a shock to the ego to consider the idea that we may not actually know the best answer after all. We so often have a wealth of ideas up our sleeves that we’re eager to implement, with the best of intentions in mind. It can be tough to put on the brakes and be told to just listen for a while. Beyond that, empathy is fundamental to the process, and this can be a difficult skill to develop. It can also be tough to get comfortable with the idea of iteration. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have the right answer right away, often to the detriment of the creative process.

Human-centered design operates from principles of empowerment, collaboration, flexibility, and openness, and it can be seamlessly integrated into your organization’s process using a few simple tools and methods. However, the most important component of this process is a shift in thinking from top-down to bottom-up. How willing are you and your organization to make that shift? Taking this question into consideration can lead to some big and important changes to the work that you do, resulting is greater impact and connection to community.

The post Using a Human-Centered Design Approach to Better Meet Your Target Populations appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Emotional intelligence skills can be divided into four categories: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. Within each category is a set of skills that, when coupled with conflict resolution tools and techniques, will yield positive results.

Self-awareness: Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand your moods emotions, and drives as well as their effect on others. Those that are self-aware, recognize their automatic reactions or emotional triggers and have learned to neutralize them. They proceed with caution while keeping themselves in check.

Those that have low self-awareness tend to become externally focused on the person or situation that has “caused” the problem they face, and allow their reactions to “hijack” their behavior. This altered state of mind is often referred to as a neural hijack and can lead to unhealthy, emotionally reactive behavior.

Self-Management: Self-management is the ability to think before acting. Instead of letting reactions dictate behavior, they can explore possible strategies prior to taking action. Their energy is focused on slowing down and making conscious choices about what to do. Self-management is the skill set that enables you to exert conscious control over your behavior.

Social Awareness: Social-awareness is being proficient in managing relationships. Those that are not socially aware, tend to make false assumptions in the heat of the moment. In general, when emotions are triggered they assume the worst, and their assumptions fuel the fire of their reactive behavior.
On the other hand, those who are socially aware, attend to others and can establish empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and have skills in treating people according to their emotional reactions. They look for positive intentions behind negative behavior. Instead of reacting negatively to “bad” behavior, they seek to respond to the other person’s positive intentions and to lead them toward behaviors that better express those intentions.

Relationship Management: Those who are not adept at managing relationships, often lose their perspective of time when they are emotionally charged. Despite whatever ongoing relationship they may have with someone, when negative emotional reactions are triggered they are likely to react with destructive behavior undermining their future relationship with that person. Those that are skilled at managing relationships, remain cognizant of the fact that how they interact in the present determines the quality of their relationships in the future. Keeping this broader perspective during conflict helps them to focus on self-awareness, self-management and social awareness, resisting the impulse to react negatively.

Emotional intelligence is essential for managing any conflict we face in our everyday lives. As we all know, conflict appears in every relationship we have – work, home, friendships, etc. Being able to effectively manage conflict is about leveraging emotional intelligence skills to consider outcomes from the perspective of our relationships. Too often, we find ourselves arguing about petty issues; and if we aren’t careful, these interactions can trigger waves of defensiveness and hostility. However, they are skills that have to be learned, practiced and internalized if they are to be successful.

The post Leveraging Emotional Intelligence when Handling Conflict appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

New Platform Addresses the Needs of the Growing Independent Workforce

According to a recent NPR/Marist poll, one in five jobs in America is held by contract workers, and within a decade half the American workforce could be contractors and freelancers. Canopy Advisory Group, a consulting firm that matches high-level advisers with employers who require specialized expertise, is offering EDGE, a new, premium service that supports independent consultants’ practices.

“We listened to feedback from our consultant advisers and reviewed market and behavioral trends to determine how Canopy could most effectively meet the expressed needs of our team. The opportunity to collaborate with other highly skilled colleagues was at the top of their list.”

“As the gig economy grows, more and more services and products are tailored for the independent freelancer who wants to take their business to the next level,” said Griffen O’Shaughnessy, president and founder of the Canopy Advisory Group. “We listened to feedback from our consultant advisers and reviewed market and behavioral trends to determine how Canopy could most effectively meet the expressed needs of our team. The opportunity to collaborate with other highly skilled colleagues was at the top of their list.”

EDGE amenities include conference and office space; professional development; a subscription to Ohos, a client-feedback platform; access to a vetted adviser database; notification of nonprofit board of director opportunities and other employment openings. The annual EDGE membership fee for vetted Canopy advisers is $1,000.

Canopy provides both nonprofit and for-profit clients access to highly qualified independent professionals. Advisers have experience with global brands and recognized consulting firms as well as backgrounds with established national marketing agencies. Their areas of expertise include marketing, digital, strategy, finance, nonprofits, and law.

“EDGE fills a void for those who enjoy working independently but who seek more opportunities to share ideas and strategies with other entrepreneurial peers,” said O’Shaughnessy. “In the end, when we position our consultants for success clients who hire Canopy Advisory Group benefit.”

For more information on EDGE, Canopy Advisory Group, or its clients and advisers, please visit canopyadvisory.com.

Canopy Advisory Group

Denver-based Canopy Advisory Group connects businesses and nonprofits with top professionals to assist organizations on a short-term basis. In fall 2009, Canopy’s founders saw a marketplace need for top-notch advisers with big-firm training who were seeking an alternative to full-time employment. With offices in Denver and Seattle, the Canopy portfolio includes veteran professionals with experience in law, consulting, accounting, and marketing who can help clients accomplish short- and long-term goals without hiring full-time employees. Canopy professionals can help a new business grow, perform due diligence on a potential acquisition, develop a strategic growth plan, or fill in for a manager on maternity or paternity leave. Canopy works closely with clients and consultants to determine the scope of a project, the skill set required for the job, the time frame for deliverables, and the budget. For more information on Canopy Advisory Group, its clients, and its advisers, visit canopyadvisory.com.

The post Canopy Advisory Group Gives an EDGE to Consultant Community appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

“With the help Canopy and its talented consultants, we were able to bring rigor to our financial processes, allowing us to make better decisions for our investors.” ­­—Daren Schmidt, managing partner, Allante Properties, LLC.

Founded on the heels of the Great Recession, Denver’s Allante Properties has burnished its reputation as a multifaceted real estate firm that aggregates private investors to fund acquisitions and developments of apartment communities.

In 2016, the firm determined it needed a more streamlined approach to its finance system to ensure that there would be no gaps in how staff at the corporate office managed cash flow and accounting processes with its subsidiaries and project entities.

“We’re a small company with big projects, and our finance and accounting system was not where we wanted it to be,” says Daren Schmidt, managing partner, Allante Properties, LLC.

The firm engaged Canopy Advisory consultant Jennifer Almquist — whose expertise lies in solving complex issues concerning corporate finance, accounting and finance reporting — to take a deep dive into Allante’s existing finance and accounting processes, and make several high-level recommendations for a more efficient operation to support the company’s strategic objectives.

During extensive staff interviews and a thorough financial audit, Jennifer discovered process gaps in Allante’s finance functions that stemmed from a lack of centralization affecting the accuracy, timing and efficiency around its financing.

Based on Jennifer’s recommendations, Allante then brought in consultant Erica Roybal, herself a CPA as well as a financial analyst, to crunch the numbers, update processes and help ensure financial consistency across the organization.

By teaming together to analyze, recommend and institute more discipline to Allante’s accounting and finance system, Canopy’s consultants succeeded in elevating Allante’s internal financial processes so it could better serve its external constituents.

The post Canopy Consultants Offer One-Two Punch for Client appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, estimates that bad hires have cost his company more than $100 million. The Department of Labor says the price of a bad hire is at least 30 percent of the employee’s first year earnings. Finally, a well-known recruiter estimates the cost of onboarding an employee at $240,000.

The bottom line costs that go into this total sum include hiring costs, workload increase during position vacancy, total compensation, cost to maintain employees, severance and missed business opportunities.

How do bad hires make such a large economic impact on a business? Because bad hires have three main methods that negatively affect the team members that surround them.

• Their Negative Attitude Spreads: Disengaged, negative attitudes are infectious. Bad hires project these attitudes through their constant complaints, body language and disinterest, which leads to their coworkers rethinking their interest level toward their own work.
• They Burn Out Their Colleagues: When a bad hire doesn’t complete the full list of duties presented to them, the good employees start to burn themselves out making up for the lack of production.
• They Harm Company Culture: Finally, company culture is severely impacted when a bad hire starts to interfere with the rhythm of a strong business team. Bad hires lower the bar of expectation, influence bad habits, and create frustration amongst employees.

By hiring a freelancer to fill vacant roles, you have more time to find the right person for the position without losing on productivity or overworking your other employees. There are four ways a freelancer proves to be a solution to the bad hire dilemma:

• Freelancers Offer Flexibility: Freelancers are typically paid in hourly or project based increments, which provides more flexibility and can be less costly for the company while seeking a new employee.
• Freelancers Can Be Hired On-Demand: A freelancer allows the business to fill the gap quickly, therefore, reducing the cost of workload increase during vacancy periods.
• Freelancers Enable Companies to Hire the Right Person: With a freelancer, a company has more time to look for permanent replacements because the freelancer can complete the task requirements needed while the business can focus their attention on the talent search.
• Freelancers Provide a Way to “Try Before you Buy”: Finally, if a business finds that they are impressed with their freelancer’s work and the person is a fit for the company, then they may have the option to hire them full time. This provides a way to vet a potential employee with a longer integration process while maintaining the efficiency of your office post-vacancy.

Often bad hires aren’t detected until they are fully integrated into the work place. Hiring a freelancer is a low-cost alternative that allows the business the time it needs to make the best and most efficient hiring decision for the company.

Canopy Advisory offers high-quality freelancers with a decade or more of big brand experience, expertise, and flexibility to help smooth out your hiring process. Contact us today to learn more.

info@canopyadvisory.com or 720-989-1705

The post The True Cost of a Bad Hire appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Open innovation encourages staff to search for new ideas relevant to their market through relationships made among consultants, external partners, universities, research institutes, competitors and customers. A new study featured in Harvard Business Review examines how employees at IBM are generating innovative ideas by evaluating how they interact with their external and internal relationships.

The study found that employees who seek inspiration internally are just as innovative as those who seek innovation externally. However, overall, those who devoted time and resources to external partners were more innovative when they knew how to apply the ideas they incurred.

The study’s authors provided guidance for managers to encourage effective open innovation in the workplace.

1. Managers should avoid promoting networking for the sake of just networking and instead urge employees to strategically build networks inside and outside the organization to bring innovative ideas.
2. Managers should connect strong external networkers with more internally focused employees to foster open innovation.

Hiring an experienced freelance consultant allows companies to tap a resource that can be well-integrated into the company and business processes to create more valuable opportunities for open innovation. High quality freelancers evaluate and understand your company’s goals and bring ideas using their external perspective. In addition, a consultant can help employees bring innovative ideas to fruition, creating tangible results.

Canopy offers our clients experienced independent consultants that integrate with your team and help spur open innovation in your company. Contact us today to learn more: info@canopyadvisory.com or 720-989-1705.
Or connect wth us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & YouTube!

The post How Freelancers Can Spur Open Innovation appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

Minimize Disruption:

When hiring a temporary solution to fill in for an employee taking parental leave, a knowledgeable, experienced consultant can quickly pick up where your key employee left off. In addition, you have the option to have the consultant work with the key employee leading up to the parental leave date, which places the company in an even stronger position to manage the time the key employee is gone. Consultants who have extensive experience and knowledge in a particular field can adjust smoothly to the work environment while providing the business with an outside view that has the potential to further business growth.

Flexibility:

Whether the employee takes three months or six months away, a consultant will be able to adjust to your business’s situational needs. In addition, if the key employee returns to work in a part-time capacity or decides not to return, a consultant can help the company adjust by filling in as needed.

Communication:

A talented consultant understands the importance of strong communication. They are committed to effective on boarding prior to the scheduled leave, smooth transition with other internal and external stakeholders, and a smooth reintroduction when the leave concludes.

With the right consultant, parental leave can be a smooth process for your business. Deciding to have a child should not lead your employees to worry about whether their responsibilities are being fulfilled while they are gone and what they may be returning to. Hiring a consultant to fill in helps with personal, professional and large scale business challenges.

To find more information on experienced consultants who are ready to be the solution to your company’s parental leave problem, contact Canopy Advisory at info@canopyadvisory.com.

The post Three Reasons the Highlancer Offers an Ideal Solution When an Employee Takes Parental Leave appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

For many women, the grueling years that are most critical to reach the corner office overlap with the years to start and raise a family.  Frequently, trying to accomplish both leads to feeling stress and lack of fulfillment in both arenas.  Choose your career and compromise on your family time; choose your family, and you’re likely to be passed over for executive growth.

A subset of today’s working moms – who had previously chosen the C-suite path toward the executive chair – are creating a new conversation about what it means to have it all.  A recent Harvard Business Review article reported today’s working women want more meaningful work, more challenging assignments and more opportunities for career growth, but cited job titles and similar status concerns – such as being in the C-suite – as less relevant.

When it comes to statistics and even anecdotes about women’s careers, work-life balance and the existing gender gap in corporate leadership (only 21 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women; women hold only 14 percent of executive officer positions), so many of us have experienced a bifurcated drive, both motivated to break the mold and make a difference, yet deflated and searching for fulfillment elsewhere.  Many of today’s moms have graduated from top schools, honed their skills in some of the nation’s most premier professional firms and, now, have chosen a different path.  For them, statistics and anecdotes aren’t answers.

Enter the “Highlancer.”

The term refers to a new breed of freelancer and often a new option for working moms. Highlancers are highly qualified individuals, having typically attended prestigious undergraduate and graduate schools. They have also been big-firm trained, but, experience in the corporate world has left them feeling disillusioned and dissatisfied.

Acting as independent consultants, highlancers have ownership over their careers.  This particular aspect is appealing to high-achieving women who crave challenging assignments, meaningful work, as well as flexibility and freedom to balance family life and personal interests.  By removing concerns or previous desires to feel valued at the office and replacing them with a self-driven career path, for women highlancers, the glass ceiling has disappeared.

“It’s all or nothing.”  Is this really an unacceptable choice?  Many women roll their eyes at this notion that you either need to lean in or opt out.  Highlancing offers working moms a true “third-way, ” allowing them to contribute a second income and meaningful work without giving up the freedom to devote time to family and personal investment.

And, the business community has taken notice.  With flourishing startup communities and a growing need for project-based work, hiring highlancers has increasingly become a profitable relationship and a formidable business strategy.  A massive 76 percent of respondents told oDesk that their use of contractors was a long-term strategy.  More than 80 percent of those surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed that remote hiring increases competitiveness and that the practice will soon be common.

Businesses are popping up around the nation to support this freelance workforce.  Brick-and-mortar buildings, such as the fast-growing $10 billion WeWork network with several Denver locations, provide collaborative work spaces to “make a life, not just a living.”

Other new innovative firms are also emerging, such as Canopy Advisory Group (a *tiny* plug), which support highlancers by connecting them with clients, thereby alleviating the stress of doing business development and slugging through mundane back office tasks such as invoicing and client contracts.

Clients who seek on-demand resources may need extra hands, but they’re looking for the right ones.  For Brian Abrams, the board chair for the Presidential Scholars Foundation, bringing on a high-level consultant to do mission-critical work without the FTE status was a godsend.

“Not only has she changed the organization, she has changed my life – now I only have to spend one hour a week meeting with her instead of the treadmill that I had been on,” Abrams said.

Are highlancers only women?  Only moms?  Of course not.  Highlancing is a choice, not a demographic, that certainly provides margin for raising your own children, but also, in our experience, caring for an elderly or ill parent, nurturing relationships, pursuing hobbies and interests that make you a more complete person (and even a more passionate professional), and any number of deficient areas.

This community of highlancers is a meaningful addition to the workforce who predominantly still believe this country needs to continue making changes to achieve gender equality in the workplace.  But, this is not a generation that sits idly waiting for change.  Highlancers are already carving their own paths to success and not looking back, a path that doesn’t end in the corner office.

The post The rise of the “highlancer”: Working moms eschew the C-suite for flexibility appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

While living in the Seattle area as an attorney, I’ve come to understand and appreciate the well educated, highly experienced professional seeking efficiency and balance in life. Despite any stereotypes that Seattle is tech, coffee or bust, the city fosters talent across all industries and professions. Seattle is one of the most amenable cities for independent professionals. I am the lucky one that gets to meet them and provide a service to help not only advance their careers, but also bring a sense of professional community to their flexible work environment. In addition to the value I hope to bring to independent professionals, I plan on bringing this talent to companies to meet their flexible and fluid needs.

Independent consultant staffing firms are not unknown to the Seattle area, so what distinguishes Canopy? In Denver, Canopy began with quality as its foundation. As it has grown year after year and the quantity of advisors has increased, the quality has always remained consistently excellent. Using a referral system and personal meetings, Canopy gets to know each and every consultant to understand his or her skills, talents and needs. Only then can a perfect match be made with a client seeking those skills and talents to meet its needs. Canopy is not about high volume, databases, resumes and turnover, it is about people, quality of professional life and community. I hope to continue that legacy in Seattle. Already, I have met amazingly talented individuals that have so much to offer and it’s been overwhelmingly inspirational to get to know these people.

I’m proud to be a part of the professional community here and excited to tap into the unused resources and talent to help professionals and businesses thrive.

– Carin Parcel, Managing Director – Canopy Advisory Group Seattle

The post But you have a law degree… appeared first on Canopy Advisory Group.

In January, The Huffington Post discussed constantly increasing workplace stress in an article titled The American Workplace Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Start Fixing It.  Here are a few excerpts we thought you might find relevant:

Americans are working longer and harder hours than ever before. Eighty-three percent of workers say they’re stressed about their jobs, nearly 50 percent say work-related stress is interfering with their sleep, and 60 percent use their smartphones to check in with work outside of normal working hours. It’s no wonder that only 13 percent of employees worldwide feel engaged in their occupations.

The modern work world is a “broken and antiquated system,” according to Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business: Men Women Work Family.

Stress is taking a significant toll on our health, and the collective public health cost may be enormous. Occupational stress increases the risk of heart attack and diabetes, accelerates the aging process, decreases longevity, and contributes to depression and anxiety.

It’s also hurting our relationships. Working parents say they feel stressed tired, rushed and short on quality time with their children, friends and partners.

We are reaching our limits. People working with big corporations can’t stand their jobs.

As active participants in the non-traditional workforce, we at Canopy believe that the best cure for stress (including its negative effects on health and family relationships) is a feeling of control and flexibility – the ability to choose the work you want to do as well as when and where you want to do it. A lot of objective research supports this opinion.

Control and flexibility allow you to accept the professional projects you enjoy and reject those you don’t — on your own terms. It allows you to take on fewer projects in the summer or over the holidays, when your children are home from school.

And while certain projects will always require phone calls and texts outside of a consultant’s self-determined business hours, knowing that you can scale back on the next project or take some time off altogether creates a feeling of space, energy, health and sanity in an otherwise stressed-out world.

We created Canopy to offer our professional consultants a solid and respectable alternative to the stressful traditional workforce. At the same time, our business clients are able to take advantage of fresh professionals who are not hampered by the stress and burnout of the traditional workplace.

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