I have a confession that may not be popular in the consulting world: I do not believe that your certifications, by themselves, mean very much.
That is not because I am against credentials. I have an MBA. I have served on the board of the Dallas Chapter of the Association for Financial Professionals. I have spent twenty years building real expertise in finance and operations. I am not anti-credential.
What I am against is the assumption that a certificate, by itself, tells you whether someone can actually do the work.
The Problem With "Certified" as a Hiring Filter
When you are hiring a consultant, a fractional executive, or an internal leader, the certification is the easiest thing to filter on. You can put it in the job description. You can search for it on LinkedIn. You can list it as a requirement. It feels safe.
Here is the problem. Certification proves that someone has passed a test about a topic. It does not prove they have done the work, under pressure, with consequences for getting it wrong.
I have met certified Six Sigma Black Belts who have never reduced a single defect in a real production environment. I have met PMP-certified project managers who have never delivered a project on time. I have met Controllers with every accounting credential in the book who have never closed a difficult month under deadline pressure.
The certification is a baseline. It is not a result.
What I Look For Instead
When I am evaluating someone — whether to hire them, partner with them, or recommend them — I ask different questions. I ask:
- What is the hardest situation you have personally fixed? Not what you helped with. What you owned.
- What was the situation when you started, and what was the situation when you finished? Specific numbers. Specific outcomes.
- What did you do when it didn't work the first time? Anyone can describe the version of a project that worked. The interesting answer is what they did when it didn't.
- Who would I call to verify what you just told me? Real operators have references. Real references have specifics.
If someone can answer those four questions with concrete details — names, numbers, dates, specifics — they have done the work. If they answer in generalities, they probably haven't.
The certificate tells you they passed the test. The story tells you whether they can do the job.
What This Means for Hiring a Fractional Executive
If you are considering hiring a Fractional COO, Controller, or any other executive on a fractional basis, this matters more than usual. Why? Because you are not hiring them for a long ramp-up. You are hiring them to come in and produce results in a defined period of time.
You do not have time for someone who has the credentials but has never done the work. You need someone who has been in similar situations before, who recognizes the patterns, and who has a track record of actually fixing the things you are trying to fix.
So when you are evaluating fractional candidates, look past the credentials. Ask for the stories. Ask for the numbers. Ask for the references. Ask:
- Have you ever closed the books in less time than my team currently does? Tell me about that engagement.
- Have you ever fixed a collections process at scale? What did you do, and what were the results?
- Have you ever stood up a new operating company from scratch? What was the timeline?
- Have you ever mentored an internal leader from individual contributor to real executive? Who, and what did they go on to do?
If the answer is "I haven't done that personally, but I've supported teams that have" — that is fine, but it is not the same thing. Make sure you understand the difference.
Why I Wrote This
I wrote this because I have seen too many growing businesses hire consultants and fractional executives based on credentials alone — and end up disappointed. The credentialed consultant gives them a generic playbook, runs them through a generic process, and leaves without producing the result they actually needed.
The businesses that succeed with fractional executives are the ones that hired based on track record. They asked for the stories. They called the references. They paid attention to whether the candidate could speak in specifics or only in generalities.
Credentials matter. They are a baseline. But they are not a substitute for asking, "What have you actually done, with real consequences, that's relevant to my situation?"
That is the right question. Ask it.