Fractional COO for Fintechs who want to increase their profits 🦅 Build strength aligned, high-performing teams and stop doing everything yourself.

Most leadership overload is not a personal failure.
It’s a design problem.

As organisations grow, their original operating logic quietly stops working.

Decisions accumulate.
Meaning and accountability drift upward.

Even with capable leaders, modern tools, and fast execution, the organisation still depends on one person to interpret what matters and what moves.

That’s the moment I work with.

I don’t step into operational execution.
I work on the operating logic itself — where judgment, authority, and accountability still route through one person.

This work is for CEOs of growing organisations (typically 50–200 people) who notice that:
– execution is fast, but deciding still comes back to them
– delegation increased, but centrality didn’t
– the company works — yet still depends on one interpreter

Nothing is “broken.”
The structure just hasn’t caught up yet.

Before this work, I was a CEO for 5 years, scaling a company from six to seven figures. I understand the seat.

Myrto Z.

On January 15th, I’m on a podcast about portfolio careers. 

Not as a success story. 
And not as a “how-to”. 

What we’ll actually talk about: 

- how portfolio careers emerge, not how they’re designed 
- what’s harder than people admit, structurally, not just emotionally 
- what weekly reality looks like once the novelty wears off 

In hindsight, this way of working didn’t start with my career,  it started earlier, when I studied computer science and sports in parallel. 

What interests me most isn’t the variety of roles. 

It’s what stays constant across them. 
The same questions come up everywhere: 
- Where decisions get resolved. 
- Where authority quietly concentrates. 
- Where sustainability quietly stops being a personal issue. 

Portfolio careers don’t eliminate those dynamics. They often make them more visible. 
Especially in innovation-heavy environments, where flexibility increases faster than organisational clarity. 

Looking forward to a very honest conversation with Anna Stando & Magalie Heraud for the Innovationsverband Schweizer Arbeitsmarkt community, not about freedom myths, but about what this way of working actually needs to hold over time. 


📅 Thursday 15 January
🕚 12:00 - 12:45 CET
🖥️ https://luma.com/ggx5a588

Myrto Zehnder 🦅

Redesigning decision flow in scaling organisations | Former CEO, ETH Alum

Some founders don’t feel overwhelmed.

The company works.
Teams deliver.
Decisions are prepared.

Most days feel fine.

And still, deciding keeps coming back.

Not the big moments.
The smaller ones.

A call to glance at.
A version to confirm.
A direction to sense-check.

Nothing is broken.
Nothing feels urgent.

Progress continues.
Output stays high.

And yet, movement leans on one place more than it first appears.

The founder delegated early.

Workstreams are owned.
Teams run independently.
Execution doesn’t come back by default.

And still, one thing does.

Not the tasks.
Not the delivery.

A final look.

The work moves on its own.

Decisions happen.
Delivery lands.
Nothing breaks.

And one place quietly sets where things go.

Founder bottlenecks aren’t about control issues.

I’ve worked with leaders who trust their teams completely, have strong systems in place, and delegate operational tasks effectively.

And still, the bottleneck remains.

The organisation quietly makes one person the arbiter of what matters.

Not through policy.
Not through intention.
Through pattern.

Strategic questions route there.
Judgment pauses there.
Decisions look complete, but wait for a final lens.

The team isn’t incapable.
The processes aren’t broken.

Performance stays strong.

Authority concentrates by default, not by design.

The system depends on one place more than it appears.

Two companies look identical from the outside.

Both ship on time.
Both document decisions.
Both have strong teams.

Inside, they don’t feel the same.

In the first, decisions pause.

Not because information is missing.
Not because alignment is unclear.

Someone still needs to look at it.

In the second, decisions close.

Not faster.
Just without waiting.

The work carries its own momentum.
No final lens.

The difference isn’t talent.
It isn’t effort.

One organisation leans on a place.
The other moves without it.

Your team delivers.
Decisions are documented.
Standards are high.

And still - one thing remains constant:

One person decides what matters.

Not because the team can’t think.
Not because processes are missing.

But because interpretation lives in one place.

What’s right.
What’s good enough.
What actually counts.

The work flows.
The business grows.

Execution is fast. AI accelerates output. Your people are capable.

And yet, sense-making still routes through you.

Not everything needs approval.
But everything still needs interpretation.

So velocity increases,
while authority stays central.

That’s not a capability gap.
It’s an architectural one.

The constraint isn’t in the work.
It’s in how meaning gets made.

A team can move fast and still wait.

The work gets done.
Decisions get documented.
Arguments are laid out clearly.

And yet, nothing quite moves without one signal.

Not approval.
Confirmation.

Does this fit?
Is this the version?

Everything looks complete.
But closure waits.

The faster the pace, the easier this becomes to miss.

Output stays strong.
Momentum feels real.

And the organisation leans on one place more than it appears.

Being needed for clarity doesn’t announce itself.

There’s no crisis.
No tension.
No visible blockage.

Just a steady pull.

A glance here.
A quick check there.
A moment to confirm direction.

It doesn’t interrupt the day.
It structures it.

Nothing breaks.
Nothing stalls.
Output stays high.

And over time, the organisation learns exactly where to look.

The founder bottleneck isn’t a flaw in leadership.

It shows up in companies that otherwise work.

The team is strong.
Execution is quick.
Systems are modern.

And still, deciding keeps returning to one place.

Not because someone insists on control.
Not because others can’t handle responsibility.

The business grows.
Revenue increases.
Performance stays solid.

And one person quietly holds the standard.

Nothing appears broken.

Movement just leans on one place more than it seems.

Dr. Helena Pleinert

Pleinert & Partner

Pleinert & Partner is a Swiss consultancy operating globally, helping clients compete in the market through  innovative people management. www.pleinertpartner.com

Managing Partner & CEO

United International Business Schools

UIBS and Pleinert & Partner cultivate a successful academia-business cooperation since many years; I and several others from my team team deliver courses at UIBS and also take part in research activities (mentoring theses), mainly at the MBA and PhD levels. I am also a Member of the Academic Council of UIBS.

Lecturer, Member of the Academic Council

My team and I accelerate high performance teams.

Good people management is tthe most powerful lever for performance - we help our clients find their own custom, strategic model.

We do so either as advisors, hands on in projects or as senior fractional resources. And with passion for people management!

www.pleinertpartner.com

Managing Partner

Pleinert & Partner is a Swiss consultancy operating globally, helping clients compete in the market through best practice and innovative people management. The quality of people management is the most powerful lever for increasing revenues, profits and supporting factors such as reputation.

Intercultural leadership competencies are more important than ever, in established as well as new forms of organization.

At our recent Round Table moderated by Jerry Pico 🇺🇦 and hosted by myself, our guests Els Van de Water and Prof. Jillaine Farrar (Schmidhauser) discussed the challenges of building intercultural leadership skills. 

Each also shared the leadership models they prefer to work with, and each of us opened up about our personal experience and learning.

In this clip (link to the full recording in the comments) Els points out how awareness and the refining of intercultural sensibility are foundations of intercultural success.

Many thanks again to our guests and moderator!

Providing rocket fuel for people leaders: evidence based models and methods to unleash the full potential of organizations

Looking forward to moderating and discussing with Dr. Moana Monnier and Rea Haldemann!

Dr. Moana Monnier and Rea Haldemann, both of HSLU, discuss why social-emotional intelligence, competencies and skills are key to successful virtual collaboration. They explore how a metalocal mindset, i.e. understanding presence to be primarily social, not physical, helps us shape communication and collaboration in virtual and hybrid workspaces. Dr. Moana Monnier and Rea Haldemann are also the co-authors of the contribution ‘Future Skills and the Metalocal Mindset’ in our metabook ‘The Metalocal Mindset’ (https://lnkd.in/ebu3ifjP)

Hybride Arbeit ist fester Bestandteil der neuen Arbeitswelt und bietet viele Vorteile, für Unternehmen genauso wie für Mitarbeitende, und nicht zuletzt: für die Umwelt.

Dies vorausgesetzt, dass sie richtig angegangen wird! Die Auswahl geeigneter Technologien ist eine notwendige, aber nicht hinreichende Bedingung. Noch wichtiger sind der richtige Mindset und z.B. eine gut durchdachte digitale Etiquette.

Um hier ein evidenzbasiertes Instrumentarium zur Optimierung hybrider Führung zu erstellen haben wir mit einem Forscherteam unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Ingo Stolz von der HSLU, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts im Rahmen eines Innosuisse Projektes zusammen gearbeitet. Das Projekt wurde 2025 erfolgreich abgeschlossen.

In diesem Artikel fasst Rea Haldemann von der HSLU einige der wichtigsten Erkenntnisse zusammen. Vielen Dank Rea Haldemann und danke allen Co-Autoren Prof. Dr. Ingo Stolz, Dr. Moana Monnier und Myrto Zehnder 🦅

Und wer Fragen zur praktischen Umsetzung mit dem entwickelten Instrumentarium hat - gerne DM an mich Dr. Helena Pleinert

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