Mary Alice Duff's Linkedin Analytics

Scaling impact-driven work is hard — especially when the gap between vision and execution keeps widening. That’s where I come in. This spring, I’m opening space for fractional COO and strategic project leadership partnerships — ideal for nonprofits and impact-drive small businesses & startups navigating growth, change, or that familiar (and frustrating) feeling of “Why aren’t we moving faster?” For 10+ years, I’ve helped mission-driven teams: ✅ Lead critical initiatives — scoping, managing, and executing projects that lacked a natural internal owner. (One even spun off into its own business.) ✅ Strengthen teams — assessing organizational structures, rewriting roles, and building accountability systems so the right people own the right work. ✅ Operationalize values — turning culture from platitudes into clear behaviors, systems, and performance standards people feel daily. ✅ Upgrade systems — streamlining tools, communication, and workflows to boost efficiency — especially across remote and hybrid teams. If you’re a founder, CEO, or ED thinking: ✔️ “We’ve got the people, but we’re still not getting it done.” ✔️ “I need a right hand, not just a task-taker.” ✔️ “We’re ready to grow — but something’s stuck.” Let’s connect. I partner on a fractional, freelance, or project basis, working remotely from southern France (with my passport ready to travel when needed). 👉 Know someone who needs this? Referrals and introductions are deeply appreciated. #FractionalCOO #Leadership #StrategicExecution #NonprofitLeadership #SmallBusiness #RemoteWork #Operations #CultureBuilding

Let’s say the quiet part out loud: You’re not short on ideas. You’re short on time, clarity, and follow-through. So when a launch underperforms or cash flow dips, the instinct is: “We need a new idea.” Cue: brainstorm → scramble → rushed execution → underwhelming results → panic → shame → “That idea sucked.” But what if it wasn’t the idea at all? What if you never gave it the space, the plan, or the leadership it needed to work? I call this pattern the Idea Machine Panic Cycle. And it’s more common than you think. If any of this feels familiar, you’re not alone. And you’re not broken. You’re just running your ops like a brainstorm—and your team is le tired. 😴 💬 What’s the idea you rushed too fast? What would have happened if you had more time? More resources? More strategy behind the execution? In my Organizational Clarity Sprint this is just one of the typical problems I see with impact-driven orgs, but fear not! There's a fix. Check out the links in the comments for earlier posts on the Messy Org Archetypes and the Idea Machine. #nonprofit #NGO #mission #impact #management #leadership #strategy _________________________________ Hey! 👋 I'm Mary Alice, a Fractional COO, strategic project leader, and coach to high-impact orgs and the humans who run them. I help leaders clear the chaos, build systems, and rally teams to do the best work of their lives. 📬 DM me if you need a hand—or just want to talk shop. 💡 Follow + hit the bell to get more on ops, leadership & the future of work.

Everyone’s pitching in. No one’s leading. That’s not collaboration. That’s confusion. 👻 I see this in the NICEST of organizations. Truly. Smart, mission-driven people. Teams that care about each other. Founders who are intentionally rejecting extractive, top-down, megalomaniac-billionaire-style leadership. And I get it—I do. We’re all trying to unlearn systems that prioritize profit over people. But here's what happens when you swing too far the other way: No hierarchy → no clarity No ownership → no accountability All pitch in → nothing actually moves forward It sounds like: → “Let’s circle back.” → “We’re still figuring out who’s leading that.” → “We’re all kind of working on it together…” The vibe? ✨ Collaborative on the outside 😬 Quietly chaotic on the inside That’s the Ghost Org. No villains. Just a lack of structure that makes progress impossible. 🛠 Today’s post breaks down the Ghost Org—one of the 7 messy org archetypes I see inside high-impact orgs who are trying to do things differently. 👇 Swipe to see how it shows up—and how to build clarity without defaulting to hierarchy-for-hierarchy’s sake. 📩 DM me “ghost” if your org is starting to feel like a group project with no point person. 🧩 This post is part of my 7 Messy Org Archetypes series. 👀 Missed the intro? Link’s in the comments. 📚 Other archetypes + fixes are down there, too. #impact #nonprofit #ngo #mission #equity #management #leadership ____________________________ Hey! 👋 I’m Mary Alice. I’m a Fractional COO, strategic project leader, and coach to high-impact orgs and the humans who run them. I help leaders clear the chaos, build systems, and rally teams to do the best work of their lives. 📬 DM me if you need a hand—or just want to talk shop. 💡 Follow + hit the bell to get more on ops, leadership & the future of work.

This one’s personal. Because I was this person. I was the founder doing literally everything. Not because I was a control freak—but because I had to. I wasn’t sitting on a pile of cash. I couldn’t afford to outsource everything. So I invested where I had to (technical design, production)... …and tried to do the rest: → Brand → Marketing → Project management → Financials → Fundraising And in the early days? That’s what it took. But here’s the hard part: At some point, once you've managed to build a team, you have to let them work. If you’ve got an ops team of 4 and you’re still running payroll—ask yourself why. Is it fear of letting go? A lack of trust? Or maybe the hardest truth of all: You’re staying buried in the operational weeds… because the alternative is scarier. → Scared to step into real leadership → Scared to be the face of the brand → Scared of being seen, criticized, rejected → Scared to take up space and speak with conviction I get it. Truly, I do. But the overfunctioning founder—however well-intentioned—is a bottleneck. A barrier. A handbrake on your organization's potential for impact. 👇 Swipe to see how this shows up—and what to do if it’s you. ___________________ 🧩 This post is part of my 7 Messy Org Archetypes series. 👀 Missed the intro? Link’s in the comments. ___________________ Howdy! 🤠 I'm Mary Alice (not Mary, not Alice, Mary Alice). I help impact-driven founders and their teams do the best work of their lives as a fractional COO, strategic project lead and coach. Need a hand? DM me! #fractionalCOO #management #leadership #micromanagement #impact #ngo #nonprofit

Idea. Launch. Underwhelm. Panic. Shame. New idea. Repeat. Sound familiar? When I was running my sustainable apparel company, we had a saying: “We have no shortage of ideas.” New events. New product lines. New services. Always something. We had a talented, mission-driven team. We were scrappy, passionate and bursting with ideas—and under constant pressure: 🌀 Cash flow stress 🌀 The algorithm grind 🌀 The need to stay relevant So we lived in the Idea Machine Panic Cycle: “We need a new idea” → brainstorm → rush to execute → underwhelming results → “That idea sucked.” But here’s what I’ve learned: It wasn’t the idea. It was the lack of discipline behind it. And our results ($, impact, attention) would have been a hell of a whole lot more impressive if we had invested more in execution. Today, I’m breaking down the Idea Machine Org—one of the 7 messy org archetypes I help clients untangle in my Organizational Clarity Intensive. (For all archetypes, see the link in the comments for yesterday's post!) 👇 Swipe to see what it looks like—and how to fix it. Because you don’t need fewer ideas. You need better follow-through. 📩 DM me if your org is stuck in the cycle. Let’s break it—for good. #clarity #organizationalstructure #orgclarity #management #orgdev #strategy #nonprofit #impact ________________________________________ Hey! 👋 I'm Mary Alice, a Fractional COO, strategic project leader, and coach to high-impact orgs and the humans who run them. I help leaders clear the chaos, build systems, and rally teams to do the best work of their lives. 📬 DM me if you need a hand—or just want to talk shop. 💡 Follow + hit the bell to get more on ops, leadership & the future of work.

Why I’m Bullish on Fractional Leadership in the Nonprofit & High-Impact Space 🐂 1️⃣ Budgets are tight—impact matters more than ever. Funding cuts are everywhere. But sacrificing executive-level strategy shouldn’t be the answer. Fractional leadership lets you access seasoned talent—without the cost of benefits, payroll taxes, or full-time salaries. Pair that with remote work? Now you’re saving serious dollars and gaining flexibility. 2️⃣ AI is shifting the game—faster execution, more strategic brainpower. Tasks that once took hours—meeting summaries, drafting project plans, SOP and policy drafts, frameworks for multi-year financials—are now completed in a fraction of the time. With AI drafting templates, brainstorming ideas, and building spreadsheets, I’ve got a virtual assistant on call. That means less time in admin mode, more time leading, collaborating, and staying in my “zone of genius.” 3️⃣ Portfolio careers are rising—and that’s a good thing. Top talent isn’t looking for “one company for life” anymore. People are diversifying—spreading their skills across projects and sectors. It’s smart risk management and brings fresh perspectives to every table they sit at. 4️⃣ Most smaller orgs don’t need (and can’t afford) a full executive suite. If you’re running a $5M org or less, why carry the overhead of multiple full-time executives? Fractional leadership gets you the strategic horsepower where you need it—freeing up budget for your frontline teams. 5️⃣ Burnout is real. Fractional work helps protect your people. The nonprofit and social impact space is emotionally demanding. Fractional roles create breathing room—giving leaders space to recharge while still driving results. It’s a win-win for sustainability and sanity. 💭 The future of leadership is flexible, strategic, and human-centered. Fractional models are built for this moment. Are you seeing this happen in your organizations? What might be the pushback to adopting this model? Let me know in the comments! #fractionalCOO #nonprofit #ngo #ingo #remotework #portfoliocareer #highimpact #fractionalexec #fractional

If you’re the CEO or Executive Director still running operations… Ask yourself: Why? And is it helping — or holding you back? Over the course of my career I've seen it a dozen times. Brilliant, well-meaning leaders sucked into day-to-day ops. These folks seem to land in one of three buckets... 1️⃣ You're understaffed — and you know it. You need ops support but: 👉 You’re too busy to hire 👉 You think you can’t afford it Here’s the fix: 📌 Take one day off working IN the business. 📌 Write down every ops task you've been doing. Odds are… you’re staring at a 20+ hour/week job. Now price it out: ✅ If you hire ops support at $X/hour… ✅ How many hours (and how much brain space) does that buy back? ✅ What could YOU do with that time? → Secure a lucrative partnership? → Find new funding streams? → Build relationships with power players in your space? I’ll bet dollars to donuts — freeing up those 20 hours makes you money. 2️⃣ You don’t trust your team. If you hired and onboarded them — what’s missing? ✅ Do they know exactly what they’re responsible for? ✅ Are you direct about what you need — “I want X by Y date.” ✅ Do you give clear, specific feedback? Not “this isn’t right” but “here’s why it missed the mark.” Clarity and accountability builds trust. Micromanaging kills it. 3️⃣ You’re scared to step into your real job. And I say this completely judgment free as I have been in this exact same situation myself. For many leaders, the external stuff is terrifying. You run the risk of opening yourself up to rejection and criticism. You might do it wrong. You might f*ck it up. 📣 Speaking 💼 Pitching 💰 Fundraising 🤝 Building strategic partnerships All of it, can be terrifying. And so instead… you stay busy. You bury yourself in operations. Because ops feels safe. Familiar. Controllable. But when we do this we run the risk of the organizations and businesses we're responsible for, never reaching their full potential. If you’re always running the operations, you’re not leading — you’re managing. And no one — not your team, not your board, not the people you serve — hired you to stay small. The job is to step out. To build. To lead. Your mission depends on it. #fractionalCOO #nonprofit #ngo #highimpact #management #leadership _______________________________________________________ Hi 👋 I'm Mary Alice, I'm a fractional COO, strategic project leader and leadership coach for high-impact orgs and their leadership teams. I help leaders, founders and CEOs clear the chaos, build systems and rally high-performing teams to do the best work of their lives. I'm always happy to connect with others in the high-impact space

I’m the baby of five. I grew up in a loud, loving, chaotic home just outside Philly. I learned early how to read a room, calm the chaos, and get people moving in the same direction—by lunch. Turns out, that’s the same muscle I’ve used as a social worker, bartender, community organizer, fundraiser, Chief of Staff, founder, COO—and half a dozen side gigs I held down to pay the bills. I’ve led global teams across time zones, built companies from scratch, and navigated life as an immigrant in a country where I knew no one and didn’t speak the language. And through it all, one truth has stayed constant: 👉 People follow people. I was asked recently: What’s the most important skill for a Head of Ops or COO? Without hesitation: People leadership. You can have the most elegant systems. The slickest tech. The coolest product. A mission that makes people weep. But if you can’t lead people—really lead—you’ve got nothing. People follow leaders they trust. Leaders who listen. Who communicate clearly and consistently. Who rally them around something bigger than themselves. Who have their back. So if you’re hiring for ops leadership and burying “soft skills” at the bottom of the job description, do it at your own peril. Because as long as humans are running your company and serving other humans—every problem is a people problem. And if don't have someone on your team who knows how people tick? You’re dead in the water. 📸 of 3 of my 4 siblings. That's little MA in the lower lefthand corner. #softskills #management #leadership #fractional #remote #fractionalCOO ____________________ I'm Mary Alice, a fractional COO and strategic project leader for impact driven businesses and nonprofits. Always happy to connect with other impact-driven folks ☮️

Let’s talk about messy orgs. 🍝 Not the toxic ones and totally broken ones (that's a post for another day 🫠 ). Just the kind of messy that slows things down, burns people out, and leaves founders secretly thinking: “Why is this so much harder than it should be?” 🤦‍♀️ After 15+ years in ops and strategy with high-impact & mission-driven orgs, I started noticing the same patterns. The same stuckness. The same pain. So, I named them. 👇 In this carousel, I’m breaking down 7 messy org archetypes I see most often—each with its own strengths, struggles, and signature chaos moves. 👀 You might see your org in one of them. (Or… all of them, no judgment!) 💬 Feeling brave? Drop your archetype in the comments. 📩 And DM me if you're ready to clean it up. 📅 April + May spots are now open for my Organizational Clarity Intensive: A 4-week engagement to audit, untangle and reset your internal ops so your team can move forward. #management #leadership #organizationaldevelopment #consultant #NGO #nonprofit #ingo #highimpact #mission #founder _____________________________________ Hi! I'm Mary Alice, a fractional COO and strategic project leader for impact driven businesses and nonprofits. Always happy to connect with other impact-driven folks ☮️

Work is not a family. It’s a team. Stop confusing the two. I die a little inside every time I hear, “We’re a family here.” Because… have you met families? Even the best of them can be downright experts in dysfunction: 👉 The relative who still brings up that embarrassing antidote every damn Thanksgiving. 👉 The sibling who turns everything into a game of one-upman-ship. 👉 Passive-aggressiveness so masterful that you're questioning your sanity. (And yet, we love them). In families, there’s no hiring. No firing. No reassigning roles when things aren’t working. Boundaries? Good luck. Work? Work should be different. The best teams know that loyalty is earned, not assumed. They hold each other accountable, align around a mission, and move forward—without dragging personal baggage into every meeting. Here’s the real difference: In families, belonging is unconditional. On a team, it’s earned through performance. Families keep you for life—teams change players to stay competitive. Families tolerate dysfunction. High-performing teams address it—fast. Decisions in families are emotional. Great teams make them strategically. Family loyalty is assumed. Team loyalty is built through trust and results. When you run your company like a family, you inherit the worst parts—emotional decision-making, avoidance of hard conversations, blurred boundaries. Great teams? They celebrate wins, fix what’s broken, and get better—without taking it personally. At the end of the day, your team deserves clarity, purpose, and the freedom to grow—not forced loyalty dressed up as “family.” The beauty of a real team? You can care about each other and still make the tough calls—without the guilt trips. Have you seen the “we’re family” mindset backfire? Drop your stories below 👇 I know we’ve all got one! #fractionalCOO #management #leadership #nonprofit #workisnotafamily _____________________________________________ Hi 👋 I'm Mary Alice, I'm a fractional COO, strategic project leader and leadership coach for high-impact orgs and their leadership teams. I help leaders, founders and CEOs clear the chaos, build systems and rally high-performing teams to do the best work of their lives. I'm always happy to connect with others in the high-impact space!

A vacation (even one with this view) won't fix burnout. And here's why. Because it's not about time on/ time off, it's about disconnection. Real burnout—the kind that grinds people down, makes them question their careers, and keeps them up at night—goes much deeper. To be clear, working 50+ hours a week consistently isn’t okay. But unrelenting, vacation-won’t-fix-it burnout? That comes from disconnection. It’s what happens when the work people are accountable for doesn’t add up to anything meaningful. Imagine this: You’re working hard every day, and two weeks into a project, the goal changes again. The CEO pivots direction again. The product strategy shifts again. Your work isn’t being thrown out because it’s bad—it’s being thrown out because it’s suddenly irrelevant—again. Sound familiar? And over time, that cycle destroys purpose. And as human beings we thrive on purpose. Fixing burnout isn’t about offering more PTO, or pizza parties or town halls. The real fix? Get clear on your strategy. Stop the endless pivots. Make the connection between what your team does daily and the big picture so clear that it’s undeniable. Show people that their work matters. Prove that the time they spend away from their families matters. Remind them that their choice to work at your company over another one matters. If you can do that—if your team sees how their work moves the needle—even the occasional long hours or tough deadline won’t push them into burnout. They’ll rally because they know they’re building something real. If they don’t? If all they see is chaos, constant pivots, and a lack of direction? Burnout is inevitable. Burnout isn’t just about your team’s capacity—it’s about your clarity. Make the connections. Show the why. #leadership #management #fractionalCOO #operations #culture #burnout 📸 the city of Bonifacio on the island of Corsica, France _______________________________________________ Like my content? Be sure to click the bell in my profile so you're notified when I post 😉 _______________________________________________ Hi 👋 I'm Mary Alice, I'm a fractional COO, strategic project leader and leadership coach for high-impact orgs and their leadership teams. I help leaders, founders and CEOs clear the chaos, build systems and rally high-performing teams to do the best work of their lives. I'm always happy to connect with others in the high-impact space ✌