Every Growing Company Needs a Fixer
As companies scale, they face systemic coordination challenges that traditional hierarchies and formal processes simply can't handle.
I met my first fixer early in my career. His name was Jochen Kirchner, and his formal title was "Assistant to the CEO." But that designation barely captured what he actually did. When complex problems emerged that didn't fit neatly into any department's jurisdiction, Jochen was the person leadership called. When initiatives stalled because multiple teams couldn't align, he quietly stepped in to untangle the mess. He was the organizational equivalent of a Swiss Army knife—always ready, remarkably versatile, and surprisingly effective.
Working with hundreds of clients over the years, I've encountered other fixers. Their titles varied wildly—Chief of Staff, Head of Transformation, Strategic Initiatives Lead—but their core mission remained the same: tackle complex issues that fall between the cracks and make big changes happen, often working alone without large staffs or formal authority.
If you're a senior executive leading a growing organization, you likely need a fixer. You might already have one without realizing it. Or you might be wondering why everything feels harder than it should be, why problems persist longer than they ought to, and why you're constantly being dragged into operational weeds. The fixer could be the missing piece for your leadership puzzle.
The Coordination Crisis of Growth
The need for a fixer emerges predictably as organizations scale beyond what has become known as the Dunbar number. The Dunbar number suggests that humans can comfortably maintain meaningful relationships with around 150 individuals. Below this threshold, informal communication and relationships can handle most coordination challenges. Everyone knows everyone, information flows naturally, and problems get resolved through hallway conversations and quick decisions.
But as you grow beyond this point, organizational silos inevitably emerge. Departments develop their own languages, priorities, and success metrics. Engineering teams optimize for technical elegance while sales teams focus on customer demands. Operations emphasizes efficiency while marketing pursues growth opportunities. Each function becomes increasingly specialized and, paradoxically, increasingly isolated from the others.
This specialization creates"coordination gaps"—spaces between departments where problems fall and fester. A quality problem requires input from sales, support, engineering, and account management, but no single person owns the end-to-end resolution. A product launch needs seamless handoffs between development, marketing, sales, and operations, but the integration points become friction points. Process improvements span multiple functions, but each department optimizes only their piece of the puzzle.
Traditional hierarchical management struggles with these coordination gaps. Senior executives are often too removed from operational details to diagnose the root causes and conflicted by the existing incentive system. Middle managers lack the cross-functional authority to implement solutions. Project managers work within defined scopes and timelines, but many coordination challenges are ongoing, ambiguous, and don't fit neatly into project frameworks.
Enter the fixer.
The Anatomy of a Fixer
A fixer specializes in solving problems that don't fit neatly within existing organizational boundaries. They're the person you dispatch when there's a complex issue requiring navigation across multiple departments, stakeholders, or systems. But fixers are not just sophisticated firefighters—though they do move fast when needed.
What distinguishes fixers from other roles is their unique combination of characteristics:
They take ownership of problems without having formal authority over all the resources needed to solve them. Instead, they influence through relationships and expertise, building extensive internal networks and understanding not just what different people do, but how they think and what motivates them.
Fixers thrive in ambiguity. They're comfortable making judgment calls with incomplete information and excel in situations where the problem isn't clearly defined and normal processes don't apply. They're pragmatic about finding the path of least resistance to solutions, willing to work around bureaucratic obstacles when necessary while still respecting organizational structures.
Most importantly, fixers focus relentlessly on outcomes over process. They serve as organizational connective tissue, translating between departments that speak different languages and bridging gaps that formal structures inevitably create. They're the human equivalent of WD-40, reducing friction and getting stuck things moving again.
Signs You Need a Fixer
How do you know if your organization would benefit from a dedicated fixer? The symptoms are usually hiding in plain sight. Problems persist longer than they should, with issues bouncing between departments without clear resolution. You find yourself constantly pulled into operational details, mediating between functions that should be collaborating seamlessly.
Team morale dips because small problems never seem to get fully resolved, creating a sense that the organization can't execute effectively. Workarounds quietly multiply in every corner as people route around broken processes rather than fixing them. Customer issues require heroic efforts to resolve because they inevitably touch multiple systems and departments.
Perhaps most telling, everything feels harder than it should be. Simple changes require complex coordination. Straightforward initiatives bog down in inter-departmental negotiations. The gap between strategy and execution feels impossibly wide, and you're spending more time managing internal friction than focusing on external opportunities.
What to Look for in a Fixer
Fixers don't always come with polished credentials or fancy titles. Often, they've risen through the ranks and know where organizational friction exists because they've lived it. They've built credibility across functions through competence rather than hierarchy.
Look for someone with cross-functional credibility who can speak the languages of different departments. They should demonstrate a bias for action while avoiding chaos—able to move quickly but thoughtfully. Pattern recognition is crucial; experienced fixers can identify when a seemingly novel problem is actually a variation of something they've solved before.
The best fixers are comfortable operating in ambiguity but know when it's time to force clarity and decisions. They can diplomatically say, "This isn't working. Let's fix it," without creating defensiveness or territorial battles. You'll often find potential fixers in operations, support roles, or middle management—people who've made careers out of quietly getting things done.
Empowering Your Fixer for Success
You don't necessarily need to create a new organizational role. You might already have someone demonstrating fixer capabilities who simply needs recognition and empowerment. The key is providing them with the right positioning and support.
A fixer should report directly to the CEO, because the nature of cross-functional problems requires this level of organizational authority. To be effective, a fixer needs visibility into emerging issues and permission to act before problems escalate.
Shield your fixer from unnecessary politics so they can focus on outcomes rather than organizational gamesmanship. Encourage them to speak truth to power—they often see systemic issues that senior leaders miss because of their operational proximity. Give them license to operate like your organization's mechanic: no glory, but without them, nothing runs smoothly.
The Strategic Advantage
In an increasingly complex business environment, speed and coordination differentiate successful companies from struggling ones. Customers expect seamless experiences that require flawless internal coordination. Market opportunities demand rapid response across multiple functions. Competitive threats require organizational agility that formal hierarchies often can't deliver.
A capable fixer becomes a strategic asset, creating organizational resilience and responsiveness that compounds over time. They don't just solve individual problems—they identify and address the systemic issues that create problems in the first place. They build the relationship networks and process improvements that prevent future coordination failures.
Every leader needs someone who can step in when things go off the rails—someone who knows how to fix what's broken without drama or delay. That person might already be in your organization, quietly keeping things running, waiting to be seen, trusted, and unleashed.
Find your fixer. You'll wonder how you ever led without one.
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