Discover the journey of Maiya Victoria Sanchez Singam, an international operational leader and fractional leadership expert, and learn how she transforms organizational chaos into scalable and efficient systems.
Maiya Victoria Sanchez Singam is an international operational leader, known for her ability to transform organizational chaos into clear, efficient, and scalable systems. With extensive experience in building businesses, optimizing processes, and coordinating teams across multiple continents, she has become one of the strong voices of modern fractional leadership.
Fractional Insider: How was your transition from a traditional career to fractional leadership/consulting?
Maiya Victoria: Honestly, it didn’t feel like a “transition.” It felt like a return to who I’ve always been. I’ve built businesses, turned chaos into clarity and led teams across continents long before I ever heard the word “fractional.” What changed was simply the structure. Instead of being tied to one company, I realised I could bring the same operational firepower to multiple founders who desperately needed it.
The moment I stopped fitting myself into job titles and started operating the way I naturally lead, everything aligned.
- Fractional Insider: What attracted you most to this model, and what challenges did it bring?
Maiya Victoria: The freedom to operate at my highest level, that’s the biggest draw. Fractional work gives me the ability to enter a business, diagnose what’s broken, build the system, empower the team and move. It’s high-impact, fast-paced and deeply creative.
The challenge? Not everyone is ready for the truth. I’m brought in to fix things, not to sugarcoat them and some founders aren’t prepared to face what’s really holding them back. The work demands emotional maturity on both sides.
- Fractional Insider: How do you choose the projects and clients you work with?
Maiya Victoria: I look for founders who are coachable, self-aware and hungry for growth. I don’t work with people who want a magician, I work with people who want a partner.
If a founder cares more about being right than scaling, I’m not the right fit. If they’re committed to the vision, the numbers and their people.. we’ll build something powerful together.
- Fractional Insider: Tell us about a moment when you had a major impact as a fractional leader.
Maiya Victoria: One of my favourite examples is stepping into a company that was drowning in inefficiency which also translates to low ROI. no systems, no accountability, constant fire-fighting.
In three months, we built a full operational architecture: SOPs, dashboards, hiring funnels, communication rhythms, performance structures and had everything aligned. The founder went from overwhelm to clarity, the team started performing as an actual team and the business finally became scalable. Strategy is a key factor here as well, hiring and building the company in phases to not overwhelm any pillars.
Moments like that remind me why I do this. Structure creates freedom.
- Fractional Insider: What are the main differences between being a full-time executive and a fractional one?
Maiya Victoria: As a full-time executive, you are part of the internal machinery. Your scope is broad, but your speed is tied to the organisation’s internal politics and pace.
As a fractional leader, you’re brought in to cut through the noise. Your mandate is sharp: fix, accelerate, stabilise. There’s less bureaucracy, fewer blind spots and a lot more truth.
Fractional work requires stronger boundaries, sharper strategy and a higher level of trust.
- Fractional Insider: How do you explain the value of a fractional leader to a skeptical CEO?
Maiya Victoria: I tell them this:
“You don’t need another pair of hands. You need a second brain.”
A fractional leader gives you executive-level thinking without the full-time cost, fast implementation without the burnout and objective decision-making without internal bias.
Most companies don’t fail because the founder lacks passion, they fail because the operational structure can’t support the vision. That’s where fractionals change everything.
- Fractional Insider: What are the most common mistakes companies make when working with fractionals?
Maiya Victoria: Mistake #1: Treating a fractional like a part-time employee.
Mistake #2: Expecting results without providing access, authority or clear decision ownership.
Mistake #3: Bringing in a fractional too late, when the house is already on fire.
Fractionals are strategic partners. If you treat them like task-doers, you’ll miss the transformation they can bring.
- Fractional Insider: How do you see this career model evolving in the coming years?
Maiya Victoria: The world is moving toward specialised, flexible, high-performance leadership. Fractional work will become the new normal, especially for companies between €1M–€20M who need senior intelligence but can’t justify or don’t need a full-time executive yet.
We’ll see more micro-teams, more hybrid models, and more founders building portfolio careers instead of climbing traditional corporate ladders.
- Fractional Insider: What advice would you give to a senior professional considering becoming fractional?
Maiya Victoria: Know your value. You’re not selling hours, you’re selling outcomes and your experience.
Leave behind the corporate conditioning that teaches you to minimise yourself.
build a clear method, not just a list of services. Founders don’t buy time: they buy certainty, clarity and transformation.
The moment you operate like a business and not like an employee, everything shifts.
Through her experience and strategic approach, Maiya Victoria Sanchez Singam continues to redefine fractional leadership, showing that structure, clarity, and strategic partnership can completely transform how companies grow and perform.
