Spencer Stuart’s “Closing the Confidence Gap: Why the Board-CEO Relationship Needs a Reset” provides insights on the board-CEO working relationship based on a late 2024 survey of 787 CEOs and 1,694 directors in Spencer Stuart’s network across all major industry sectors.
Among the key takeaways are the understanding of what CEOs want from boards in the way of support and the gap between CEOs’ and directors’ perceptions of current board support.
Types of support desired by CEOs
- Thought partnership—60% of CEOs want directors to act as thought partners to help them solve complex problems.
- Personal support—Half of CEOs want to feel the board has their back even in challenging situations.
- Expertise—53% of CEOs want board members with subject matter expertise relevant to the challenges the company is navigating.
- Strategic discussion—More than 40% of CEOs and directors want more meeting time devoted to strategy.
- Expertise—CEOs and boards were aligned on the type of board expertise that’s becoming more important for the future, with technology/digital/AI, cybersecurity, and regulatory and government expertise considered vital to add in the next three years.
Perception gaps across areas of support consistently show that directors believe they are providing more support to their CEOs than that perceived by CEOs.
The resource offers suggestions to directors and CEOs to enhance the board-CEO working relationship and associated performance of the business.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!