The world remains a volatile place in 2023, as businesses emerge from the COVID era, contend with the impact of geopolitical uncertainty, grapple with the challenges of supply chain disruption and high inflation.
At this challenging time for boards the focus is on the pivotal role of the leader of the board – the chair or chairman – to help navigate the board through these uncertain times to business success.
However, the speed of external change requires an evolution in the role of the chair of the board to be an impactful leader and to ensure an effective board.
Working closely with boards and chairs has led us to identify how the characteristics that deliver chair effectiveness have evolved.
Time To Move Beyond The Traditional Board Hygiene
The old adage that a good chair runs a good meeting is now simply not enough. The most effective chairmen today manage board processes from meetings through agendas, papers and minutes, along with other board specific procedures.
The role demands the chair brings an ability to make sense of things, together with the courage and integrity to take and lead the board through tough decisions. For example, the decision to part company with the current CEO.
Furthermore, the chair should provide “air cover” where necessary, which means protecting the group from the individual and the individual from the group. For example, the chairman may step in and provide “air cover” to prevent an over eager board tearing apart a proposal from management which if presented now would be premature and half-baked, when management needs time to work on the proposal to get it right.
Role Clarity
Those chairs who are clear about their role are the most effective, particularly in understanding where their role stops and the CEO, as the leader of the business, begins. They should also know their responsibilities in ensuring the board delivers good governance and their function in any crisis.
As a priority, chairmen must have a very clear view of the value that they are going bring as the leader of the board, including their view of good performance and accountability. As a result, the move from a mindset of “director tenure” to one of individual director and board contribution needs to be led by the chair.
The Chair As A Leader: The Personal Characteristics Of Effective Chairs
Thoughts on the characteristics of effective chairs evolve with time and circumstance. Andrew Kakabadse and Ali Qassim Jawad have identified five key leadership intelligences in their 2019 book – The 5Q’s for thriving as a leader.
These five leadership intelligences addressed the need for contemporary leaders to bring:
Intellectual capability
Ethics (moral quotient)
The ability to use and gain influence (political quotient)
The ability to recover from setbacks (the resilience quotient)
Emotional intelligence
In our experience of working with effective chairmen in today’s environment three additional “intelligences” are demanded: agility, adaptability and the understanding of the practical, profitable application of digital technology to deliver better outcomes – the digital quotient.
It’s effective chairs that foster a culture of agility and adaptability on the board. This requires them to promote an entrepreneurial spirit both on the board, and beyond – with the help of the board – to the management and the wider workforce. This way the potential of directors and employees to provide new ideas to help take the business forward is unleashed.
Furthermore, chairs must bring to the board digital intelligence. Not only in the employment of digital technology in a virtual world of board meetings, portals and information flows, but more importantly by bringing a practical understanding of the profitable application of digital technology to business to deliver better outcomes and returns.