Leadership Insights
From Value Creation To Compliance: How Boards Lead Through Uncertainty
6 min read
Boards can no longer rely on compliance alone to fulfil stakeholders’ expectations. In an era of uncertainty, their true value lies in becoming strategic partners who help executives create clarity, resilience and long-term growth.
In a world of volatility, CEOs are grappling with challenges that extend far beyond the day-to-day operations. They must make decisions in an environment shaped by geopolitical tension, rapid technological-based disruption, and rapidly shifting investor expectations.
Against this backdrop, boards are under growing scrutiny. Their cost is substantial and shareholders increasingly expect more return than governance alone.
They expect boards to provide clarity, challenge and critical direction at the moments when the organisation’s leadership is being tested the most.
Beyond Compliance: Why Oversight Alone Falls Short
Traditionally, boards have focused on compliance, risk oversight and safeguarding reputation. These are vital responsibilities, but in a world defined by uncertainty, this is no longer sufficient.
A 2025 McKinsey global survey on governance, risk, and compliance found that while most organisations continue to prioritise regulatory protections, some high-performing boards are now moving beyond them with smarter, more effective approaches.
The message is clear: oversight is a given but alone will not help the executives create resilience or value. Boards must step forward as active partners in shaping and being assured of next level success outcomes.
The Gap Between Executive and Board Performance
Executive teams are judged relentlessly on value creation. Metrics such as revenue growth, EBITDA margins and long-term strategic execution dominate performance scorecards, with incentives tied directly to these next level outcomes.
Yet many boards remain behind the curve. A recent Harvard governance study revealed that while 85% of directors identify strategic planning as their board’s top priority, only 56% believe they consistently deliver on growth. This highlights a worrying perception gap that risks undermining the board’s credibility with executives and investors.
This disconnect creates a dangerous imbalance. As executives are running ahead, boards can be perceived as running from behind rather than bringing the broader perspectives and intel which helps secure a ‘winning’ position. At a time when strategy must be both agile and resilient, the board risks becoming irrelevant to future performance.
The Cost of Underperformance
The financial cost of maintaining a board is only part of the equation. The true cost of underperformance lies in missed opportunities, slower decision-making, and erosion of shareholder value.
Poorly performing boards weaken confidence with stakeholders, leaving executives without the critical support they need when navigating uncertainty. High-performing boards, by contrast, correlate strongly with high-performing organisations.
Private equity provides a powerful example. The PE model depends on commercially astute boards that operate as partners to management. These boards focus relentlessly on growth, margins, and execution, helping their portfolio companies weather uncertainty and unlock upside potential.
Measuring What Matters: How Boards Can Demonstrate Value
One of the biggest missed opportunities is the lack of rigour in measuring board performance. CEOs and executives are held accountable through transparent scorecards, yet structured evaluations of board contribution remain inconsistent and often superficial.
To become value creators, surely boards must adopt similar disciplines. Their effectiveness can be assessed across dimensions such as strategic oversight, financial contribution, risk management, culture and stakeholder engagement.
Leading PE firms already track these outcomes with relentless focus to provide the challenge to public company boards to adopt similar practices, particularly when markets and stakeholders demand clarity in uncertain times.
Renewal And The Chair’s Role In Driving Change
Boards are overdue for renewal. While many directors are appointed through established networks or regulatory processes, there is increasing recognition of the need to bring in fresh perspectives.
In times of transformation, this is a critical weakness. Independent non-executive directors add value only when they combine impartial mindsets with commercial acumen, outside-in perspectives, and the courage to challenge assumptions and decisions.
At the centre of this renewal agenda is the Chair. With compensation packages often exceeding £400,000, Chairs must act as true stewards of value creation by the board.
That means building a high-performance culture within the boardroom, insisting on relevant metrics, and ensuring the board is having a multiplier impact on executive performance, not a drag on it.
From Risk Monitors to Strategic Co-Pilots
Boards must now embrace a new role as strategic co-pilots. This does not mean undermining management, but working alongside CEOs to explore, test and determine the future direction and resilience.
Effective boards ask the right strategic questions, stress-test leadership decisions, and ensure capital allocation reflects long-term priorities.
They champion innovation and maintain strategic orientation even under short-term pressure. In practice, this means actively helping executives to explore, review and monitor the risks that deliver upsides despite uncertainty. By doing so, boards provide the clarity and confidence that management values and to act decisively.
A Board Worth Paying For
The central question for every organisation is whether the board is delivering value beyond its cost.
In uncertain times, this question becomes even more pressing. Governance is necessary, but not sufficient. Shareholders, executives and broader key stakeholders all expect more.
The boards that rise to this challenge will distinguish themselves not by the meetings they hold or the reports they review, but by the clarity, challenge and leadership they bring when conditions are most volatile.
Boards that can confidently answer “yes” to the value creation question will strengthen their companies and secure their own relevance. Those that cannot will face increasing pressure for change.
Leading Through Uncertainty
In an era of constant uncertainty, boards must evolve from guardians of compliance to partners in leadership and value creation. That is how they will justify their cost, fulfil their responsibility and play their rightful and invaluable role in guiding organisations into the future.
Alongside the everyday demands of their organisations, today's leaders are facing obstacles and challenges on an unprecedented scale.
Our ‘Leading Through Uncertainty’ series explores how senior leaders manage continual complexity, ambiguity and transformation. In a world where change is the only constant, we spotlight the real-world, inspirational stories of leadership in uncertain times.
Explore our ‘Leading Through Uncertainty’ collection here.
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