How to Turn Your Board into a Strategic Multiplier

Many CEOs privately express the same frustration. Their board meets all legal obligations, passes the annual assessment and appears to function correctly on paper. Yet in practice, the boardroom fails to push strategy forward, skims the most difficult conversations and offers insufficient challenge or fresh thinking. The result is a governance structure that looks effective but does not contribute meaningfully to executive decision making or organisational transformation. 

PwC’s 2025 Annual Corporate Directors Survey found that 55% of directors believe at least one of their colleagues should be replaced. Yet the same survey shows that board self-assessment processes are widely regarded as ineffective, with many directors describing them as ‘check the box’ exercises. 

When the board technically performs but does not stretch thinking or elevate ambition, CEOs feel the strain first. They face a governance body that asks required questions and reviews and signs off reports but does not act as a strategic multiplier. 

When compliance masks underperformance 

Many boards score four out of five in their assessments not because they are high impact but simply because they are not outright dysfunctional. Directors meet the threshold for preparation and conduct without demonstrating real influence on strategy, succession, risk or long-term value creation. Executives often describe these dynamics as passive drag rather than active resistance. 

In PwC’s 2025 Board Effectiveness Survey of the C-suite, 93% of executives said at least one director should be replaced and 78% said two or more should go. Executives are not questioning fiduciary performance. They are questioning relevance, engagement and contribution. 

When a board is not truly aligned on how it creates value, a CEO experiences symptoms such as surface-level debates that avoid tension, difficulty gaining traction on transformation, misaligned expectations on risk appetite and rogue voices who influence dynamics without true accountability. These situations rarely create crisis. Instead, they erode performance gradually, and a board can settle into a state of comfortable patterns that they mistake for being well-functioning. 

Why many boards struggle to operate as teams 

The core issue lies in how boards are formed and led. Director appointments often focus on technical expertise such as cybersecurity or sustainability rather than on the ability to collaborate, challenge productively and contribute to team performance. Board processes tend to emphasise agenda flow and reporting rather than decision quality and shared ownership. There is frequently little alignment on how the board defines its mandate, who it serves or how it means to deliver value as a collective body. 

The absence of a clear operating model or board culture means directors rely on individual judgement about how to participate. That inconsistency is rarely addressed in annual reviews because self-assessments focus on processes, not on impact or relational effectiveness. 

A new lens: board performance as a strategic capability 

When boards are coached and aligned as leadership teams, they increase their strategic value significantly. Odgers’ Strategic Team Coaching framework, which has been applied within executive teams globally, has also been adapted to board contexts.  

It centres on five disciplines that reflect how high performing boards create value: 

1. The first discipline is clarity of impact mandate. This requires alignment on who the board serves, what its strategic purpose is and how it defines value beyond a fiduciary baseline.  
2. The second discipline is operating model, which shapes how the board makes decisions, leverages committees and builds trust in governance flows.  
3. The third discipline is board engagement, where directors intentionally draw on their diversity of thinking, create conditions for candid dialogue and demonstrate shared accountability.  
4. The fourth discipline is partner interests, which focuses on how the board brokers complex stakeholder expectations and reflects the wider ecosystem in its choices.  
5. The fifth discipline is purposeful learning, where the board regularly reflects, identifies capability gaps and evolves its ways of working to drive greater value. 

This shift moves boards from reviewing what has already been agreed to helping shape direction before decisions become locked. It normalises constructive tension, makes succession and CEO oversight more open and transparent, and ensures that risk conversations take place before crises materialise. 

What stronger boards do differently 

When a board operates as a high performing team, the CEO experiences deeper debate, more consistent challenge and more confident alignment. Strategy conversations begin earlier, allowing directors to weigh assumptions rather than scrutinise actions.  

AI, generative disruption and geopolitical risk become forward-looking topics rather than agenda items at year end. Stakeholder tensions are addressed through thoughtful judgement, not reactive positioning. The CEO is supported, stretched and held accountable within a trusted relationship rather than second guessed in hindsight. 

Directors themselves report greater fulfilment and impact when they are encouraged to engage as a team with a shared mandate. PwC’s data shows that directors who feel their board assessments are effective are also more confident in removing underperforming peers. 

What CEOs can do to unlock greater board value 

CEOs do not run the board, but they can influence how it operates. They can initiate a conversation about the board’s collective mandate. They can encourage a shift from static assessments to dynamic development.  

They can frame board effectiveness in terms of strategic contribution rather than process compliance. Most importantly, they can advocate for structured development and coaching that helps the board function as a cohesive, aligned and future-focused leadership body. 

Boards are not simply regulatory overseers. They are potential force multipliers in executive decision making. The difference lies in whether they are treated as a compliance mechanism or as a strategic asset. 

The question CEOs must now ask 

The annual assessment may say your board is performing well. But is it advancing your vision, strengthening decisions and accelerating value creation?  

Boards that only meet fiduciary standards are no longer enough in a climate of uncertainty, rapid AI adoption and rising stakeholder pressure. The most effective CEOs are shifting their boards from passive oversight to active strategic partnership by treating board performance as something that can be developed and expanded. 

The question is no longer whether your board is checking the governance boxes. The question is whether your board is a strategic multiplier.

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