The Agreement Every Board and CEO Should Make

Here's a document that eliminates a common stressor between CEOs and boards

When there is tension between a CEO and their board around decision making, the issue is almost never the content of the decisions. Usually, it’s ambiguity about who makes the decisions in the first place.

This ambiguity can drive CEOs into one of two failure modes. They might check with the board on every little thing, slowing the company down and signaling insecurity. Or they might act unilaterally on issues the board expects to weigh in on, eroding trust with the group that holds the CEO’s career in its hands.

I’ve sat on both sides of this table for a long time now, as a CEO reporting up, and as a board member watching someone else navigate it. And in so many companies, the real rules of engagement between CEO and board exist nowhere except in memory and supposition. Ask a CEO how much they can spend without checking with the board, and you will likely get a pause before you get a number. Ask one of their directors the same question and you may get a different number.

The governance …