How to Close the CEO-Board Trust Gap

Are we back to the early days of Covid when it comes to governance?

The rapid disruptions to the U.S. economy and industry regulations in 2025 have opened the question of whether associations need to be in “crisis mode” in response, and what role boards need to play. There’s some evidence that, even late last year, CEOs and boards weren’t on the same page about that. Earlier this week, Reuters reported on a survey from the consultancy Spencer Stuart that found that just 22 percent of corporate executives felt “their boards were providing the help they needed in an increasingly uncertain business environment  (opens in a new tab).”

Directors are in a better mood about things: 43 percent of board members say they’re providing their CEOs with adequate support  (opens in a new tab). But that’s not an especially high number itself, and plainly there’s a gap in perceptions about how well boards are fulfilling their roles. CEOs, for their part, seem to think board members need to step up their game, much as they did in the early days of the pandemic. One anonymous executive quoted in the report said, “In normal times, the quarterly advisory nature of boards is just fine, but in volatile times … it would be great to feel like your board is operating with an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ attitude.”

Board members shouldn’t be defined by their knowledge of the crisis du jour—they’re in a governance role, preferably, because they have the skill to develop a long-term strategy for the organization. But long-term strategic thinking also requires an understanding of more immediate risks and threats to the organization, and they can be meaningful partners to the CEO as they determine how to respond to disruption.

The good news is that both CEOs and directors welcome that kind of participation: According to the Spencer Stuart survey, 60 percent of CEOs want their boards to serve as “thought partners” when it comes to “solving complex problems in a changing business environment,” and 80 percent of directors say they should play that role as well. 

How to do that? The report stresses the importance of clear communication: If the CEO is disappointed in how well the board is responding to challenges, the CEO has a responsibility to explain what role it ought to be playing. “The most natural time to define how the board and CEO will work together is at the outset of the relationship,” the report says. “However, most boards and CEOs don’t have this luxury, so it’s critical to set the expectation that this will happen regularly and not casually.”

But a CEO can’t just set an expectation and hope that the board steps up. A report earlier this year from the National Association of Corporate Directors found that boards are under more pressure to demonstrate subject-matter expertise to respond to challenges in a more narrow window than the three-to-five-year strategic plan. Leaders, then, need to ensure that they’re providing the assistance that those board members need to make effective and thoughtful decisions. CEOs might think that their boards are falling down on the job. But it’s the CEO’s job to help them do it better.