How do I step up to chair positions?

When I put this question to guests, the majority refer to great chairs they’ve learnt from. By modelling their behaviour, they have managed to transition from portfolio NEDs to portfolio chairs.  

Below, we aggregate skills, characteristics and tactics common to the best chairs. If you start demonstrating these in board meetings and interviews, it’s a clear signal that you’re ready to take on the position.  

Encourage collective assumption-making   

“The information gap is a major problem for boards. In any situation, you will never ever have all the information, so you need to make some assumptions. The problem is that assumptions are made by me and you without articulating them. So we operate under different assumptions. But on good boards, it's the other way around. We make those assumptions collectively. We don't know what the exchange rate is going to be, but collectively we made an assumption that it is going to be [X].” Professor Stanislav Shekshnia, professor at INSEAD, where he runs board development programs, Chair of TechnoEnergy AG

Know what kind of CEO you want and how to find them 

“Boards and HR departments love to reinvent the wheel every year, but fundamentally, you want CEOs who are smart, driven and honest … How do you assess that? Reputation. For honesty, talk to people who have worked with them. For drive and intelligence, use past performance and psychometric testing. Interviews are over-rated … you don’t need them at all.” Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, UCL & Columbia Professor, Deeper Signals Co-Founder

Be clear on the respective roles of chair and CEO 

"One of the things that's really important in that CEO-chair relationship is to be honest with each other and make sure that, if one is treading on the other's toes, you're very clear and able to give that feedback. I can say, ‘Rupert, I need you to focus on your role as chair, and I'm going to lead in this area.’ And he does the same with me. That’s what makes for a really healthy and complementary relationship in the boardroom." Rain Newton Smith, Confederation of British Industry (CBI) CEO

Take a position on how execs and non-execs should collaborate on strategy 

The worst-case scenario is that execs want to add value by creating the perfect strategy; non-execs, by picking holes in it. “The way you get value is not coming to the board and saying, 'here’s our strategy. Please say yes.’ You’re going to get nothing of value. Everyone will be irritated. You want the board along for the whole journey, starting with what problem are we trying to solve with this strategy shift.” Professor Roger Martin, former Thinkers50 No.1 management thinker globally, Author of Play to Win: How Strategy Really Works  

Be the person the CEO calls 

“CEOs need someone they can trust, who they can talk to about difficult things. I always have a weekly call with my CEO. It's unscripted. There's no agenda. There are no pieces of paper. It's just, ‘hey, what's on your mind? What's on my mind?’ That ability to be a thought partner for the CEO is critical.” Vindi Banga, Chair of Marie Curie, UK Government Investments & Imperial College London 

Create an enjoyable board culture 

"This new board was the most dysfunctional thing I've ever seen. And it took me about 18 months after I became the chair, mostly by showing everyone respect. That doesn't mean being uncritical. But making the meetings more enjoyable. There's a time for humour as well as a time for the dead-straight stuff. Having the board come to my house for Christmas dinner …  you really do have to think about this very hard … you need good play as well as good work." Sir Peter Bazalgette, former/Chair of LoveCrafts & ITV, SID at Saga

Tailor your approach to the CEO 

"A lot of what makes a good chair is understanding how your particular CEO works. I have some CEOs with whom I can have a really direct conversation: 'I don't understand the logic. I don't see how we get from A to B.' With other CEOs I work with, I'd never get to the point if I tried to have that kind of conversation. So I have to approach the problem less directly." Kate Swann, Chair at Moonpig, Beijer Ref, Parques Reunidos and IVC Evidensia, former WH Smith CEO

Don’t issue instructions 

"One of the absolute classic things that goes wrong is when the chair forgets they're not running the company and oversteps and starts to issue instructions. And that just confuses other members of the management team because then they're not quite sure what the power structure is and who the boss is." Roger Parry CBE, former/Chair at YouGov, Oxford Metrics, Future Publishing, Johnston Press and Shakespeare's Globe

Spend time in the business to assess culture 

"I spend a lot of time in the companies which I chair - in factories, stores and warehouses. These aren't royal visits. I usually try to go either unaccompanied or with somebody who is very close to the day-to-day operations. So if I'm visiting a Tesco store, I will try and do it with the regional manager rather than the CEO.” Gerry Murphy, Chair at Tesco and Burberry, Trustee at The Burberry Foundation, Senior Advisor at Perella Weinberg Partners 

Hold back on answers 

“I think I've got better at listening ... When you're chair, sometimes it's pretty obvious what the correct answer to a discussion question is ... it's A rather than B. But actually, if you deny others the opportunity to have their say, they end up feeling frustrated. So sometimes you've got to sit on your hands and let the discussion play out. ” John Allan CBE, Co-Founder at J&A Mentoring Partners, former Chair at Tesco and board member at Barratt Developments, Imperial College London and Dixons Retail 

Focus the board's time on what truly matters 

"The first most important one for me is the importance of focusing boards' time and attention on the top five things that matter, the 80/20 rule, however you want to express it. But you've got to be absolutely ruthless about saying, are we spending the right amount of time on the right things?" Sir Ian Cheshire, Chair of Land Securities Group and Aspire Healthcare Group, former Chair of Channel 4 and Barclays Bank UK

Set rules of the road from the start 

"Boards can quickly become value destructive, unpleasant and stressful things to have to deal with. And so I wanted to try and head that off at the pass. When we formed our board, Sasha and I just did a very simple one pager slide - our rules of the road. We laid out the things that we'd seen go wrong in other boards, and we wanted to try and preempt that and make our expectations really clear." Tessa Clarke, Co-founder and CEO of Olio, Venture Partner at Mustard Seed MACS

Guide consensus. Don’t dominate the discussion.

 "As the chair, that balance between expressing your opinion as the chairperson versus facilitating the expression of others' opinions is key. You have to make sure your opinion doesn't get overweighted in the discussion. Your opinion as a chairperson matters more in the context of reaching consensus and resolution than as a singular expression of view. Your job should be to gather the opinions from around the table and work towards consensus." Andrew Tyler, Chair of Ainscough Crane Hire and multiple private market businesses, founding partner of Ancient Horse Limited

Ask the board upfront what role they want you to play as chair - neutral facilitator or active participant 

"My organisations all want slightly different things from their chair. Some want me to be a neutral facilitator and hold back on my personal views. They want that safe space held. Others would say, why would we not tap into the expertise and experience you've got from elsewhere? Knowing how and when to play that, and being explicit with colleagues about what role it is they want you to play, is not something I'd anticipated as a chair. And it's something I've now learned to do." Sarah Flannigan, Chair of Bionic, Yeo Valley, Riverford Organic Farmers and Sawdays, Senior Advisor at OMERS Private Equity