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Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way
Is your firm’s board creating value—or destroying it?
Change is coming. Leadership at the top is being redefined as boards take a more active role in decisions that once belonged solely to the CEO. But for all the advantages of increased board engagement, it can create debilitating questions of authority and dangerous meddling in day-to-day operations. Directors need a new road map—for when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way.
Boardroom veterans Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, and Michael Useem advocate this new governance model—a sharp departure from what has been demanded by governance activists, raters, and regulators—and reveal the emerging practices that are defining shared leadership of directors and executives. Based on personal interviews and the authors’ broad and deep experience working with executives and directors from dozens of the world’s largest firms, including Apple, Boeing, Ford, Infosys, and Lenovo, Boards That Lead tells the inside story behind the successes and pitfalls of this new leadership model and explains how to:
• Define the central idea of the company
• Ensure that the right CEO is in place and potential successors are identified
• Recruit directors who add value
• Root out board dysfunction
• Select a board leader who deftly bridges the divide between management and the board
• Set a high bar on ethics and risk
With a total of eighteen checklists that will transform board directors from monitors to leaders, Charan, Carey, and Useem provide a smart and practical guide for businesspeople everywhere—whether they occupy the boardroom or the C-suite.
Change is coming. Leadership at the top is being redefined as boards take a more active role in decisions that once belonged solely to the CEO. But for all the advantages of increased board engagement, it can create debilitating questions of authority and dangerous meddling in day-to-day operations. Directors need a new road map—for when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way.
Boardroom veterans Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, and Michael Useem advocate this new governance model—a sharp departure from what has been demanded by governance activists, raters, and regulators—and reveal the emerging practices that are defining shared leadership of directors and executives. Based on personal interviews and the authors’ broad and deep experience working with executives and directors from dozens of the world’s largest firms, including Apple, Boeing, Ford, Infosys, and Lenovo, Boards That Lead tells the inside story behind the successes and pitfalls of this new leadership model and explains how to:
• Define the central idea of the company
• Ensure that the right CEO is in place and potential successors are identified
• Recruit directors who add value
• Root out board dysfunction
• Select a board leader who deftly bridges the divide between management and the board
• Set a high bar on ethics and risk
With a total of eighteen checklists that will transform board directors from monitors to leaders, Charan, Carey, and Useem provide a smart and practical guide for businesspeople everywhere—whether they occupy the boardroom or the C-suite.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published November 19, 2013
114 people are currently reading
598 people want to read
About the author
Ram Charan
149 books214 followersRam Charan is an Indian-American business consultant, speaker, and writer resident in Dallas, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 7, 2018
I thought this book would be useful for my new post as a board member, but unfortunately it wasnt. The first few chapters were good, but then it became a bit boring and not relevant.
I might go back to it in the future and see what I have missed.
I might go back to it in the future and see what I have missed.
July 23, 2020
Great stories in the book, but not easy to use in real life.
October 25, 2022
Published in 2014 by Harvard Business School, this is an ambitious book. The scope is mostly S&P 500, large publicly listed companies in the United States. A good effort has been made to make connections/draw lessons from international companies as well (Asia, South America, Europe and Australia).
The book contains 18 extensive checklists across many crucial areas for boards. These serve to clarify and emphasise key points.
There are many case studies, drawing from both good/bad examples of corporate governance. The authors make use of their first-hand experience, and make use of their extensive contacts very effectively.
A key aspect of their framing is to delineate between the board’s role in monitoring compared to leadership. They describe a continuing role for oversight, but a significantly increased role for proactive value-adding.
The main conclusions and thesis have become rather conventional, and uncontested in listed company governance.
The book contains broad and deep descriptions that are relevant to modern corporate governance. It could be beneficial to a range of readers, who are seeking greater understanding about how boards are changing.
The book contains 18 extensive checklists across many crucial areas for boards. These serve to clarify and emphasise key points.
There are many case studies, drawing from both good/bad examples of corporate governance. The authors make use of their first-hand experience, and make use of their extensive contacts very effectively.
A key aspect of their framing is to delineate between the board’s role in monitoring compared to leadership. They describe a continuing role for oversight, but a significantly increased role for proactive value-adding.
The main conclusions and thesis have become rather conventional, and uncontested in listed company governance.
The book contains broad and deep descriptions that are relevant to modern corporate governance. It could be beneficial to a range of readers, who are seeking greater understanding about how boards are changing.
September 30, 2025
I read this book looking to glean knowledge on leading a board in the non-profit sector. There are some ideas and concepts that translate well for that. And there are areas that wouldn’t specifically translate. Overall it is well written and easy to read.
February 13, 2018
Charon, Carey, and Useem document common characteristics of highly effective and dysfunctional boards in this study. From a business standpoint, this is a well researched and concise book, and contains an excellent mix of case study and summary. Very practical for board members or those interacting with them are the checklists included at the end of each chapter as well.
See my other reviews here!
See my other reviews here!
March 17, 2023
Excellent advice for members of boards.
October 18, 2023
Overall, it was helpful to read. However, the book feels quite dated and repeats the same ideas far too many times.
February 26, 2016
If you are a Board member, or an executive who works closely with a Board, this book is a must-read.
Business leaders, advisers, directors, and teachers, this trio has crafted a thoughtful prescription for Board members and management to know “when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way”! They cite a wealth of real-life experiences, complemented with their own in-depth interviews of industry leaders, to support their novel approach. While the companies cited, international in scope and large in scale, are all for-profit, there is a wealth of wisdom to be found here for non-profit boards and executives, including our own research institutes.
The chapters flow easily and logically, laying the foundations for Board responsibility and obligations, describing recent changes in the legal and regulatory environment, and how those changes call for a fresh view of shared management between the Board and management executives. They reinforce their new approach with concrete examples of successes, and failures, indicating superior performance or, in the case of failures, opportunities for improvement.
Many of the prescriptive ideas will ring familiar:
•Defining Board leadership decisions (and excluding meddling and micro-management);
•Defining the “Central Idea” (the essence of the organization’s mission);
•Recruiting Directors who add value;
•Clarifying the role of, and selecting, the Lead Director;
•Assessing Board performance and dealing with nonperforming directors;
•Making succession planning an integral and recurring component of the Board agenda;
•Partnering with the CEO and assessing his/her performance;
•Spotting, catching, or exiting a failing CEO;
•Assessing and managing risk
My favorite aspect of the book is found in its many practical checklists – a guide to “asking all the right questions”!
Business leaders, advisers, directors, and teachers, this trio has crafted a thoughtful prescription for Board members and management to know “when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way”! They cite a wealth of real-life experiences, complemented with their own in-depth interviews of industry leaders, to support their novel approach. While the companies cited, international in scope and large in scale, are all for-profit, there is a wealth of wisdom to be found here for non-profit boards and executives, including our own research institutes.
The chapters flow easily and logically, laying the foundations for Board responsibility and obligations, describing recent changes in the legal and regulatory environment, and how those changes call for a fresh view of shared management between the Board and management executives. They reinforce their new approach with concrete examples of successes, and failures, indicating superior performance or, in the case of failures, opportunities for improvement.
Many of the prescriptive ideas will ring familiar:
•Defining Board leadership decisions (and excluding meddling and micro-management);
•Defining the “Central Idea” (the essence of the organization’s mission);
•Recruiting Directors who add value;
•Clarifying the role of, and selecting, the Lead Director;
•Assessing Board performance and dealing with nonperforming directors;
•Making succession planning an integral and recurring component of the Board agenda;
•Partnering with the CEO and assessing his/her performance;
•Spotting, catching, or exiting a failing CEO;
•Assessing and managing risk
My favorite aspect of the book is found in its many practical checklists – a guide to “asking all the right questions”!
January 15, 2014
Read my full review: http://bit.ly/KiY41A
My opinion: This book is an absolute winner and another example of why Ram Charan is one of my favorite business writers.
Mr. Charan wrote Boards That Lead in a CONCISE case study/example format with important take-aways at the end of each chapter to stress what needs to be ingrained in the reader's head. Since this is a common format of his, he is one of the business writers that I learn most from.
One criticism that I must admit that I had of the book is that Mr. Charan mainly focused on very large, Fortune 500 companies. I would have liked to have seen some smaller/mid sized companies included in the case studies. Also, a focus on different sectors and industries would have been appreciated, such as non-profit, healthcare.
Nevertheless, this book is in my business book pile to purchase. I think that there was enough to garner from the book that a "best practices" approach would apply.
My opinion: This book is an absolute winner and another example of why Ram Charan is one of my favorite business writers.
Mr. Charan wrote Boards That Lead in a CONCISE case study/example format with important take-aways at the end of each chapter to stress what needs to be ingrained in the reader's head. Since this is a common format of his, he is one of the business writers that I learn most from.
One criticism that I must admit that I had of the book is that Mr. Charan mainly focused on very large, Fortune 500 companies. I would have liked to have seen some smaller/mid sized companies included in the case studies. Also, a focus on different sectors and industries would have been appreciated, such as non-profit, healthcare.
Nevertheless, this book is in my business book pile to purchase. I think that there was enough to garner from the book that a "best practices" approach would apply.
December 20, 2015
It could also be called "Stories from the Enterprise Battlefield", though the writers themselves are aware of this too. The book comes across as really based on a lot lessons learned (first hand or others' stories), which hint that it should be an useful resource for others too. Despite the checklists included, it feels that not much actionable advice is given. This is surely in part that I as a reader don't have the practical experience of working with boards on that level, and for others it might be more useful. Might, but not convinced. The writers' storytelling is excellent, while making the book into a toolkit the complexity of the problem got the best of them.
June 2, 2014
Solidly interesting although suffers from excessive repetition of the tag line and generally making stronger statements than are justified by the case studies.
July 6, 2014
Good book for effective boards. Lot of good analysis and some takeaway checklists and ideas.
February 22, 2016
good perspective and balance
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews