For chief executives, one of the most valuable—and valued—roles that a board can play is to provide counsel and mentorship. Responsibility for leading a large organisation is, in fact, a lonely job and chief executives often have few people to turn to for candid and thoughtful advice. This suggests not only that the board must possess the experience, perspective and wisdom that would be useful to the chief executive but that the relationship between them needs to be underpinned by trust and mutual respect
