What I See New CEOs Get Right—And Wrong—With Their Board Chair

Many first-time CEOs walk into the boardroom assuming they’re dealing with one collective view. It’s a natural instinct. After all, the board votes as one. But in reality, you’re engaging a group of seasoned leaders, each carrying their own track record, risk appetite, and concerns about what could go wrong.

Some will be looking for momentum. Others will be scanning for missteps. What feels like mixed signals often isn’t dysfunction—it’s diversity of perspective. Amid that complexity, one relationship carries a disproportionate weight: your relationship with the board chair.

It’s easy to overlook this relationship, especially in your first year. You’re focused on the business—strategy, performance, building the team, making the right calls. The chair can feel like just one more meeting in an already full calendar.

But when you don’t invest in this relationship, the risks can show up fast. You may walk into board meetings thinking you have support, only to realize concerns have been building without you knowing. Small misunderstandings can turn into bigger doubts about your judgment. Instead of spending your time shaping decisions, you find yourself explaining or defending them. And once confidence starts to slip, it’s hard to win back.

This isn’t about managing optics. It’s about making sure the person who most influences how the board sees you fully understands your thinking—and trusts it.

When the CEO-chair relationship goes right (and wrong)

When your CEO–chair relationship is working well, the chair understands not just what you are proposing—but why. That allows them to engage with greater clarity, with discussions shifting from scrutinizing your decisions to strengthening your overall strategy. This creates the space for you to think and act boldly rather than defensively.

When your relationship is strained, problems soon surface and can escalate quickly. A chair who feels out of the loop may begin to over-interpret board sentiment or intervene too late—or too forcefully. Questions multiply, confidence erodes, and you start to operate with caution rather than conviction. Over time, this tension shows up across the organization in slower decision-making, blurred priorities, and rising leadership turnover.

The stakes are high. According to our Global CEO Turnover Index, in Q1–Q3 2025, 22.8% of outgoing CEOs had been in role for less than a year. While CEO exits are rarely driven by a single factor, in my experience advising boards and CEOs, early breakdowns in chair alignment are a common accelerant. Leaders are assessed, and sometimes exited, before they’ve had the chance to lead.

The difference between longevity and a premature exit rarely comes down to raw capability. It comes down to the strength and steadiness of the CEO-chair relationship—and how intentionally it’s managed from the start.

Four practices that strengthen your relationship with the board chair

1. Align on the job—yours and theirs

Misaligned expectations are one of the most common sources of early CEO–chair tension. I often see this in the first year, even when both parties believe they’re aligned.

Our research found that of the 63% of leaders who told us they experienced a significant conflict with their respective boards in their first 12 months, the most common conflict related to differences of opinion on strategy or the style and contribution of the chair.

The most effective CEOs I work with start by getting very specific. They explore what the chair sees as the organization’s most critical priorities over the next 12 to 18 months, how success in the CEO role will be judged, and where the chair expects to lean in—or stay out.

They then return to these expectations regularly, treating them as a working charter rather than a one-off conversation.

2. Share information clearly—and never surprise your chair

Boards struggle when information arrives late, out of sequence, or without context. When I coach new CEOs, one of the earliest norms we establish is clarity on information flow.

Agree with your chair on what they should see first, what can go to the full board, and what warrants a private conversation before it’s shared more widely. This isn’t about managing optics. It’s about trust. When your chair is well-informed and never caught off guard, they can support you, guide the discussion, and help prevent unnecessary friction in the boardroom.

3. Use your chair as a strategic sparring partner

The chair is uniquely positioned to challenge your thinking without undermining your authority. In my opinion, the strongest CEO-chair relationships are built on early, honest sparring—not last-minute alignment. Whether you’re weighing a strategic pivot, navigating activist pressure, or addressing a leadership gap, a trusted chair can help you anticipate board reactions and strengthen your position before the discussion even begins.

4. Regularly reflect on the relationship and how it’s evolving

Like any working relationship, the CEO-chair dynamic changes over time. Most breakdowns don’t happen in a single moment—they develop through small misunderstandings and unspoken assumptions. CEOs who extend their runway tend to be observant. They notice early signals and create space—at least quarterly—to step back from the business and assess the relationship itself. What feels easier than it did six months ago? What feels more strained? Where might assumptions be creeping in on either side? Addressing drift early is far easier—and far less costly—than repairing a rupture later.

Authors

Miriam Capelli is a leadership advisor at Russell Reynolds Associates. She is based in Singapore.