The C-suite is increasingly expected to deliver smart guidance fast around today’s challenges. A longer-term discussion may be in order.

Boards and CEOs are having a hard time staying in sync, according to a new study. That’s dog-bites-man stuff, I know; after years of covering them, I would be shocked at this point to find a report saying boards and CEOs are in alignment.

But the latest iteration of Korn Ferry’s Board and Risk Survey is worth a look, because the divides that it discusses speak to how much more challenging mutual trust has become in our current environment.

For one thing, both groups are feeling increasing pressure to move fast. A majority of CEOs say balancing their time and energy is one of their biggest challenges, and a near-majority of boards feel the same. For organizations that have recently gone through leadership transitions, boards largely felt that they didn’t have enough time to gather enough feedback.

In the rush to act, trust has suffered. Though a healthy majority of board members (83 percent) say they’re confident in a new leader’s abilities, only 10 percent of them say the CEO “is fully connected to and trusted by the board.”  

What’s the hurry? AI and talent are the biggest sources of anxiety. Nobody feels particularly confident about their ability to successfully manage risks around AI and other technologies: Only about half of CEOs say they can, and only 30 percent of boards. The numbers are similar when it comes to talent, and their sense of these issues’ importance well outpaces their confidence in addressing them.

“The CEO role has become more exposed,” says Korn Ferry’s Dominic Schofield in the report. “Leaders have less time to build trust with boards, employees, and investors before they’re called on to make decisions that can shape the future of the business.”

Associations aren’t generally as susceptible to rapid leadership changes as their corporate cousins, but the urgency around AI and talent is just as profound, as are the challenges around board-CEO alignment. The Korn Ferry report frames this as a succession planning problem: Though a majority of boards say it should be an iterative process, only 17 percent of boards say they review it quarterly. 

That’s not good enough for many in the corporate world, where activist investors have increasingly pushed boards to make leadership changes if the company isn’t hitting its spots. Pressure campaigns speak to bigger problems, but there’s still a lesson that associations can take from that shift: Boards and CEOs alike may need to behave more often as if the challenges AI and talent presents require regular meaningful conversation around what leadership and risk tolerance look like. 

A PwC report recommends that succession planning begin the moment a new CEO’s tenure starts—not to erode trust in the new leader, but to build on it, and ensure everyone shares focus. “Top boards [treat] succession as an ongoing governance responsibility, grounded in open communication and mutual transparency with the CEO,” the report says. “Normalizing these conversations from day one is critical in building trust, reducing anxiety, and reinforcing the notion that succession planning is about continuity and resilience, not individual tenure.”

Board members know they won’t be in the chair forever, but CEOs are encouraged to behave as if they’ll never leave. Somewhere in the middle is a commitment to what leadership of the organization means, and it’s worth working to agree on it. 

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