What's the difference between a shopping trolley and a chairman?

Q: What’s the difference between a shopping trolley and a chairman?

A: A shopping trolley has a mind of its own but you can pour more food and drink into a chairman.

Can I take a moment to reject the claim that a chair’s role is mindless bon viveur and offer the thought that, carried out wisely, a better description would be critical friend to the chief executive and the board?

I recall Terry Leahy, then chief exec of Tesco, telling me that leadership was about helping your team to achieve more than they could on their own. That indeed is how a chief exec should feel about his/her chair.

The chair’s job has perhaps three facets:

• getting the governance right
• agreeing the correct strategy 
• helping the chief exec to produce their very best work

Oh yes, and change the chief exec if their best is not quite good enough! All of these demand being close to the business, but not part of it, having a respect for the key stakeholders (shareholders, board directors, staff, customers, suppliers, community) and a wider objectivity to help give context.

The aptitude that I find most needed, but frequently not in the job description, is good listening skills. Sensing when the business needs more input and or when there is some tension are critical moments.

The great thing about a non-exec chair should be that they have no axe to grind and no agenda other than helping the business to be the very best it can be for all its stakeholders.  And often that is why the chair is so valuable to the chief exec. Being able to give, sometimes difficult feedback, needs an undercurrent of trust. Trust built on consistency and appropriate openness. Trust built on saying ‘well done and congratulations’ when it all goes to plan and asking the difficult but appropriate questions when it’s not. Getting the right tone for the chief exec/chair relationship is an art and is constantly evolving as the business challenges change.

And this trust needs to extend to the whole of the board. Trust that the chair is holding their chief exec to account is essential. And the chief exec needs to know that the chairman will give him ‘air cover’ when necessary to fix problems. The chair must orchestrate board meetings to shape common purpose whilst never stifling proper debate. It is never easy to know just when one should guillotine debate in order to deliver a decision!

Sometimes that glue of board unity does come under strain – never more so than when the business is under performing. Do we change the strategy, change the chief exec or tell the stakeholders that there is a plan and that all will be well soon?

Finally, the chair needs to have brutally honest view of today’s business and a constant eye on the preparing the business for its future. It’s too easy for an executive team in this busy world to get stuck in the trees; a chair, once removed fro the daily hub-hub can keep an eye on the wood.

Now show me a shopping trolley that can do that?