CEOs that report to trustees or boards

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Hi folks,

I am in a non-rad, conventional governance community of practice/learning group for people who hold director/board roles (is what we call them here in Australia) in the UK you often call them trustees.

This week we are looking at the role of the board in performance managing the CEO and I was wondering if anyone has any rad resources/articles that I might be able to bring to the non-rad table.

Many thanks, Nat

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Hi Nat,

Love this question – and the “non-rad, conventional governance” context made me smile. I’ve found that the most useful way to gently radicalize a board on CEO performance is to bring resources that:

  • Reframe the review as mutual accountability and support, not just surveillance.

  • Emphasize clear, pre-agreed outcomes and limitations (often via policy governance or “ends vs means” thinking).

  • Treat the process as strategic work (alignment to mission, impact, and future priorities) rather than an HR admin task.

A few pieces your group might find accessible but still quietly radical:

  • Blue Avocado’s “Evaluating the Executive Director” – written for nonprofits, it stresses that ED/CEO evaluations are fundamentally different from staff reviews and need to focus on shared goals and board–ED partnership.​

  • BoardSource article on onboarding and supporting CEOs, which highlight setting expectations together and making performance conversations routine and future-focused, not punitive.

  • Guides that incorporate multi-stakeholder or 360-style input into the CEO review, positioning the board as steward of organizational health (culture, equity, stakeholder trust) rather than just financial metrics. (I have a resource on this I can share guide I can share if you want to send me your email).

  • I have two more articles I will share in a follow-up post - as a new member I am only allowed two links per post:)

If it’s helpful, I can also connect you to the head of our Board Advisory practice who specializes in building equity-centered CEO Evaluation processes and she also could help you with this process.

Hope that is all helpful,

Allison

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Here are the other two resources:

  • Nonprofit Risk Center resource on board–CEO partnership, which frame accountability as a two-way street and encourage boards to invite feedback on their own performance as part of the CEO’s review.

  • Policy governance–oriented pieces on evaluating the CEO against clearly articulated “Ends” and explicit limitations, which can feel quite radical to conventional boards because they reduce personality politics and “gut feel” judgments.

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Thanks so much, Allison. These are incredibly helpful and very generous of you to dig them all up.

I’ve actually joined a learning/peer-mentoring program for trustees/directors to reflect on and improve our governance skills. I have discovered that I tend to learn in unexpected ways when I deliberately seek out environments where I am the odd the one out. And, inversely I offer something different that others are often also grateful for.

The topic at the moment is about CEO performance. I shared the following words that I wrote to encourage reflection on what the CEO needs, what the CEO is experiencing and how they may or may not be being supported to offer an alternative view in the group.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/natalie-walker-the-people-platform_is-resilience-one-of-your-kpis-for-your-activity-7305140311725379585-bpzQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAAaxFMYBlScqDKQuU6lrgdg8H_eq8UuyYjg

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I love this Natalie - and commented on LI as opposed to here to boost visibility by giving you some engagement. Such a great reflection!

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Thank you so much for doing that; that’s super kind. And thank you for mentioning here that you commented on LI. I couldn’t figure out why an older post had suddenly reached someone so I had not put two and two together that it was you. Gratitude :folded_hands: