Reflections from a Swedish CEO Magazine interview
There is a gap in many companies that is larger than most boards realize: the space between board decisions and the everyday reality where those decisions must be lived and executed. In that space, momentum is often lost, courage fades, and strategic ambition quietly erodes.
These reflections stem from a recent interview in Swedish CEO Magazine (VD-Tidningen), where I was interviewed together with board consultant Marlene Jegeborn and former CEO Mathias Krümmel. Our shared experiences—from boardrooms, executive roles, and ownership structures—pointed to the same underlying issue: the gap is rarely about communication. It is about how boards, CEOs, and owners actually work together.
Across many organizations, two recurring patterns appear. In some companies, deeply engaged owners intervene at an operational level, unintentionally weakening the CEO’s mandate and pushing management teams into administration rather than leadership. In others, boards dominated by external directors lack sufficient understanding of the business itself. Discussion then drifts toward formality, reporting, and control, instead of strategy, risk, and renewal.
When this happens, boards slowly lose touch with the lived reality of the organization.
A structural bias toward looking backward
One reason this gap persists is structural. Boards are shaped by regulation, tradition, and governance codes that emphasize oversight and control. Unless boards consciously counterbalance this, they risk becoming reactive rather than guiding.
As I noted in the interview:
“We are regulated to control, not to move companies forward. This pulls boards toward history, reports, and formality. If the board is not aware of this, it easily becomes reactive.”
— Liselotte Engstam
When boards focus too heavily on what has already happened, they are easily surprised by what is emerging. By the time strategic issues surface in the boardroom, management has often been dealing with them for months.
“The board must have its own view of what is happening in the external environment and how it affects the company. Otherwise, the board is surprised in the boardroom by things the CEO has lived with for a long time. By then, the gap is already there.”
— Liselotte Engstam
A board that lacks its own external perspective will always be one step behind—and that lag is costly in times of rapid change.
When board meetings become exams
The gap is not created by boards alone. CEOs can unintentionally reinforce it as well.
Many CEOs approach the board with the mindset that their role is to report rather than to think together. Board meetings then become tests to pass, not arenas for joint exploration of strategic dilemmas.
“Almost all new CEOs I meet assume that they are supposed to ‘report to the board.’ Then the board meeting becomes an exam, not a forum for joint work on strategic issues. It’s hard to build trust and momentum on that mindset.”
— Liselotte Engstam
This often leads to overloaded slide decks, exhaustive reporting, and an implicit belief that showing control matters more than surfacing uncertainty. Ironically, this reduces trust rather than building it—and drains energy from what truly creates value.
Shifting from control to contribution
Closing the gap does not require more data or longer meetings. It requires a redesign of how boards and CEOs work together.
One simple but powerful shift is to separate reporting from the board meeting itself.
“Let the CEO provide a pure factual briefing in a separate, short meeting. Use the board meeting to discuss the most important strategic questions.”
— Liselotte Engstam
When reporting is streamlined, board time can be used for what only the board can do: exploring trade-offs, sensing emerging risks, and supporting management through difficult choices.
Equally important is that boards take responsibility for their own learning—ensuring that their collective competence matches the realities the company faces, whether that involves AI, supply chains, geopolitical risk, or shifting customer expectations.
Governance as a force for renewal
At its core, the gap between board decisions and everyday reality is not a technical problem. It is a relational one. It reflects how trust is built, how responsibility is shared, and whether boards see themselves primarily as inspectors of the past or stewards of the future.
When boards cultivate curiosity—about the business, the environment, and their own way of working—the distance to everyday reality shrinks. Conversations become more honest. Dilemmas can be named. And governance shifts from being a brake on progress to a force for renewal.
Closing the gap is not about perfection. It is about presence.
References
Link to original article in VD-tidningen
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This blog post was originally shared at the blog of Digoshen www.digoshen.com, and the blog of the Digoshen founder www.liselotteengstam.com,
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