Survey Analysis: Board-CEO Relationship

Discover findings from NACD’s 2025 Public Company Board Practices and Oversight Survey related to the board-CEO relationship. The data was gathered from directors and others who serve the boards of publicly traded companies. Access the full survey here.

Key Insights

Effective governance hinges on a robust and transparent relationship between the board and the CEO. The board’s role in this relationship includes a delicate balance of support and oversight of the CEO, and survey results indicate CEO performance is facing greater scrutiny by boards. About 54 percent of public company respondents say that such scrutiny has significantly or moderately increased in the past three years, and they reported heightened expectations of CEOs across several key areas.

Areas of increased Board Expectations of CEOs (Top Four)

Q: How have your board’s expectations of the CEO evolved over the last three years with respect to the following roles?
Percentages may be +/- 100 due to rounding.
2025 NACD Public Company Board Practices and Oversight Survey, n=167-168

The survey asked respondents to grade the quality of the board-CEO relationship, as well as relationships between other key groups and individuals at the top of their organizations. The majority of respondents rated these relationships positively (providing “A” and “B” grades on a scale of “A-Excellent” to “F-Failing”).

The most highly rated relationship was that between the lead independent director (LID) and the CEO. Among those respondents serving on boards with a leadership structure that includes a LID, 71 percent graded the CEO and LID relationship as “A-Excellent.” By comparison, just 55 percent of respondents gave an “A” grade rating to the CEO and independent board chair relationship.

The relationship between the CEO and the wider board was given a similar grade, with 56 percent of respondents providing this relationship an “A” grade. Meanwhile, less than half (40%) of respondents gave the relationship between the board and the senior management team, not including the CEO, an “A” grade, highlighting the CEO’s key role in the overall board-management dynamic.

Strength of Board-Management Relationships 

Q: How would you grade the strength of the following relationships today, on a scale from “A” to “F”?
Percentages may be +/- 100 due to rounding.
2025 NACD Public Company Board Practices and Oversight Survey, n=167-168 

Looking closer at “A”-graded board-CEO relationships, survey results show the top three key actions companies focused on over the past 12-18 months: (1) acting as a sounding board during difficult decisions, (2) increasing interactions between the CEO and board chair or LID outside of board meetings, and (3) aligning board expectations of the CEO with compensation and incentive structure. These actions highlight the importance of clarity of expectations and engagement to strengthen the board’s relationship with the CEO.

Why It Matters

Amid intensifying scrutiny and shifting performance expectations, the quality of the board-CEO relationship can significantly influence how effectively companies respond to pressure and drive long-term value. When the board and CEO are closely aligned, they build a foundation of trust that fosters transparent communication, facilitates sound decision-making, and enables the organization to remain agile in a rapidly changing environment.

What Boards Should Do

Boards and CEOs should approach their relationship with intention and continuous monitoring. Executive sessions and board evaluations can be leveraged to gather candid feedback and assess alignment. The survey found that 54 percent of boards evaluate board-management relations annually, with a small minority (12%) evaluating these dynamics more frequently. Boards should invite feedback from the CEO and broader C-suite team during these evaluation processes; only a quarter of boards have taken this action over the past 12-18 months.

The 2025 Blue Ribbon Commission is exploring the board-CEO relationship and will release a report in October 2025 with tools, insights, and best practices to strengthen these dynamics. Work on this report thus far has highlighted that a strong relationship can position the board as a trusted, strategic partner to the CEO, offering opportunities for valuable input on challenges, setbacks, and failures that the CEO is experiencing and early idea-sharing on initiatives.

Explore more related data below, or return to the 2025 NACD Public Company Board Practices and Oversight Survey.