Seven mantras for board chair effectiveness: An enlightened approach for the 21st century

Despite an increasing remit and recognition of the role of the board Chair, resources that effective Chairs of the twenty-first century deploy remain inadequately explored in the existing literature. This paper addresses this gap through the innovative use of 57 face-to-face, elite interviews with board members and provides new insights into the best practices of Chairs of the largest listed companies in the UK. The findings of the study indicate that effective leadership of boards requires an enlightened approach, with seven Mantras of effective board leading being commonly employed. These Mantras are - support for the CEO, lead with values, exercise influence (not power), compose diverse boards, communicate inclusively, resolve conflicts intuitively and reflect & course correct. The paper makes a three-fold contribution: to resource-based theory and enlightened leadership theory, to the literature on board Chair effectiveness and praxis of leading in the 21st century.