A governance style

Steward

Protect what matters.

You hold the board to decisions it can still defend in three years.

The question a Steward is most likely to ask

“Before we decide, can we live with this in three years?”

How a Steward describes the value they bring

“I bring judgment on decisions that are hard to reverse, and a long view on risk.”

You bring judgment to the decisions that are hard to undo, weigh consequences over time, and hold the board to what it has built.

Contributes

Stability and judgment

What the research findsDirectors carry habitual routines for taking in information and forming judgments, and those routines shape how a board works.van Ees, Gabrielsson & Huse (2009)

What a Steward brings, and what to watch

Every perspective brings strengths — and creates its own blind spots.

What they bring

  • Bring judgment to decisions that are hard to undo
  • Hold the long view on risk
  • Protect what the organization has built
  • Steady the room under pressure

Where to lean in

  • Mentor the directors who are newer to the table.
  • Ask how today’s decision looks five years out.
  • Separate the noise of a quarter from what endures.

Watch for

  • Can weight precedent more heavily than the situation warrants
  • Can underestimate how fast the ground is moving
  • Can treat necessary risk as avoidable risk
  • Can slow a decision that needed to be made quickly

What helps

  • Seek a perspective from outside your industry.
  • Invite someone to test your assumptions directly.
  • Ask whether you would make the same decision starting today.
The growth question

“What assumptions should we challenge?”

Working with a Steward

What the other three bring to the same table.

StrategistConnects today to where you are going.They will be further out than the decision in front of you, working from where the business has said it is going.Ask: “What has to be true first?”
CatalystPushes the decision forward.They will want to move before you are ready, and they will treat delay as a cost rather than as caution.Ask: “What does waiting cost us?”
NavigatorNames what is changing outside.They will raise risks that have not arrived yet, and not all of them bear on the decision in front of you.Ask: “Which signal would change this?”

The four perspectives

Any of them can be a board’s strength. A board needs the range.

StewardStability and judgmentYou are hereStrategistDirection and opportunityCatalystMomentum and innovationNavigatorAwareness and adaptability

Which perspective do you bring?

Ten questions, about three minutes.

Take the assessment