How to lead without taking over

Uncertainty has always been part of the reality that companies and boards must navigate. What is new is unpredictability and the speed at which change unfolds. In a world shaped by geopolitical shifts, technological disruption, and rapidly changing business conditions, one question becomes increasingly important: what is the role of the board?

At the Board Summit, veteran chair Lene Skole — whose board roles include Ørsted, Nordea, ALK, FLS and Lundbeck — argued that the answer is not more control, but greater clarity about roles and responsibilities. Minutes earlier, badminton legend Victor Axelsen had described building a team obligated to tell him hard truths even after his biggest wins and letting people go the moment their standards slipped — not for his comfort, but for the athlete's sake. Skole picked up the thread directly: a board, she said, needs the same discipline, applied to a different problem.

Know your role

Her framework is simple: the board handles oversight, foresight and strategy, while management owns execution. A board member, she said, is never the one on the court — and would irritate an athlete just as much by running on mid-match as a coach barking instructions from the sideline.

The hardest discipline is resisting the urge to solve a CEO's problem for them. When a chief executive raises a genuine dilemma, "the gut reaction from everyone in this room... is to start telling that person what to do. That's the last thing you should do." Give them a ready-made answer instead of input, she warned, and "that's the last time they'll ever come with a problem to the board."

Where trust starts

Turning a board into a team rather than a collection of competing egos doesn't happen in the meeting itself, Skole said. Her fix: an informal dinner the evening before each board meeting, with no minutes, where people can admit what's actually worrying them.

Rethinking risk

Growing political and technological uncertainty has pushed boards from static, color-coded risk registers towards live scenario thinking, she said — leaning in hard when a crisis hits, then leaning back once it passes.

Her advice on strategy in turbulent times: don't rewrite it with every shift, or "you end up with five, ten different strategies... and you don't know where you're going." Test the assumptions underneath it instead.