A Spencer Stuart survey of more than 1,400 board chairs, directors and chief executives finds that companies are 60 per cent more likely to hit or beat their growth goals when the board works in close partnership with the CEO. On the highest-performing boards, 90 per cent report high levels of trust between the chair, the independent directors and the CEO. On the lowest-performing boards the figure is 24 per cent. Jordan Brugg, Spencer Stuart’s chief executive, told Semafor that on those boards “no one mistakes alignment for a lack of challenge and a lack of tension.”
The figures and the quotation are as reported by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in Semafor on 21 August 2026. Semafor does not name or link the survey report, and it has not been located on Spencer Stuart’s site.
Source: Semafor, “Spencer Stuart’s CEO on trust and tension in the boardroom” (Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson), 2026-08-21.