Raising the ambition: Five capabilities for the independent director

GOOD boards drive today’s successes. Great boards raise the ambition for tomorrow’s wins.

Strip away the committees and codes, and every board exists to solve three things:

• Ensure regulatory conformance;
• Help management drive performance;
• Future-proof the business for generations to come.

One challenge for independent non-executive directors (INEDs) is how to contribute meaningfully to all three without crossing into management’s role.

Performance is not a bar cleared once and defended forever. Even companies doing well must continue to adapt. The same question applies to the board: Can its composition, capabilities and contribution be stronger?

Boards generally recognise where their weaknesses lie. The harder part is confronting them.

PwC’s Annual Corporate Directors Survey of US boardrooms (October 2025) found a majority of directors (55 per cent) believe at least one of their fellow board members should be replaced.

WTW’s board evaluation assessments around the world suggest that most companies feel that the contribution of at least one of their NEDs could be enhanced.

The INED’s job is to ask how much further the organisation can go, beyond protecting what already works, and push it in that direction.

Boards cannot afford to be even a little complacent in the brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible (Bani) world that we face.

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Systems that look strong can fail suddenly; small triggers can produce disproportionate effects; and boards may have to make decisions before the data catches up.

In such an environment, the INED can no longer be a qualified pair of hands who turns up four times a year, reads the board pack, and signs the minutes.

Five capabilities will increasingly distinguish valuable INEDs.

1. Stewardship

Stewardship means making decisions today whose benefits may only become visible after a director has left the board. INEDs who think only as far as their own tenure risk becoming caretakers rather than stewards.

Consider an INED who challenges a market-anticipated share buyback, arguing that capital would be better deployed to extend the company’s technology lead. The decision may attract criticism in the short term, but could ultimately strengthen the business.

That is the wager stewardship asks – accepting reputational risk today in pursuit of longer-term resilience and value.

2. Non-linearity

Traditional board discussions can be heavily grounded in hindsight – explaining why the numbers turned out as they did, and using that information to plan ahead.

In a Bani world, INEDs increasingly need to exercise foresight – identifying risks and opportunities before they are fully visible.

For example, a routine artificial intelligence vendor contract might prompt a broader question: What happens to the company’s decision-making if the model is wrong in a way the organisation does not anticipate?

The value is not necessarily in having the answer immediately. It is in asking questions that challenge assumptions and expose vulnerabilities that conventional analysis may miss.

3. Courage

Non-linear thinking has little value if concerns are not voiced. An effective INED must be prepared to disagree clearly and constructively, including when doing so is uncomfortable.

Take the INED who challenges the chair’s preferred CEO succession candidate because of concerns about behaviour and collaborative intent. If the challenge could affect the likelihood of the INED’s own renomination, speaking up requires courage.

Boardroom courage is not recklessness. It is the willingness to put a difficult issue on the table when the interests of the company warrant it.

4. Engagement

Oversight should not become shorthand for compliance-watching. INEDs can add value through their expertise, relationships, stakeholder engagement or connections, while leaving management firmly responsible for running the business.

For example, if a company’s sales pipeline has stalled, an INED might use a relevant personal network to facilitate a potential business development opportunity.

The director is not running the sales function in this case, but making a connection that management can pursue.

5. Catalyst

A critical skill for an INED is to be able to influence the influencers. Tough messages are more likely to be heard when they come from a director who has built credibility and trust over time.

Imagine a director who spends months contributing quietly, asking pointed questions, understanding the details and picking up the nuances.

When a concern about a proposed acquisition arises, the board is more likely to listen because the director has established credibility, not because of any grandstanding.

Influence is not simply about speaking up. It is about building the relationships beforehand and cultivating judgement that makes speaking up effective.

The board of tomorrow

The five capabilities are interconnected, but not interchangeable.

Stewardship provides the long-term perspective; non-linear thinking challenges conventional assumptions; courage gives concerns a voice; engagement allows directors to contribute constructively; and catalyst influence determines whether contribution is heard.

None of these qualities appears neatly on a board skills matrix or can be easily measured or captured. They are dispositions developed over time.

The test is whether an INED can combine independence with judgement, courage with restraint, and oversight with a genuine concern for the organisation’s long-term resilience.

Boards do not choose the storm. What they can influence, through the calibre and contribution of the people around the table, is whether the organisation is built merely to survive the crisis, or to emerge stronger.

The INED’s real mandate is not to protect what already works, but to keep asking, uncomfortably and often, whether “it’s working” is still good enough.

The writer is a member of the Governing Council of the Singapore Institute of Directors