The 2025 Boardspan Benchmark Report offers a rare data-driven view of the prevailing governance issues in today’s boardrooms.  Boardspan is alone in offering the industry’s only Board Performance Benchmark, enabling boards to compare their annual board evaluation scores against a broad dataset of peer organizations and contextualize their results.

Our Board Performance Benchmark aggregates data collected from the Boardspan Board Performance Assessment over the past three years. On an annual basis we share key findings from the Boardspan Benchmark to provide insight into relevant trends in board performance, including where expectations are rising and what new governance challenges are emerging.   

Each year, we don’t just report the numbers—we look for what they reveal. This year, our analysis surfaced six notable trends that are shaping the boardroom. These insights, drawn directly from the data, reflect the evolving priorities, pressure points, and performance patterns we’re seeing across our benchmark set.

1. Board-CEO Relationships: Solid Though Showing Strain 
While most boards report a constructive relationship with their CEO, scores have dipped since 2023. In a more volatile operating environment, trust and communication are proving more fragile—and more critical—than ever.
👉 Read the Performance Note

2. Boards Are Hungry for Competitive Intelligence 
The 2025 Boardspan Benchmark data reveals that boards continue to want more insight into the competitive landscape, and rank this topic lower than most. With disruption a constant in most industries, directors are keen for more and better data to stay current on markets and trends.
👉 Read the Performance Note

3. Management Succession Planning Continues to Challenge Boards 
Amid record CEO and C-suite turnover, boards acknowledge that management succession planning remains difficult to get right and score it in the bottom 5% of the more than 60 governance topics covered by the Boardspan Benchmark. The good news? Scores improved modestly in 2025.     
👉 Read the Performance Note

4. Board Succession Planning  Is A Growing Strategic Imperative
Boards report more confidence in their board refreshment processes and succession plans as they embrace a more deliberate approach to composition. High-performing boards take a longer view and apply more analysis to succession planning as they seek to meet evolving governance demands. 
👉 Read the Performance Note

5. AI Oversight: A New Competency Boards Are Anxious to Build
AI is reshaping business at breakneck speed—and boards know they need to move quickly to develop oversight mechanisms and contribute strategically. Board scores for AI Oversight are among the lowest of the 2025 Benchmark, though we expect they will improve as boards focus on AI education, clarifying oversight responsibilities, and embedding AI into their agendas. 
👉  Read the Performance Note

6. Board Leadership Is Getting Stronger & Contributing More
Scores for board and committee leadership continue to rise, with high-performing chairs playing a deliberate role in setting agendas, shaping culture, and balancing oversight with partnership.
👉 Read the Performance Note

Boards strive to deliver standout performance, though without context, it’s hard to know where the board is excelling, where it may be falling short, or what to prioritize next. Many boards conduct annual evaluations, yet few have access to comparative data that puts their experience in perspective.

That’s where the Boardspan Benchmarks comes in.

Boardspan’s benchmark data comes from our comprehensive Board Performance Assessment, which evaluates effectiveness across nearly 60 factors that matter most to strong governance. These factors are grouped into nine key categories:

• Board Responsibilities
• Board Alignment
• Board Strategy
• Board Culture
• Board Composition
• Board Information
• Board Meetings
• Board Leadership
• Board Committees

Each year, we aggregate and anonymize assessment results from boards of varying sizes, sectors, and ownership structures. The result is a nationwide data set that captures how boards are performing across these core areas—and how that performance is shifting over time.

Boardspan has been publishing benchmark data since 2021, making this the most robust and current source of its kind.

Every data point in this report reflects the real-world experiences of boards navigating today’s governance demands. Boards that use Boardspan’s Performance Assessment rely on the Benchmark as a reference point—to track progress over time, to contextualize performance and calibrate goals, and to ground their work in the broader governance landscape. Whether or not your board has completed a Boardspan assessment, this report offers an external lens for reflection. It may surface emerging areas of focus among peers, validate your board’s priorities, or spark new conversations about how to strengthen board effectiveness. We hope this year’s report helps your board stay focused, informed, and better equipped for the road ahead.