Every December, Boardspan distills what we’re seeing across our work with boards into our annual outlook. This year, recognizing how stretched boards are, we’re cutting straight to the point with three board moves that will matter most in 2026. We hope you’ll find this a useful reference as you and your board look ahead to 2026.

Three Areas Where Every Board Will Want to Focus in 2026

The boundaries of risk – both the good kind that lead to innovation and growth as well as the scary kind that lead to adverse consequences – have shifted. Opportunities that simply weren’t available in the past arise, almost out of nowhere, and need to be seized in the moment. For better or worse, events once considered outliers now surface frequently. The “black swan” is no longer a solitary and rare concept; rather, it increasingly arrives on the heels of or alongside some other significant challenge, compounding complexity, demanding oversight, and testing tenacity in new ways. The board’s traditional levers of influence no longer guarantee stability.

In this high-risk, and potentially high-reward, environment, boards will make a meaningful difference. Strong performers will help navigate disruption, create alignment, and stay agile. Underperformers will allow opportunity to slip past the organization they serve or, even worse, fall short in preempting management’s strategic mistakes. Now more than ever, a fully engaged board serves as a critical partner to leadership, offering perspective, accountability, and constructive challenge that help steer through uncertainty and seize opportunity, time and again.

Engagement alone, however, will not suffice as 2026 is likely to deliver a constant stream of novel disruptions, often with much noise and vague signal. To start the new year off right, we encourage every board to lean into forward thinking, clarify their priorities, and be intentional as to how they can make high-value contributions amid the expected distractions and urgent issues. 

Three critical aspects of governance deserve special focus as they will likely have an outsize impact on board success in the year to come:

👉 The board’s role in strategy 

👉 The relevant skills boards will need

👉 How boards collaborate with their CEO

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