The Boardroom Mirror: Ownership, Accountability, and the Anatomy of Power.
Lindsay R. Dodd
23 Jun, 2025
Somewhere between the elegant minimalism of the boardroom table and the complicated circuitry of executive egos, lies the very real question that defines a board’s effectiveness: Who, exactly, owns this problem?
Not symbolically. Not ceremonially. But truly—emotionally, intellectually, ethically. Who is brave enough to say: “This is mine to fix”—without qualification, without ego, and without an escape hatch?
If you’ve ever sat on a board—public, private, advisory, or non-profit—you’ll have seen the full sweep of human behavior at its most strategic, and at times, its most slippery. Boards are high-stakes chess games, often populated by brilliant minds who somehow forget that brilliance without ownership is just a light bulb that never turns on.
Let me say it plainly: Boards do not fail because of bad ideas. They fail because of the absence of ownership.
The Optical Illusion of Shared Leadership
There is a quietly dangerous assumption at play in most boardrooms: that shared responsibility will naturally lead to shared accountability.
It doesn’t.
Shared responsibility, when not carefully defined and guarded, can morph into a bureaucratic fog of ambiguity, inaction, and blame transfer. It becomes a shell game—one in which you keep flipping lids looking for the person who dropped the ball. And quite often, no one can—or will—admit it’s them.
And why would they? When titles and status hang like chandeliers from the ceiling, and reputations are always a few missteps from free-fall, the temptation is always there: explain, rationalize, justify. The safest route is to point somewhere else—to the market, to staff, to the latest disruption. Anything but inward.
But here’s the thing: a board isn’t there to be safe. It’s there to steer. It’s there to lead. And leading without personal ownership is like captaining a ship while pretending the wheel steers itself.
Ownership Isn’t About Guilt — It’s About Discipline
Let’s demystify ownership. It’s not about self-flagellation or martyrdom. It’s not about assigning blame. It’s about accepting responsibility as a baseline condition for leadership.
In functional boards, this looks like:
A director admitting when a strategic initiative was misjudged—and detailing what will be done to correct it.
A chair taking heat publicly for a governance failure instead of throwing a subcommittee under the proverbial bus.
A CFO who resists the urge to blame “unforeseen circumstances” and instead focuses on what will be foreseen next time.
Ownership is not an emotional state. It’s a discipline—a muscle boards must develop, stretch, and strengthen over time. And like any muscle, it atrophies in the absence of stress. That’s why comfortable boards are often underperforming ones. There is no stretch, no reach, no rigor.
The Anatomy of a Blame Board
If we were to dissect a dysfunctional board, you’d find several predictable organs of chaos:
The Deflector: This is the director who always has an explanation, and it’s always someone else’s fault.
The Passenger: They’re polite, they’re agreeable, and they do absolutely nothing until it’s time to vote.
The Oracle: Offers grand strategic visions with zero follow-through.
The Shadow CEO: Thinks their job is to second-guess the executive team at every turn, without accountability for the outcome.
The Ghost: Rarely present. When they are, you’re reminded why their absence was easier.
Each of these archetypes has one thing in common: they avoid ownership like a contagious disease.
And the board as a whole suffers for it. Decisions stall. Initiatives limp along. Trust erodes—not just with the executive team, but internally among directors. The organisation becomes reactive, political, and defensive.
But when a board makes ownership a non-negotiable expectation—not just a cultural aspiration—it changes everything.
The Chain of Ownership: From Board to Business
There’s an oft-overlooked truth in governance: the way a board behaves is mirrored down the chain of command. If the board is passive, the CEO will hesitate. If the board lacks clarity, strategy becomes smoke. If the board is allergic to accountability, the entire business will follow suit.
But when the board owns outcomes—openly, vocally, and visibly—what filters down is a culture of integrity, confidence, and momentum.
It sounds idealistic. But I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen boards stop mid-discussion and ask, “What part of this do we own?” I’ve seen chairs deliberately pause the rush to solutions and say, “Before we assign this to management, what do we need to be accountable for here?”
That is culture-shaping behavior.
The Myth of External Forces
One of the most dangerous habits boards develop is externalization. That is: attributing failure to forces “out there.”
“The market changed.”
“The government moved the goalposts.”
“The workforce just isn’t what it used to be.”
“The client base shifted.”
All of which may be true—but none of which absolves the board from responsibility. Boards don’t exist to predict the weather. They exist to steer through it.
Yes, external shocks happen. But the real question is always: How did we prepare? How did we adapt? How will we be better next time?
Ownership doesn’t wait for the environment to stabilize. It says: In all of this, what can we do now, and what must we learn for next time?
Making Ownership Visible
The best boards don’t just practice ownership—they ritualize it.
Here’s how some of the best do it:
Start Every Meeting with Accountability Reviews
Not just what was done, but what wasn’t—and why.
Shortcomings are not punished, but neither are they deflected.
Rotate Responsibility for Strategic Themes
Instead of letting a few dominate, assign directors responsibility to track and report on major strategic areas. It builds engagement and accountability.
Create a “No Excuses” Culture in the Boardroom
If something failed, ban euphemisms like “missed targets” or “slightly off track.”
Language matters. Say it straight: We failed here. What are we learning?
Self-Audit Ownership Regularly
Ask: Are we owning enough? Where are we passing the buck? What blind spots are emerging?
Model It Publicly
When the board gets something wrong, acknowledge it—not just to each other, but to stakeholders. It models trustworthiness and self-correction.
But What If We’re Not the Problem?
Ah, the perennial question.
Let’s say your board really is doing the right things. Let’s say it’s the CEO, or the senior executive team, or the broader culture that lacks ownership. Should the board still take responsibility?
Yes.
Because the board hired the CEO. The board oversees the culture. The board governs outcomes.
You don’t get to claim success when the stock price rises if you disown responsibility when morale drops. Ownership is not situational. It is systemic. You either embrace it fully, or you’re performing leadership instead of living it.
Leadership Without Ego
It’s difficult to talk about ownership without confronting ego.
Too often, directors think ownership will make them look weak. But I’ve found the opposite is true: the most powerful leaders are those who can say “I got it wrong, and here’s what I’m doing about it.”
That simple sentence changes everything.
It invites honesty. It models humility. It builds trust.
And in a room full of power, trust is the only true currency.
The Chair's Crucial Role
The chair of the board is not just the meeting facilitator. They are the keeper of the ownership culture.
The chair sets the tone:
Do they tolerate obfuscation?
Do they model accountability?
Do they draw the line between governance and interference?
Do they call out passivity and excuse-making?
A good chair doesn’t seek popularity. They seek progress. And sometimes that means making the uncomfortable visible and forcing ownership into the spotlight.
Ownership in a Crisis
Boards show their true colors in a crisis. When the ship starts taking on water, does the board lean in—or look for life rafts?
Real ownership means:
Staying present.
Asking better questions.
Supporting management without micromanaging.
Owning past blind spots and addressing them directly.
Crisis is the final exam of governance. And too often, boards fail—not because they didn’t see it coming, but because they didn’t own what happened when it arrived.
Why This Matters Now
In the era of AI, geopolitical turbulence, climate volatility, and social scrutiny, boards are under more pressure than ever to deliver clear, principled leadership.
Lip service won’t cut it.
Ownership is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s a governance imperative. It builds resilience. It builds confidence. And ultimately, it builds results.
Because organizations don’t rise to the level of their ambition. They rise—or fall—to the level of their accountability.
Final Thoughts: The Mirror Test
If your board is willing to look in the mirror and ask, “What part of this do we truly own?”—then you’re already ahead of the game.
If not, it’s time to stop admiring the problem and start fixing it.
Because leadership isn’t about keeping your hands clean. It’s about putting your hands up.
And in the end, the most powerful words a board can say—after “We made a mistake”—are:
“We own this. And we will make it right.”
Dr Lindsay R. Dodd is a boardroom strategist, legal academic, and pragmatic advisor with a fondness for straight talk, self-awareness, and calling things what they are. He specializes in cutting through governance theatre to get to the heart of what drives real organizational impact.