What makes the strongest leaders

What makes the strongest leaders? In corporate governance, it’s more essential than ever that the people making decisions perform at their best. 

It used to be the case – and an increasing number of high-profile CEOs seem to believe it’s the case again – that strong leadership meant a firm grip. This mentality is centred on a commanding presence, unyielding decision-making, and a singular focus on the bottom line.

In truth, that kind of leadership just achieves victory on the surface. It gives a good impression and rarely translates to sustainable success. The truly strongest leaders are defined by their ability to navigate complexity, uphold integrity, and foster resilience.

It’s about stewardship as much as it is about making tough calls from the top. Your job is to collaborate and ensure that even the best decisions involve input from those around you, whether it’s colleagues on the board, executives reporting to you, or employees through the ranks of your company working to carry out your strategy.

Constructive scepticism 

The strongest leaders know how to be a “critical friend.” They’re always brave enough to ask difficult questions, diplomatic enough not to be abrasive, and deliberative enough to ensure each question arrives at a productive endpoint. 

Boardroom leaders who excel in this area will ultimately create an atmosphere conducive to success. It won’t always be easy – the right questions will often lead to disagreements – but overall, it will be positive. 

Strategic foresight 

The strongest leaders have their eyes on the horizon. They can acknowledge and interact with the day-to-day as much as they wish, but that should never take away from their ability to be forward-thinking because, ultimately, they’re the best people in the company for that job. They don’t just ask “Are we doing things right?” but “Are we doing the right things?”

High-stakes emotional intelligence

Good leaders have resilient emotional intelligence that persists in all kinds of groups and pressure situations. They can read the room and the attitudes of the people in it. They understand the unspoken dynamics between board members and can diffuse tension before it becomes toxic. They foster psychological safety, even when the pressure ramps up, ensuring that quiet voices with crucial insights are heard over the loudest shouters.

Cultural stewardship 

Good leaders set the tone from the top. Where many may pay close attention to culture on board away days, or company-wide get-togethers, good leaders will put thoughts into action as much as possible. They’ll ensure principles have an on-the-ground impact, and understand what happens when ethical lapses at the board level ripple downwards. 

Stakeholder empathy 

The era of shareholder primacy is evolving into stakeholder capitalism. Strong leaders possess the empathy to view the business through multiple lenses: employees, customers, suppliers, and the community. They understand that ignoring these voices creates blind spots that can lead to disastrous governance failures.

Above, we’ve left out one of the core traits of a strong leader, because it’s not really about certain qualities; it’s just about recognising one key fact: leadership means you never “finish” learning. 

You can’t put education to the side once you’re in a position of leadership. In fact, doing so is a significant governance risk. Instead, you need to recognise that there will always be things you don’t know. Many of them (like the explosion of the use of generative AI) will evolve while you’re in your leadership role, and so there was no way you’d be an expert before you got there. 

Good leadership means being constantly willing to learn and embark on periods of dedicated governance training if it means you are a greater asset on the board or executive team.

The strongest leaders in corporate governance are those with the clearest vision and the highest integrity, not just the loudest voices. 

They balance the rigour of oversight with the empathy of leadership.