Unlocking Chair and Board Potential

Building better Boards…

…starts with the Chair

Today’s Chairs need to be masters of complexity and ‘meaning makers’ skilled in advocating and balancing an array of different stakeholders (shareholders, internal and broader society). They need to understand their company’s anchoring in society and engage their peers on the Board by being an accomplished navigator of relationships with high EQ and low ego. They need to be approachable to ensure they are in touch with, and hear the truth from, the whole Board while being a phenomenal mentor and advocate for transformation, challenging traditional paradigms.

Given these challenges, we propose a new lens is required to look at the leadership repertoire of the Chair of today. Our belief is that the current landscape for ‘learning’ in the Boardroom rests largely on a methodology of skill-based interventions and teach-ins and may neglect the ‘unnamed’ skills to truly perform in the role – self-awareness, collective awareness and a deep relational capacity.

This invitation-only programme is a unique, confidential opportunity focusing on attaining higher levels of leadership as a Chair and unlocking the potential of your Board. Participants are chosen and invited through Egon Zehnder and assembled based on similarities in experience, potential, and their ability to connect and contribute as a supportive group of peers.

The faculty combines Egon Zehnder Partners who bring decades of pattern recognition and practice in serving Boards, as well as world-leading transformational coaches and facilitators from Mobius.

Topics to be covered

Understanding underlying relational dynamics that Boards get stuck in – either amongst themselves or in their relationship with their Executive Committees/ Management Boards
Unlocking the Chair relationship with the CEO through ‘knowing self and patterns’
Sharing unique Board insights gathered from decades of working with Boards globally– both from Egon Zehnder Partners
Identifying when Boards are ‘running patterns of the past’ and what transformation looks like in the Boardroom
Holding space and grounding: finding sources of wisdom, integrity, and authenticity
The Chair identity: boss; meaning maker; challenger; confidant; coach; critical friend
Looking at Boards through the lens of constellations to help you build collective awareness of the patterns your board tends to go to or get stuck in

What

An invitation-only three-day offsite. The retreat will be preceded by an initial intake call with an Egon Zehnder Development Advisor. After the offsite we offer a 1:1 integration session to help embed individual learnings as well as two webinars for the full cohort, one of which will focus on how to take what you learn from the offsite back to your Boards.

When

Sunday 18th to Wednesday 21st October 2026

Sunday 11th to Wednesday 14th April 2027

Sunday 24th to Wednesday 27th October 2027

The programme will start at 3pm on Sunday, followed by a three-day offsite ending at 1pm on Wednesday.

Where

Monkey Island Estate, Bray-on-Thames, Bray, Maidenhead SL6 2EE, UK

Monkey Island Estate
Bray on Thames,
Royal Borough of Windsor,
SL6 2EE,
England

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Takeaways

Participant voices

“What opened up for me was extremely valuable.”

Chair participant, 2023

“It’s very simple… this is about developing range in leadership. And when it comes to boards that’s hugely relevant. Great boards are about diversity and good leadership. You can’t tell ‘them’ what to do. You can, as a board member or as a chair, tune up your leadership and adopt different approaches and styles that nurture the board’s value for the benefit of the whole organisation”

Previous EZ/Mobius programme participant

“I came with an open mind and it’s been incredible.”

Chair participant, 2023

Faculty will be drawn from

EGON ZEHNDER

MOBIUS

Exclusive Chair Retreat