Articles by

Steve Pell

Steve Pell is CEO at BoardOutlook, the leadership intelligence platform that gives Chairs, Committees and CEOs a distinct competitive advantage. Working with 200 of the world's leading ASX and FTSE boards, BoardOutlook augments leadership with the rare clarity, data, and connections needed to tackle the hardest decisions — building total alignment on how a company wins, getting the absolute best out of everyone at the top, and empowering leaders to secure a long-term legacy. Steve is a trusted advisor to boards and non-executive directors on governance matters, with specific focus on issues at the intersection between board and management. He has substantial expertise in the development and implementation of frameworks to build effective partnership between board and management on organisational strategy. He is a regular writer for the Australian Financial Review on leadership, governance and board effectiveness.

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The Chair may be the board’s most improvable performance lever

Egon Zehnder recently published an interesting perspective on whether the Board Chair really matters.

by Steve Pell

Boards that keep evaluating are boards that keep improving

Boards that evaluate their performance repeatedly tend to get better.

by Steve Pell

Exclusive data: Choosing the CEO is only half the job

A significant new contention on the board’s role in CEO succession has been published and deserves exploration.

by Steve Pell

Succession as a key pillar of value creation

Across 155 boards in the BoardOutlook 2025 benchmark pool, approximately four in ten directors (39%) name enhancing ...

by Steve Pell

The average graduate gets better feedback than the average CEO

The average graduate gets better feedback than the average CEO. Over the past decade I have put that contention to ...

by Steve Pell

Professionalising Governance in Founder-Led Businesses

What to build, what to defer Founder-led businesses that have grown organically arrive at the question of governance ...

by Steve Pell

The corruption of “psychological safety” in the boardroom

Why the most popular idea in boardroom improvement is applied backwards.

by Steve Pell

Why Good Boards Oversee Irrelevance

The dominant failure mode of governance has no villain.

by Steve Pell

The 9% Problem: Why Boards Leave Chair Succession Too Late

Chair succession is one of the clearest tests of board maturity.

by Steve Pell