Sounds like an elementary school yard riddle, doesn’t it? If you’re a board member, you’ll immediately know the answer. Being the board chair is, like Caesar would put it, being first among equals. The board Chair has the challenging task of guiding the directors of an organization towards cohesive fulfillment of fiduciary responsibilities, with no authority or weighted influence on the votes other than that which the Chair can elicit voluntarily from the other directors. Even including unethical or illegal behavior on the part of another director, the Chair cannot individually act to affect the status of any other director. All actions of the board are collective, based upon the will of a majority of directors according to our established system of business democracy. So without differential authority, is the role of the Chair really one of material impact on an organization?
