Walk into any CEO's office today and he has three things on his mind - customers, shareholders and employees. He must balance what often appear as very contradictory and competing needs. Even in an organization with a strong set of number twos, the CEO will find that he only has his own counsel to draw upon when the tough decisions have to be made. This is typically a very lonely place because the CEO often overlooks his greatest asset - the Board.

Larcen Consulting recently participated in a planning session with Ram Charan, author of the highly regarded book, Boards At Work: How Corporate Boards Create Competitive Advantage. The session, called by one of our CEO's to include his Board chair and executive coach, included a review of strategy and eventually focused on the role of the board in enabling superior performance of the corporation and the CEO. Ram Charan cited three basic responsibilities of the board:

To provide straightforward and clear feedback when coaching the CEO on his performance To challenge the CEO to assemble and lead a strong leadership team by providing regular feedback on the Board's evaluation of team members To participate at least annually in the review and formulation of strategy

Charan recommended that the role of the board to review financials be accomplished offline, prior to the board meeting. He also strongly recommended that the board conduct at least one retreat annually with the full executive team present. "Make this event, as well as routine board meetings, stimulating and learning rich. In this way, you will be able to attract capable and effective board members who will actively participate in your company because of the 'quid pro quo' proposition," he noted.

Charan's latest contribution to Fortune Magazine was "Why CEO's Fail."