A CEO Review Should Clarify Leadership, Not Create Anxiety.
CEO reviews are one of the most important responsibilities a board holds and one of the most inconsistently executed.
Too many reviews rely on financial outcomes alone, informal impressions, or backward-looking scorecards. The result is often frustration on both sides of the table: boards feel uncertain, and CEOs feel exposed rather than supported.
Neck Up reframes the CEO review as a leadership alignment conversation, grounded in strategy and focused on how leadership shows up at enterprise scale.
Beyond Results: How Leadership Is Exercised
Financial performance matters. Safety and soundness matter. But results alone rarely tell the full story.
A meaningful CEO review also examines:
How the CEO thinks through complexity, ambiguity, and risk
How they connect, building trust across employees, regulators, and the community
How they act, modeling values, developing leaders, and shaping culture
These dimensions are observable, discussable, and coachable when the board has a shared framework.
Why This Strengthens the Board-CEO Relationship
A strong CEO review:
Replaces surprises with clarity
Separates leadership behaviors from personality
Aligns expectations before pressure moments arrive
Creates a common language for development, not just accountability
When strategy sets the destination, the CEO review ensures leadership is aligned to that destination in practice, not just in intent.
Done well, the review becomes less about judgment and more about stewardship.
