ESSAY · THE SITUATIONS
One director thinks you are a rocket that needs fuel. Another thinks you are a fixer-upper that needs discipline. A third has started using the word optionality, which is board language for the exits. All three narratives are built from the same numbers, which is precisely the problem: the numbers currently support all three. I have sat on both sides of that table, as the founder-CEO of a public company for thirteen years and as the director watching management, and I can tell you what a divided board actually is: a data room with three gaps.
What is usually actually wrong
Boards do not diverge because directors are difficult. They diverge because management has left the story underdetermined: the metrics that would settle the argument are either not tracked, not trusted, or not presented in a form that forces a conclusion. Into that vacuum, every director imports the pattern from their own best and worst prior company. The rocket director once rode a rocket. The discipline director once cleaned up a mess. They are not describing your company. They are describing their scar tissue.
The dangerous version is when management privately holds a fourth narrative and manages the board instead of informing it. That works for two quarters and then it never works again.
What to do about it
Read your directors' questions from the last four meetings as a map of their fears, because that is what board questions are. Decide which narrative you actually believe and what evidence would prove you wrong, then build the board package so the numbers force the conclusion instead of hosting the debate. And if the honest evidence supports the uncomfortable narrative, bring the plan that addresses it before the board writes that plan for you. Boards settle when the facts arrive organized. They escalate when management arrives managed.
Juan Vegarra is the author of An Outsider’s Playbook (2026). The views here are his own. More from the Notebook · Advisory · Continue the conversation