In the decades we’ve spent working with and studying more than 1,000 directors, including hundreds of chairs, and serving as directors ourselves, we have similarly seen board requirements change. Just like companies, boards now have to be more agile and much more skilled at dealing with complexity and conflict. The most effective chairs address that challenge by creating a culture of learning and modeling ways to monitor a wide variety of stakeholder voices and collectively solve problems. They also engage more intensely with their CEOs, to help them manage the greater—sometimes overwhelming—demands that boards are making on them. In this article we’ll share our insights into how some chairs—especially nonexecutive chairs—are successfully playing this role.