Your board is not too small. It may just be too comfortable.

A board can be many things: a supervisory body, a sparring partner, a source of impetus, a crisis manager. But it can also be simply a recurring appointment at which everyone nods politely, approves the minutes and, four hours later, goes home or on to the restaurant certain that an email would have done just as well.

The problem is rarely too little governance. The problem is too little dissent.

Too many meetings revolve around budgets, cost items and operational detail. Too few around the questions that genuinely hurt: is our strategy still right? Which risks are we not seeing? Where does the executive team need to act more decisively? Do we have the right people on the executive team? And which decision have we been putting off for months?

In owner-led companies this is a delicate point. Trust and years of working together are valuable. But it is precisely that closeness which can make uncomfortable questioning harder. People who have known each other for years do not automatically ask the questions nobody wants to hear. Yet that is exactly one of the board’s core duties.

A board should not aim to run as smoothly as possible. It should create effect. Sometimes that means organising dissent. Bringing in outside perspectives. Sharpening decisions. Recognising risks earlier. And occasionally telling the executive team: not like this.