Grow Strong Leaders Podcast
I’m fascinated by what it takes for leaders to live their values consistently, especially when it’s hard.
On the Grow Strong Leaders Podcast, I have candid conversations with senior executives who are working to sustain principled leadership at scale inside complex organizations. We talk about how values are reinforced through leadership capability, organizational systems, and the everyday decisions leaders make.
Our discussions also explore what gets tested when pressure rises—and the personal guardrails leaders rely on to stay aligned.
This podcast is for leaders who believe values should guide real decisions, not just appear on the wall.
Grow Strong Leaders Podcast
378: The Best Boards Ask the Hardest Questions
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Vera Cherepanova, Executive Director of Boards of the Future, believes the strongest boards are not the ones with the best reports, but the ones willing to ask the hardest questions. In this conversation, she explains why ethics cannot be treated as a compliance exercise or a checklist after decisions are made. True governance requires courage, dissent, and a willingness to examine what leaders may prefer not to see.
We explore her concept of FOFO—fear of finding out—and how it keeps boards from asking difficult questions that could expose risk, protect reputation, and strengthen trust. Vera also shares how silence, conformity, and the absence of real challenge can quietly erode culture from the top down. If values are meant to guide decisions, then boards must create the conditions where truth can be spoken and principled leadership can thrive.
Vera is the Executive Director of Boards of the Future, a nonprofit advancing ethical leadership and integrity at the highest levels of corporate power. Vera serves as a chair, director, and ethics advisor to global professional bodies, corporations, and international nonprofits. She has authored the guide, How Boards Should Oversee Ethics: A Ten-Practice Guide for Modern Boards, challenging boards to move beyond compliance checklists. Her latest work focuses on how boards oversee ethics, cultivate dissent, and create the conditions for principled leadership when pressure is highest.
You’ll discover:
- Why compliance and ethics are not the same thing
- How fear of finding out creates costly leadership blind spots
- What makes people stay silent when they should speak up
- Simple ways leaders can create safer spaces for dissent
- How boardroom behavior shapes culture across the organization
Connect with Vera Cherepanova on Social Media
Websites
Guide
How Boards Should Oversee Ethics: A Ten-Practice Guide for Modern Boards
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