Corporate directors are eager to spend more time developing long-term strategy, according to the latest McKinsey Quarterly survey on governance.¹ Indeed, they want to accord a higher priority to talent management and forward-looking strategies that maximize shareholder value and to spend less time dealing with issues such as compliance. But this may be easier said than done: in addition to saying that their priorities are misaligned, directors also indicate that they lack the knowledge, expertise, and substantive interaction with management that could help them contribute to developing long-term strategy.

Some directors, however, say their boards already have a strong influence on creating corporate value (as measured by total returns to shareholders). At these companies, boards are far likelier to spend more time on strategic activities, such as analyzing leading indicators to predict future performance; to have deep expertise and access to many levels of managers; and to engage with management in substantive debates about long-term strategy.

These insights emerged from the survey, which generated responses from 586 corporate directors, 51 percent of them CEOs or other C-level executives. Respondents represent 378 private and 161 public companies; the remainder work at nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Twenty-six percent of the...