I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Directors & Boards executive editor at large Charles Elson and The Wall Street Journal contributor Joann Lublin for the Executive Session podcast. In a podcast commemorating the magazine’s 50th anniversary celebration, Lublin, who along with serving a variety of roles at WSJ has written for publications such as The Economist and authored such books as Earning It and Power Moms, gauged our thoughts on the most significant governance events of the last 50 years, the most valuable governance lessons learned in the last five years, the issues that will present the most challenge for boards in the near future and the risks that we should be paying closer attention to now.
It was in answering the question on risk that I stated that one of the greatest issues for boards is monitoring the ongoing opinions of talent and “people,” such as customers and other stakeholders, on a host of matters, such as AI, brand reputation and company political allegiances. Charles agreed with me, which made me think I might be on to something, but it was in building on to my answer that Joann truly opened up my eyes.
“One other risk that we ought to be thinking about is the risk of board members not taking their roles seriously enough,” said Lublin, pointing to the words of longtime governance consultant and author Ralph Ward, who recently wrote a piece titled “Corporate Boards Are Now a Real Job (So Why Do We Still Treat It Like a Hobby)?” It made me wonder: Do private company board members and those who wish to become such realize how much of a commitment being a private company director is?
A quick look at the agenda for The Private Company Governance Summit 2026, which took place June 10-12, 2026, and is covered at length in the latest edition of the magazine as well as on Private Company Director online, reveals a look at the laundry list of issues flying at private and family company boards on a daily basis: board composition decisions, economic and geopolitical risks, CEO succession, board refreshment – the list goes on. It is causing the time needed to serve as a private company director to soar.
The latest version of the “Private Company Board Compensation Survey,” from Private Company Director and Compensation Advisory Partners, is detailed in our latest magazine, but ample evidence was already found in the 2025 version. According to the report, the number of private company directors working more than 100 hours per year rose 18% from 2024 to 2025. About one-third of respondents to the survey said they spend 51-100 hours annually on board work, and 21% now exceed 100 hours, with committee work adding another 10 to 20 hours on top of that. It isn’t the number of meetings that is growing – it’s the prep time, the committee load and the amount of between-meeting engagement needed to keep up.
A 2024 “Director Pulse Survey” from Spencer Stuart drives home the point, with private company directors responding that they average 148 hours annually and 70% stating that their workload had increased – 48% slightly and 22% significantly.
The question then becomes what can private company directors do to prepare themselves for those realities?
First, make sure you don’t join too many boards. Just one board seat is going to take up a sizeable amount of your time. Multiply that by three or four boards and you could have a serious dilemma on your hands.
Also, make sure that as part of your discussions on the position, you ask for time expectations before you accept. Speak to a director already on the board about the frequency of meetings, interim phone calls and travel.
To deal with board subject matter that requires expertise outside your lane – for many directors, that can include AI and cybersecurity, but there are certainly others – invest in structured education, such as formal certification or committee-specific training.
And if you find yourself overburdened, make sure to communicate with the board chair or CEO about reducing committee load or adjusting scope. It’s much better than burning out silently or exiting mid-term.
But as Lublin states, perhaps the best thing a director can do to ensure success in a role is to know what you are getting into. Board service is taking up more of directors’ time and the issues that they are confronting are getting more complicated, causing more time to be used to stay fluent in the boardroom. Before you accept that seat, make sure that you are willing to commit the time and effort in a manner that will bring about success for the company and fulfillment for yourself.