At companies of almost all sizes, across all sectors, boards are undergoing a profound transformation. Largely as a result of intensifying shareholder intolerance of mediocre or poor corporate performance, the ceremonial boards of the past are being replaced by active boards that are more demanding of managers and more intrusive in their affairs.

For ten years or more, China has been a uniquely powerful engine of the global economy, regularly posting high single-figure or even double-digit annual increases in GDP. More recently, growth has slowed, prompting sharp falls in international commodity prices and casting a shadow over the near-term prospects for developed and emerging markets.

To help CEOs and board chairs, as well as executives and directors, build strong boards, this McKinsey Quarterly CEO guide synthesizes multiple sources to make quick sense of complex issues in corporate governance.

The success of CEOs is deeply linked to the success of the companies they lead, but the vast body of popular literature on the topic explores this relationship largely in qualitative terms. The dangers of these approaches are well known: it’s easy to be misled by outliers or to conclude, mistakenly, that prominent actions which seem correlated with success were responsible for it.

Through energy, leaders can infuse others with purpose, impart meaning, encourage the pursuit of goals, and receive feedback. CEOs who harness energy accelerate value creation, while those who deplete energy or allow it to dissipate struggle to achieve their goals.

These new insights from McKinsey suggest that simple tweaks in leaders’ communication and behaviour can potentially create a much more productive atmosphere for any team.