Presidencies Derailed: Why University Leaders Fail and How to Prevent It by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Gerald B. Kauvar, & E. Grady Bogue (review)

Presidents do not fall from grace quietly. They come crashing down in full view of an attentive public. Faculty, students, and administrators look on, often with satisfaction, sometimes with regret. Trustees, public and private, are uncomfortable but ready to move on. Other presidents become introspective as they consider how to avoid an inglorious end. And, the media speculate but rarely understand all the nuances of the situation and how significant failure can be to an institution.

There are those who assert that presidents come and go and are not critical in the life of an institution. Robert Birnbaum says, “I am somewhat skeptical about the importance of ‘leadership’ as we usually define it. Institutions seem to continue to function effectively even when the president is a jerk” (personal communication, September 30, 2013). However, a failed presidency, especially a short term one, is costly to an institution. There are financial costs in removing one president and installing a new one. In some cases, the cost escalates due to investment in a public relations firm to help mitigate the damage to the institution. There are also intangible costs, including a delay in strategic planning and fundraising as well as a negative impact on morale, institutional reputation, and public trust.

In Presidencies Derailed: Why University Leaders Fail and How to Prevent it, by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Gerald B. Kauvar, and E. Grady Bogue, a series of case studies illuminate the types of behavior exhibited by presidents and boards that lead to termination within the period of the first contract. These cases are followed with advice for aspiring presidents and boards about improving the processes of search, transition, and assessment.

As a former college president and author of a number of publications about the presidency, I welcome studies and analyses that shed light on the vexing challenge of failed presidencies. This book does a good job of exploring the causes of presidential derailment, and will be helpful to aspiring and sitting presidents and to members of governing boards. The authors identify lessons we can learn from failed presidencies in public and private, large and small institutions, as well as state systems. According to the authors, during 2009 and 2010, fifty college, university, and system presidents resigned, retired prematurely, or were fired. Although this is a small percentage of the number of sitting presidents, these events have an outsized impact on higher education because of the media scrutiny they receive.

The authors point out that even those who have experience in a prior presidency are at risk in a new environment. And, presidents who follow successful, long-time presidents have more difficulty than others. The authors have developed a matrix of six major causes of presidential failure based on the situations they explore in the case studies. The foundation for this analysis is drawn, in large part, from research in the business sector. This explains the use of concepts unfamiliar in higher education, such as CEO “derailment” and “on-boarding” (cultural assimilation) of new appointees. The six causes of presidential derailment identified are: ethical lapses, poor interpersonal skills, inability to lead key constituencies, difficulty adapting, failure to meet business objectives, and board shortcomings, such as conducting a flawed search, micromanagement, and unethical behavior.

The authors make a strong case for the annual evaluation of the president. Rather than being perceived as punitive, periodic feedback from the board, administration, and faculty should provide constructive guidance for the president. The authors point out that several of the derailed presidents had not received formal performance evaluations; in some cases the evaluations had been conducted but were not used. The board, they point out, should also assess itself and its relationship to the president to identify tensions that can be corrected or eliminated.

Most of the case studies of president derailment...