Portraits in Leadership: Six Extraordinary University Presidents (ACE/Praeger Series on Higher Education)

The author's plan follows three circles that overlap to form its basic framework: 1. The university as a complex organization; 2. Leadership - its patterns, theories, and commonalities; and 3. Case studies of exemplary leaders, which highlight their early experiences and actions. The overlap of the three circles defines the conclusions and synthesis. Each leader's story covers four areas: Childhood background; formal schooling/education; senior leadership roles and major defining events, successes, and failures; and forecasts for higher education and its leadership. The book includes an assortment of public and private universities, which provides a diversity of leaders who face significant differences in terms of control, financing, and oversight. This diversity allows for more useful comparisons and contrasts. The author explains the enormous role that persuasion (rather than domination or power) plays in successful leadership. It is clear that persuasion is effective in many settings, and not just in the university environment, but it is particularly effective in the university environment because stakeholders are so varied, and there are so many of them.