Top 10 Imperatives for LEADERSHIP/REPORTS
Successful Governing Boards
In
by Jeff Simmons
its 2012 annual report, the Association of Governing our observation that while many of those boards are functionBoards (AGB) of Colleges and Universities identified ing very well or quite good, there are a few that we walk into the increasing demands placed on institutions of high- where they don’t say to us that there are opportunities for er learning to provide quality education amid diminished improvement around the issues of best practices, good goverresources. nance, functioning, education and diversity. Such challenges further amplify the importance of estab“We thought it would be timely to put our heads together lishing strong leadership at the helm of an institution, and and see what we can do to surface this issue of improving wisely charting a course that board performance in a construcimproves services, education, and tive way. As you look at the Top 10, reputation. we are saying there are opportuni“2012 brought new demands on ties for boards to take a careful colleges and universities to ensure look, to audit their performance, that significantly more students and try to achieve best practices in receive a quality education at a reagovernance.” sonable price, even as institutional Gauss has more than three resources continue to be severely decades of experience advising limited,” said AGB board of directors board members and CEOs on best chair James E. Geringer and AGB practices in governance, leadership President Richard D. Legon. transition and succession planning “Our institutions also are conin periods of rapid change. Haley fronting growing government and conducts senior leadership searchregulatory oversight and declining es, particularly at the presidential public faith in the value of higher level, on behalf of colleges and unieducation. Now more than ever versities. before, boards must strike an effecThe following are their Top 10 tive balance between traditional imperatives: oversight and the need to meet James W. Gauss, chairman of board services, growing public expectations.” Diversify Witt/Kieffer executive search firm On the frontlines of meeting Topping the Top 10 is diversificathese expectations are the indepention of the board that leads the institudent boards of volunteer trustees, leaders who for more than tion. A board should reflect a school’s constituency but also have 375 years have served higher education and faced current and a diversity of expertise and viewpoints, Gauss and Haley stress. new needs with an eye toward future challenges. Two AGB surveys issued in 2010 found that college trustees Addressing those needs will involve more than responding were overwhelmingly white, male, and over 50. The surveys, to a current crisis or funding obstacle, but instead require of more than 700 private and public institutions, noted that cementing an agenda that addresses multiple issues and estab- whites represented 74.3 percent of trustee spots at public lishing key measures critical for success. institutions and 87.5 percent at private ones. Among public James W. Gauss, chairman of board services, and Katherine boards, the surveys noted, the average 12-voting member Haley, PhD, education consultant, at executive search firm breakdown included nine white members, two black, and one Witt/Kieffer, have developed a list of 10 imperatives they stress person of another race. are crucial for higher education boards to adhere to in the Initially, institutions must determine how they define “diversity.” foreseeable future. “There is a very wide range of definitions,” Gauss says. “We work with a lot of universities and colleges and spend “The very first thing we suggest that organizations do to take a a lot of time in their boardrooms,” Gauss says. “It has been more careful look at this is sit down as an organization and as
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