Trustee Leadership

Few things matter more to the success of a college or university than effective trustee leadership. Leadership is the capacity to shape an organization’s future. The days when heroic presidents could lead as a solo act are over. Today’s higher education environment calls for more thought partners to generate meaningful alternatives for the future and new ways of thinking about approaches to how colleges and universities function optimally.

The challenges facing higher education today require collaborative leadership. Campus-based collaborations with faculty, staff, and students are essential but they must be extended beyond the campus to include lay leadership. No matter how insightful, campus-based thinking can always be improved, and sometimes artfully reshaped or expanded, by utilizing the broader perspective and thought leadership that good trustees can provide. Wise trustee leaders grounded in both the institution’s vision and ethos can be invaluable intellectual assets.

What Effective Trustee Leadership Can Mean to an Institution 

Trustee leadership in fashioning a winning strategy can be particularly important through the questions they will bring and the larger perspectives they can offer. No group will be more helpful in moving beyond the strategic planning models that many campus leaders embrace to an overarching strategy that can propel an institution forward.

Wise trustee leadership can elevate campus conversations about the most complex planning issues. They can help move the typical approach of shared governance from a division of labor to a fusion of thinking. Shared governance seems to mean something different at every institution. Simply put, effective shared governance is optimizing the collective intelligence of the entire college or university community. As one gifted former president said, “Now is the time for all hands on deck.”

What Effective Trustee Leadership Can Mean for Presidents

Rethinking trusteeship as leadership can be life-changing for presidents. Properly designed trustee meetings provide rare opportunities for presidents to share their dilemmas, hopes, and fears, and receive confidential feedback. When the partnership is deep, good presidents are not just sharing something fully formulated. Something much more dynamic is underway. Presidents are not bringing to their board a “completely baked cake” for endorsement, but are openly reflecting, being listened to and questioned, and benefiting from trustee insight that can bring a fuller awareness of all aspects of an issue. This kind of open engagement requires a level of deep trust that is built up over time. Most importantly, trustee meetings can be a time to engage in strategy dialogue and generative thinking that transcends academic assumptions that can constrain best thinking.

An effective board of trustees can be a remarkable source of support, energy, and insight. There is also a growing need for boards to support their presidents in staying the course through the bruising storms that abound in today’s higher education environment. With social media so unruly, it has become much more difficult to lead in these polarized times. Now more than ever institutions are struggling with very difficult and often high-visibility conflicts. Governing boards can play a critical role in providing the support and wisdom needed in times of campus crisis.

A college or university can have no more effective ambassador than a committed trustee. In both capital campaigns and annual giving they can set the pace with their own giving example and be the institution’s most passionate volunteers. Effective governance will not only engage and inspire trustees but liberate them to spend more time on beyond- the-boardroom tasks. According to the AGB 2020 Trustee Index, the average time spent by college and university trustees is about 100 hours per year. Corporate directors spend about 245 hours per year. Think of all you can accomplish with a higher level of investment in trustee governance.

In times of crisis, committed board members will elevate their governance game. They will be there to contribute even more of their time, talents, and treasure. During the 2008–2009 financial crisis, it was inspiring to see our board step up in every way, from increased giving to being very effective admissions volunteers. Most importantly, they became invaluable strategy partners.

Trustee Recruitment and Retention

To paraphrase Jim Collin’ “Good to Great” mantra, trustees are not your most important asset. The right trustees are. So how do you recruit the right people to join your board?

Assembling the right group of trustees takes time and requires a strong partnership with board leadership. You want to be sure you have some of your best trustees on your board committee that nominates new trustees. Your chief development person can play a key role in generating prospects.

Recruiting the Right Trustees 

Recruiting and retaining trustee talent requires ongoing research into relationships the college or university has with alumni, donors, and parents. It involves listening carefully to what matters most to these talented people. It then calls for giving them a picture of both the institution’s aspirations and how much trustee service matters.

Most institutions are not blessed with a large pool of prospective trustees from traditional sources—alumni, parents, and long-time supporters. Some of your best prospects will be generated by you as you make it a calendar priority to meet with successful people who you could envision being great board members. Find a way for them to experience your college or university firsthand. They may have no direct connection with the institution initially other than meeting you and hearing your vision for the institution.

Building a deep pool of prospective trustees should be a top priority for the president, the board chair, and the trustee governance committee. Ideally, part of this process involves giving prospects the opportunity to experience the institution, but also an opportunity for current trustees to observe how they work with others. Besides alumni boards, parent councils, and program advisory boards, trustee ad hoc committee service offers a way to gauge interest and the ability to contribute meaningfully.

Sometimes you receive a signal that a constituent is committed and ready to get involved in advancing the institution. A grateful parent sends an unusually large unsolicited gift. You then discover this individual brings a host of other talents and valuable traits. You still want to get to know that individual better and ideally meet a member of the trustee governance committee.

Rethinking Board Governance Needs 

In building a pool of prospective trustees, trustee governance committees are often inclined to create a matrix of trustee talent needs in terms of professional skills. Unfortunately, this often inhibits selecting the best people and can reinforce a managerial vision of trusteeship. A matrix of trustee talent needs can be useful if it includes broad categories that help ensure a plurality of perspectives and some attributes that are especially timely for dealing with emerging institutional issues.

Another way to think about trustee recruitment and evaluating trustee potential is to ask what kind of asset or capital a prospective trustee might bring to the board. Richard Chait and his associates outline four categories a potential trustee might bring to the board: intellectual, reputational, political, and social. They point out that these assets not only need to be acquired but cultivated. Trustees need to be cultivated to “give” and “get” financial resources relative to their financial capacity, but they also need to be continually reminded of all the ways they can be a source of capital.

Having a truly diverse governing board can be an invaluable asset in addressing the social change challenges and opportunities facing colleges and universities today. Higher education is changing rapidly in terms of who it serves, and diversity is a key to graduating students who can compete, thrive, and lead in a global workplace. Having trustees who can speak from their own experiences about the needs of students of color will be essential. They will understand fully student calls for social justice and can raise insightful questions about the authenticity and effectiveness of proposed diversity initiatives.

One of AGB’s Principles of Trusteeship is to “champion justice, equity, and inclusion.” It reminds trustees of their moral and educational responsibility to provide leadership on issues of justice, equity, and inclusion and that the financial importance of these efforts is equally compelling. Trustee commitment to being champions of justice, equity, and inclusion calls for a board recruitment effort that reflects the institution’s genuine resolve to embrace these values.

At both institutions I served, I was so fortunate to recruit a few truly extraordinary trustees who possessed a rare combination of wisdom, gravitas, grace, and courage. They understood the dynamics of group behavior and knew when to speak and when to listen. They listened carefully and led discussions in an unassuming way. When they spoke, everyone listened. They were not necessarily the wealthiest trustees, but they were the wisest.

Some of these individuals were recently retired CEOs who had considerable organizational experience to offer. They were true servant leaders who welcomed an opportunity to contribute their own lessons learned but never sought the limelight. Sometimes they had some connection with the institution (such as a spouse attended), but often it was seeking out talented individuals who had an affinity for the institution’s mission.

Recruiting this kind of trustee talent takes time and involves painting pictures of how the institution’s vision might align with trustees’ own vision of how they want to leave the world a better place. Aiming high in recruiting this kind of trustee talent requires patience and rejection hardiness. Few presidents will “bat a thousand,” but securing this kind of trustee talent is well worth the effort.

Age should not be a barrier in trustee recruitment. One very prestigious university with a high-performing board always seeks to have five “under 30” alumni trustees. A good diversity of age, ethnicity, and gender helps you have the plurality of perspectives that aid wise decision-making.

Think of trustee recruitment as building a great team. You and your trustee governance committee should always be asking, “What do we most need to build upon the strengths we already have in place?”

One very successful former president articulates the keys to success in building a great governing board as follows:

• Recruit the brightest people with high character you can find;
• Work with your board chair to reinforce a meeting atmosphere that promotes civility and mutual respect; and
• Constantly preach the institution’s values.

He added, “Great boards have a sixth sense about how to proceed once you have set the stage and recruited the right people.”

Making Trusteeship Meaningful

Trustee retention requires giving trustees not only a sense of belonging but work that matters. Ultimately, trustees also need to know they are appreciated and cared for. Upon entry into any new organization, we are all subconsciously asking these questions: “Do I belong? Do I matter? Am I cared for?”

Years ago, I learned this simple truth: Every time we enter a new organization, whether it be a school, a workplace, or a house of worship, we subconsciously begin asking ourselves these three basic questions. Once you have answered the initial question, “Do I belong?” and you feel a genuine sense of belonging, you naturally move to the second question, “Do I matter?” And once you gain a sense that you make a difference, you move to the third question, “Am I cared for?” It is easy to see these dynamics at work on a college campus in the lives of students, faculty, and staff. You will also observe that these dynamics are present in the way trustees behave and embrace their work.

As trustee service becomes more meaningful, trustee recruitment and retention become easier. You can keep aiming higher and expecting more and your recruitment reach will expand. In fact, when governance work focuses on questions of consequence, raising the bar on trustee recruitment and performance will evolve naturally.

When Trustees Are Appointed

When trustees are appointed by a sponsoring body, whether it be the state or the church, assembling the right people around the board table becomes more challenging. Some presidents blessed with uncommon political savvy are able to exert enough influence over the appointment process to acquire the trustee talent the board needs. Others are not so fortunate. So how do you create a high-performing board when you may have new trustees with agendas other than advancing the institution or where loyalty ultimately aligns most closely with a political or theological point of view?

My years in church-related higher education suggest that all the precepts outlined in this book apply but you have to give special attention to trustees who come with a specific agenda. You listen with empathy to their concerns. You demonstrate that you respect them and care for them. As many of us were taught in our youth, “you love them more than they deserve.”

A wise board chair can be an invaluable partner in reinforcing the role and duties of a good governing board. A good board chair can be prompted to periodically remind trustees that:

• All board members are equals.
• There are no stupid questions.
• We are responsible for the institution’s financial, operational, and legal viability, but we do not run the institution. That is the job of the president.
• We have a fiduciary responsibility for the “here and now” but an ultimate responsibility to help the president chart a path for an even brighter future.
• We do not “check our brains at the ” We are here to offer our wisdom, experiences, and insight.
• We deal with precepts more than particulars.
• We support the institution with our time, our talents, and our financial support.
• We are governors and we are also ambassadors. If we do not speak up for the institution, who will?
• We speak with one voice.

It takes time and patience, but over time, most of these trustees will understand the bigger picture and what it means to be a part of a high-performing board. (And for those who need to be reminded, the Principles of Trusteeship is an excellent point of departure.)

One gifted public board chair was skilled at conducting meetings that engaged everyone. This board was equally divided by strong-willed individuals who fell into one of two political camps. The board chair was able to get the board to focus its work on precepts. Over time the board developed 12 policy precepts for improving education that everyone could agree to. So it became over time a highly functional board that focused on precepts.

Trustees as Thought Partners

Presidents look to their governing boards for decision approvals and financial support. Now is the time to fully engage them as thought partners. Properly grounded in the institution’s ethos, trustees can serve as invaluable intellectual assets.

The Need for Thought Partners

Today’s higher education challenges call for fresh thinking. Experienced trustees are uniquely positioned to augment campus-based thinking and raise good questions about traditional higher education assumptions. Today’s problems will not be solved by yesterday’s thinking.

Good decision-making in our current environment calls for more thought partners and a new way of thinking about higher education governance. Traditionally, higher education has seen shared governance as a division of labor. Now is the time for a fusion of thinking that goes beyond traditional higher education governance structures. Now is the time to invite trustees to not only execute their fiduciary responsibilities but to provide strategic leadership.

Trustees are uniquely positioned to help frame questions broadly that can increase the number of alternatives an institution might consider. Good trustees will be less territorial in their thinking. They are best equipped to help the president and campus leaders focus on bigger questions that will yield better results. Optimizing trustees as thought partners calls for openness, trust, and mutual respect on everyone’s part. Presidents must be willing to admit “I don’t know” and share their own uncertainties. Good trustees will find this level of openness refreshing and know that they are genuinely valued as a potential source of insight and wisdom. They will be ready to partner with the president and campus leadership in charting the best course forward.

Cultivating Thought Leadership

Building a close relationship with your board chair is an essential first step. Nothing matters more. Spending time with your trustee chair on board business is important but finding ample time to be together socially can be much more meaningful. Touching base weekly with a campus update is helpful for both the president and the chair. Deep relationships develop over time as you spend time together socially over meals and visits in each other’s homes.

Every board has thought leaders. They may be serving as board officers or committee chairs. They may hold no official leadership role but when they speak everyone out of respect for their wisdom and experience listens very carefully.

Cultivating and fully utilizing trustee thought leaders is time well spent. They are your greatest sources of intellectual capital. Their leadership on big, directional questions can be invaluable in shaping the institution’s future.

In addition to formal leadership roles such as chairing standing committees, thought leaders can lead important board conversations in plenary sessions. They can be especially helpful in leading ad hoc committees in which the decisions will be challenging and there are no clear answers.

Leadership and Shared Governance 

This is where trustees are at their best and also where they derive the most satisfaction. As one experienced trustee once commented, “On most boards, I felt like I was just being treated as a bank account. I wanted to be more than an ATM machine! It is so rewarding to contribute ideas; I feel like I am really making a difference.” Or as another board member shared, “Working on big questions is the most satisfying part of being a board member. It was like playing on a great team.”

They can also be key to very meaningful shared governance conversations with faculty, students, and staff. Providing a “common table” where a small group of trustees and campus leaders can work together on important issues will produce better thinking and help foster the kind of truly shared governance that is needed in these challenging times. Properly designed, shared governance conversations can align organizational energies and give everyone a chance to give their best.

One college president shares that when he arrived, everyone was lulled by “o.k.” admissions numbers. He could see that they were actually softening and that program offerings lacked prospective student appeal. He shared, “Our curriculum had not changed in many years.” He called upon board members to help faculty understand the need to innovate. After many long dinners with trustee and faculty leadership, trust slowly began to build. Faculty came to appreciate how much trustees loved the institution and wanted it to succeed. Everyone was asked to work on what they could bring to the table and a genuine collaboration emerged. Creative ideas surfaced as faculty found board members trustworthy. New short courses and student opportunities were created to bridge student skill gaps and ensure student success. Without a major curriculum change, the college’s offerings became more attractive to prospective students and admissions numbers improved significantly.

Finding the Right Questions

The genesis for the right board leadership questions can emerge from a variety of settings and in a number of ways. Beyond the work of the agenda committee, the right questions can come from very candid conversation with the president in an executive session, a trustee retreat devoted to future higher education trends, or a dilemma with no easy answers posed by a standing committee. Leadership questions highly effective boards have been asking include:

• How do we rethink our business model?
• How can we foster student community engagement in ways that optimize the student learning experience?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of augmenting our undergraduate offerings with selected graduate and professional programs?

Colleges and universities grow in the direction of the questions trustees ask.

Big issues worthy of trustee attention abound during this moment in higher education history. But prioritizing potential agenda items and properly framing the right questions takes time.

Ideally, trustees focus on questions that will increase the number of alternatives an institution might consider. Richard Chait calls them “generative” questions. These tend to be important directional questions that fully engage trustees (and ideally the larger campus community) over a sustained period of time.

Finding the right questions can be as basic as a board meeting session devoted to identifying the top three issues facing the institution over the year ahead. For boards with agenda committees that meet over the summer to map out board meeting priorities for the year, deciding on the right question or questions is always the first assignment. Sometimes the right questions emerge naturally in a board meeting plenary session or in an executive session with the president.

During a plenary session about student financial access, one trustee remarked, “We are investing a lot of our budget in financial aid. Is there any way students receiving financial aid could have a little more ‘skin in the game’? Is there a way our financial aid investment can be more of a ‘win-win’ for the student and the institution?” Working on that question led to the creation of our students’ associates program whereby student employment went far beyond traditional work-study in the tasks and responsibilities involved. It would provide valuable “real world” experience for students and fill in staff gaps for a very lean administrative staff, ultimately involving well over 100 students and providing the institution with the equivalent of better than 30 staff FTE.

Building up trustees to be true thought partners takes deliberate effort from the president and the board chair. For board chairs, the Principles of Trusteeship’s guidance to think strategically, which encompasses Principles 7, 8, and 9, is a great place to start for priming new trustees for the vital commitment to thought partnership and leadership.

Building the Partnership

Building the president-board partnership you envision takes time and patience. It starts with you and your resolve to make trustee governance a personal priority. It calls for a high level of candor, openness, and trust. It will be fueled and nourished by an ongoing flow of information that works well for you and your board.

The Need for Candid Conversation 

Good communication means sharing with the board both the “good” and the “bad.” No leader enjoys sharing negative or disappointing news, but you will be an even more respected and trusted leader when you share difficulties candidly. Presidents who try to “spin” or minimize difficult situations will never have a meaningful relationship with trustees. As my friend the late Bill O’Brien would remind me, “It will not show up on an X-Ray or MRI, but everyone has built inside of them a manure detector.”

After speaking to a gathering of new presidents I was asked by one participant, “So how do you handle the board? I hear they can be difficult.” My response, “You don’t handle the board, you engage them.”

Too many presidents operate with a “persuade and prevail” approach. Building a partnership with your board is not about persuading. It is about discerning and discussing together.

Deepening Board Relationships

If you are willing to take it a step further, good board relationships are enhanced when presidents are willing to reflect with their boards and share (in an executive session) their dilemmas, deepest concerns, and greatest fears. This step further into self-reflection can come naturally over time when the president has really developed a solid relationship with key trustees.

Sometimes the most meaningful words you can utter in a board meeting are “I don’t know.” This can be the perfect prologue to an honest and productive board conversation about a difficult issue. You share your hunches and your leadership team’s best thinking, but you invite trustees to offer their perspectives and follow-up questions. Your relationship with the board will deepen as you acknowledge that you don’t have all the answers. Wise trustees know from their own experiences that no good leader is all-knowing. Asking board members for their counsel and best thinking about difficult matters deepens their confidence that you value their perspectives and insights and genuinely want to partner with them.

Building a genuine board partnership begins with your chair. (Ideally your chair will be leading the board for several years. It takes a while to master the role.) It requires spending time together—not just concerning board matters but over personal matters as well. Ideally, it will involve traveling together and socializing in each other’s homes. Your board chair should be one of your best friends.

Beyond your relationship with your chair, it is important to develop a solid relationship with other board leaders. It may or may not be the formally elected leadership of the board. It is pretty evident after a couple of meetings whose voice is most respected. Ideally, you develop a relationship with them on work that transcends board business.

Building Common Understandings 

Building a strong president-board partnership that is nourished by a good flow of information between meetings will help avoid any number of pitfalls. At the top of the list of potential misunderstandings is who decides what. The long-standing belief that boards focus on policy decisions while presidents and senior campus leaders make administrative decisions is an important distinction that good trustee orientation sessions emphasize. But for so many potential decisions it is not crystal clear where the final decision lies.

Does the president make the decision and then inform the board? Does the president decide after conversation with the board or board chair? Does the board decide after discussion with the president?

As the partnership grows, trustees will increasingly defer to the president to make more of those “grey area” decisions. You will acquire a sense that the board and trustees have grown in their confidence you can be counted on to make the right call. There is no fixed set of rules about who decides what. It varies so much with culture and tradition, length of presidential tenure, and the financial strength of the institution. Some decisions are set in a highly prescriptive set of bylaws.

A healthy president-board partnership makes assumptions about where authority lies so much clearer. You understand what the board values most dearly. Board trust and confidence that you are making the right call grows.

Being Vision-Driven

Having a truly shared vision for the institution provides the ultimate touchstone for making decisions. Trustee involvement is essential in creating a shared vision that the entire campus community can embrace. Following the formal adoption of a vision statement, spending time over several meetings exploring all the implications of the vision are important. Every packet of board meeting materials should also include your vision statement. Properly developed and lived out daily by you and your team, it will become more than a piece of paper. It will be a force in people’s hearts.

Keeping the institution’s vision at the forefront also reinforces the kind of partnership with trustees you want to develop and nurture. A relentless focus on vision also suggests the kind of questions most worthy of their time and talents. It becomes board governance at its best.

A great board partnership will naturally evolve into an emphasis on the big directional questions to which boards can contribute most meaningfully in advancing the institution. It will be joyful work for them and for you and your team. You will be optimizing a great asset at a time when it matters most for the institution and for you.

Everyone Wins

Everyone wins in a well-crafted, well-executed president-board partnership. Trustees will be more engaged, and their lives will be enriched knowing how much they matter to the institution they govern. They are in no way abdicating their traditional fiduciary role. They are enhancing it as they move back and forth from their basic duties to bigger, more forward-thinking questions to which they have more to offer. And in no way are you diminishing your role. In fact, you are enhancing your leadership as you collaborate with trustees. You will gain new insights, create more organizational alignment, and lead with even more confidence, encouragement, and support. And most importantly, the institution you serve and love will be even better positioned for success.

Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from AGB’s recently released book, A President’s Guide to Effective Board Leadership. Download it at www.agb.org/books.

William E. Troutt, PhD, is a nationally recognized leader in education and served for 35 years as a college president. In July 2017, he became the president emeritus of Rhodes College, having led the college as president since 1999. Prior to Rhodes, Troutt served as the president of Belmont University for 17 years. Troutt was named one of America’s most effective college presidents, and in 2009 received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. In 2017, he received the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities’ highest honor, the Henry Paley Memorial Award for his service on behalf of independent higher education. He currently serves as a trustee of the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Endnotes

1. Abigail Johnson Hess, “Harvard Business School professor: Half of American colleges will be bankrupt in 10 to 15 years,” CNBC, August 30, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/ hbs-prof-says-half-of-us-colleges-will-be-bankrupt-in-10-to-15-years.html.
2. Jill Barshay, “College students predicted to fall by more than 15% after the year 2025,” The Hechinger Report, September 10, 2018, https://hechingerreport.org/ college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/.
3. Michael Poliakoff, “How Higher Education Leaders Should Respond to the Coronavirus Financial Crisis,” Forbes, April 14, 2020, https://www.forbcom/sites/ michaelpoliakoff/2020/04/14/how-higher-education-leaders-should-respond-to-the- coronavirus-financial-crisis/?sh=1cb55d518d48.
4. “Resource Optimization Initiative (ROI),” University of Central Arkansas, accessed August 13, 2021, https://uca.edu/roi/.
5. “Business Functions,” McKinsey & Company, accessed August 13, 2021, https://www. mckinsey.com/business-functions.
6. Tony Jeary, Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life (New York: Vanguard Press, 2009).