Leadership Under Siege
This fall higher ed witnessed the drawn-out downfall of yet another Michigan State leader, after rifts between the board and President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. eventually forced him to resign.
The details of the situation are unique, but as we all know, toxic board relations are not. For insight on how to avoid or respond to rising tensions, I spoke with Zach Olsen, president of Infinite Global, a crisis-communications firm that works with colleges and other institutions facing big controversies.
Bottom line: Managing your personal risk as a leader begins long before accepting a new position, he said. Here are five tips from our conversation:
Develop allies before you need them. From Day 1, begin to build strong, trusting relationships with fellow administrators, board members, faculty and staff members, students, and other constituents. Communicate with people directly, frequently, and transparently, and try to be accessible and relatable, so you have rapport long before a controversy might arise.
Stanley communicated directly with the MSU community, putting out a YouTube video to explain his side of the story. But it came too late, Olsen said, after people had already lost too much faith in Stanley, and he was announcing his resignation.
Don’t wait too long to engage. Boards can be savvy about leveraging the media and their attorneys to establish a narrative and sway public opinion against a leader, Olsen said. Most controversies don’t erupt overnight, and it’s important to get ahead of them. If you wait, it can be hard to tell your story and salvage your reputation, he said.
Be ready with an answer about the past. Any leader who has confronted a prior controversy should be prepared, before questions arise, with a solid answer, he said — as should the board. Egos can lead people to believe that a crisis will never happen to them, he said, and get in the way of having an emergency plan in place.
Two cases Olsen cited:
– Trustees at Oregon State University came under pressure to fire the new president, F. King Alexander, for his handling of sexual-misconduct allegations at Louisiana State University. Alexander ultimately resigned.
– The board tried to support Joseph I. Castro as the California State University system chancellor despite allegations of mismanagement when he led the Fresno campus. Faculty and students had turned against him, and he was ultimately forced to step down.
Be realistic about your exposure. Leaders are extremely vulnerable, because as public figureheads, they are generally held accountable for everything that occurs at their institution, even if they were not directly involved. In the case of Michigan State, Olsen said, Title IX was already a particular vulnerability, and it factored into the board’s allegations against Stanley.
Have a good team behind you. Legal and public-relations counsel are crucial, Olsen said. Leaders deal with so much on many fronts that temporary tunnel vision can obscure possible threats. They need others around them whose job it is to look out for pitfalls — or for opportunities.