Recruit your next president using the forensic model

The interview as a form of personal testimony is a staple of the presidential search ritual that is here to stay. What should be set aside, however, is the naive belief that public performance is a sure guide to a candidate’s leadership potential. The entire search process stands to be improved with steps that bring stronger candidates to the forefront and enable search committees to distinguish truly exceptional leaders from those who talk a good game.

We call this superior alternative the forensic model. 

The goal of this fresh approach is to turn the search for exceptional leaders from a crapshoot into more of a sure thing.

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The forensic method includes basic elements of the conventional approach but improves upon them in several important ways. Forensic searches feature wide-ranging reconnaissance for superior candidates well before the official start of the search. Superficial vetting is replaced by more penetrating scrutiny of the personal leadership styles and professional accomplishments of top candidates. Because the first year of a new presidency is so critical, this model calls for intensive coaching and support beginning shortly after the selection. 

These strategies are not new in the business of presidential searches, but they are not practised as often as they should be. This integrated effort, which blends forensic elements with conventional practices, produces more well-equipped leaders than either can alone. They demand more effort, time and cost as the price for recruiting truly exceptional leaders, but the added expense is far less than an underperforming or outright failed presidency and yet another search. 

How the model works

1. The confidential recruiter Recruiting begins two months ahead of the official start of the search. The combination of advance recruiting during a quiet phase and conventional advertising in the relevant media is a powerful tool for building a pool of well-qualified candidates. Ideal choices for this recruiter role could be a recently retired or semi-retired academic with a network developed over years or a veteran search consultant working independently of a firm.

2. A culturally sophisticated search committee An effective search committee is composed of truly open-minded and experienced members who appreciate what non-traditional candidates have to offer. Members receive serious instruction in the perils of bias, including the tendency to underestimate the talents of candidates who do not fit the traditional mould. The committee includes members diverse in thought and background who commit to seeking a truly exceptional president over a merely acceptable one. 

3. Strengths of character Seeking candidates with strengths of character should be the top priority. Academic credentials and experience are important both for credibility with the faculty and to demonstrate familiarity with the business side of higher education. Yet, personal leadership strengths are as important as academic credentials for leadership in these conflicted times. 

Because these personal qualities are more difficult to identify than degree and credentials, they typically receive less scrutiny than they deserve. A veteran search consultant says that too often “formal credentials served as an unreliable proxy for competence”. He goes on to say that academics in particular rely on credentials alone to narrow the field, thereby unintentionally eliminating many non-traditional and potentially superior candidates. 

Recommendations from trusted friends and colleagues offer insight into how close associates regard the candidate, but they should not be fully trusted. Verified examples of critical incidents when the potential leader displayed courage, political sensitivity and practical intelligence, or other essential leadership qualities, provide more useful evidence. Early-life experiences, those crucible moments that forge character, signal the presence of traits such as resilience and persistence and reveal the candidate’s own sense of their personal strengths. 

Personality and leadership assessments, common in corporate human resources practices, can help both search committees and candidates become more aware of their inner strengths and weaknesses. 

4. Critical interviews Committee orientations should stress the unreliability of interviews and encourage members to question their own first and second impressions of candidates. Over-reliance on lists of predictable questions, avoiding incisive follow-ups, accepting performative responses and failure to demand evidence of whatever accomplishments the candidate asserts are common flaws. Assigning one question to each member of a large committee all but ensures shallow responses and truncates the time available for follow-ups and clarifications. 

Where open-meeting laws and the politics of the committee allow, subsequent private discussions between top candidates and search leaders should be pursued. These sessions provide the occasion for a candid back-and-forth conversation more likely to reveal a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. 

5. Coaching unconventional candidates Unconventional candidates often possess the qualities most needed to address today’s challenges. People of colour, those with English as a second language and anyone crossing class lines face special challenges in presenting themselves in interviews. Coaching can help these candidates in communicating their potential to an unfamiliar or even prejudiced audience. 

6. Deeper background investigations Some hyperbole is expected as candidates make their cases. Careful background investigations should explore the facts behind the claims. Did the candidate lead in developing the big new facility or were they just there at the ribbon cutting? Does the candidate accept responsibility for collective failures instead of blaming circumstances, staff or the trustees? Is the candidate truly a collaborative and transparent leader, as virtually all claim to be? Positive responses to questions like these can confirm that a top candidate would be a good choice for president.

To get a solid read on the candidate’s personality, leadership style and the validity of their claims to accomplishments, there is no substitute for a personal representative visiting the campus or other place of work.

A board representative, the chair or the head of a system who meets personally with their counterpart is much more likely to receive a candid appraisal of the candidate than if a search consultant makes a cold phone call. 

7. Intensive first-year support Every president needs a coach, mentor or trusted adviser they can go to in confidence for counsel. This is especially important for unconventional candidates who are less familiar with the customs of academic culture and the attitudes of the surrounding community. New presidents face some common challenges, including learning the political terrain, managing multiple and conflicting expectations, sizing up the current senior team and building support for a fresh agenda. An experienced former president can help the neophyte avoid missteps associated with all these tasks. A shepherd or two of the president’s own choosing to guide them through the first critical month and year should be mandatory and paid for by the institution. 

It is more important than ever to transition away from the traditional methods of recruiting candidates for university presidents. The willingness to question one’s own preferences, assumptions and biases regarding candidates, combined with an open-minded stance toward the qualities that unconventional persons can bring to the presidency, are key to a truly successful search.

Terrence J. MacTaggart is a senior fellow at the Association of Governing Boards, and Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran is president emerita at Kalamazoo College and senior consultant for the Association of Governing Boards. 

Excerpted from The New College President: How a Generation of Diverse Leaders is Changing Higher Education by Terrence J. MacTaggart and Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran (copyright 2024) and reproduced with permission from Johns Hopkins University Press.