In 2015 I came out with a book of the above title.* The point of the book was that while leadership in America has always been difficult to exercise, it was becoming more difficult than ever before.
Historically, leading in America has been hard because, on account of our history and ideology, we Americans are fundamentallly anti-authority. Contemporaneously, leading is even harder because of changes in the context that mitigate against leaders leading and followers following. These more recent changes include those in culture and technology. Precisely because the context has changed, so have leaders and, more to the point, followers. Followers are far less willing now quietly to go along – to follow – than they used to be.
Don’t believe me? Ask Claudine Gay, the recently inaugurated president of Harvard University whose series of missteps in response to the attacks on Israel by Hamas brought on her head widespread wrath. One of her most eminent predecessors, Lawrence Summers, went public with his anger saying that Gay’s statement(s) on the situation had failed “to meet the needs of the moment” and lacked “moral clarity.”
Others, such as mega-Harvard funders Leslie and Abigail Wexner, went so far as to write a letter to the Harvard Board of Overseers saying that they were “stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists.” Moreover, in their letter the Wexners announced that their foundation was “formally ending its financial and programmatic relationship with Harvard and the Harvard Kennedy School.” Harvard is an immensely wealth institution. But even for Harvard, losing the Wexners as funders is a bad blow.
President Gay is by no means the only university president who ran into trouble on this issue. The leaders of Indiana University, Northwestern University, and Stanford University, among others, had similar situations play out – though none so publicly and perhaps painfully as at Harvard.
These presidents, then, are simply signs of the times. Signs of a time in which leadership in America is hard and getting harder. Signs of a time in which constituents and constituencies come out of the woodwork demanding to have a say. Signs of a time in which followers refuse to follow – including students who have taken to protesting frequently and furiously. Signs of a time in which the costs of being a leader are more and the benefits less.
No wonder the average tenure of a college president has dropped to five years. Not long ago it was ten.
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*Stanford University Press.