The typical academic leader is sandwiched between unloving critics and uncritical lovers. To negotiate these complex scenarios, leaders should possess a unique mix of disruptive attributes that enable those they lead to excel.

Public universities in South Africa have over the past few years experienced challenges of monstrous proportions. The media is awash with reports on problems that include financial instability due to declining funding and corruption, ageing infrastructure, a lack of skills, almost omnipresent intra-institutional conflicts, supply chain inefficiencies, persistent student unrest and a host of other headwinds experienced across the sector.

Unfortunately, a discussion that is often side-stepped relates to how practical leadership competencies can be harnessed to address the turbulence bedevilling the country's public universities.

The starting point in resolving the challenges these institutions face is to address the quality of academic leadership, given that those in charge determine the long-term direction of each university. Leaders are required at every level of academia who are competent and willing to disrupt the existing negative trajectory and set their institutions on a new course of excellence and long-term success.

Need for business-minded leadership

First, leaders within this sector need to demonstrate a firm grasp of business fundamentals. Higher education should be regarded as business, with the same principles applicable in commercial enterprises also applying to public universities.

The status quo, in which many institutions rely on government grants and subsidies for funding,...