This study was undertaken to determine the extent to which leadership capabilities and managerial competencies explain leadership performance in Malaysian Higher Education context. Data were collected from academic leaders in 25 public and private universities and colleges using a few previously developed scales in Malaysian context. Next, the collected data through 368 surveys were screened thoroughly prior to the main analysis. A variance-based structural equation modeling approach was adopted and SmartPLS[subscript 3] was used to analyze the data, followed by running finite mixture segmentation and importance-performance map analysis. The results did disclose unobserved heterogeneity within the data. Through the study, two models namely low-current-tenure leaders and high-current-tenure leaders models were developed. Moreover, role-specific competency and change-oriented capability were identified as the major areas of improvement to be addressed by managerial activities based on low-current-tenure leaders and high-current-tenure leaders models, respectively.