This article focuses on leadership behaviour and effectiveness of university academic program directors who have responsibility for managing a program or course of study. The leadership capabilities were assessed using the Integrated Competing Values Framework as its theoretical foundation. Data from 90 academic program directors and 710 significant others from four Australian universities were analysed. The results lead to the conclusions that these academic program directors were reasonably effective and had the ability to implement and further develop their leadership capabilities, even though they had no formal authority. In their role, these directors mainly focused on "getting the job done" and "working with people". At the same time, they placed less emphasis on monitoring their programs, maintaining networks and introducing changes, thereby putting their programs at risk. (Contains 3 figures, 6 tables and 3 notes.)