The purpose of this study was to identify presidential leadership styles and behaviors that selected college trustee chairs (private institutions) and college council chairs (state-operated institutions) perceived to be most relevant and important for presidential effectiveness and success in leading higher education institutions. Second, it was the purpose of this study to determine if the identified presidential leadership styles and behaviors deemed most important by board chairs are consistent with what the literature suggests are the presidential leadership styles and behaviors needed for effective leading in higher education. Third, it was the purpose of this study to determine if there was any relation between the identified presidential leadership style and behaviors and factors such as institutional type, gender, professional background, or ethnicity of the board chair. The study found that the board chairs chose behaviors associated with collaborative leadership as most desired for higher education leadership with transformational leadership behaviors a close second. This is consistent with a preponderance of the literature suggesting that higher education needs to shed itself of the traditional authoritative style for emerging models of leadership that center on collaboration, shared power, empowerment, and relationship building. While authoritative behaviors were ranked well below collaborative and transformational behaviors, some board chairs did include authoritative behaviors in their list of top 10 most critical behaviors for higher education leadership which suggests that a blended style of leadership for higher education may be needed. There was no statistically significant relationship found between board chair responses and independent variables such as gender of the board chair and professional background of the board chair. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]