Eric Shinseki’s failure at the Department of Veterans Affairs shows the difficulty in evaluating transformational public sector executives

Shortly after his election President Obama nominated former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Eric Shinseki, to head the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs. Despite Shinseki’s reputation as a transformational leader, he largely failed to transform the Department of Veterans Affairs, and resigned in early 2014. Montgomery Van Wart writes that Shinseki’s example shows how difficult it is to be a transformational administrative leader, and the difficulties there are in evaluating them.