I'm not saying we should load the important committees with people who are totally and absolutely negative for no reason. But there are people outside deans' offices and outside the James Administration Building who are loyal and thoughtful and who have different ideas about the way things should be run. When I was in government, if I wanted to do X, I just did it. Governments are much more hierarchically organized. The decisions you make have a much more instant effect.
Universities are different and that's appropriate.
As a president, you may be the senior partner, but you're still only a partner. The other partners have to be enthusiastic about their role in the partnership. You have to make sure that they share your strategy and vision. You can't just order them around. In the old days, before the 1960s, the presidents of major universities were typically chosen with a heavy emphasis on their scholarly records and acceptability to the community as scholars.