The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how Higher Education Administrators described how they used LMX practices and strategies to build high quality relationships through trust, respect, and mutual obligations to support organizational outcomes in higher education institutions located within the Southeast Region of the United States. Two research questions that guided this study were: How do higher education administrators describe how they use LMX relationship-based leadership practices and strategies to build high quality exchanges with their staff? and how do higher education administrators describe the ways that their relational leadership approach supports organizational outcomes? Information from interviews were collected for in depth narratives for the study. The Leader-Member Exchange theory served as the theoretical foundation with the problem statement being it is not known how Higher Education Administrators describe how they use LMX practices and strategies to build high quality relationships through trust, respect, and mutual obligations to support organizational outcomes in higher education institutions located within the Southeast Region of the United States. The four ubiquitous themes that emerged were: Trust, Respect, Relational Leadership and Mutual Obligation. These were concepts that can be instituted to create lasting work relationships between leader and member. The findings in this study may benefit higher education institutions in the implementing of the LMX theory to form high quality exchanges and gain positive organizational outcomes. [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.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]