Extant literatures are mainly concentrated on the direct effect between transformational leadership and organizational performance, fewer studies are about the mediating mechanism between transformational leadership and organizational performance, and it is almost a blank with regard to relevant studies conducted in colleges and universities. Treating organizational innovation as a possible mediating variable, this study constructs a conceptual model of transformational leadership and organizational performance of colleges and universities. By analyzing 292 surveys from 34 colleges and universities with structural equation method, the results reveal that transformational leadership has direct and significant effect on performance, and innovation has direct and significant effect on performance. While transformational leadership is not a direct antecedent of performance of colleges and universities, it has indirect effect on performance of colleges and universities via organizational innovation.