Prof Ayiro’s leadership tips from a wealthy bag of skills

English-don’t-matter is a joke that “trended” in many a staffroom years ago when an education official made the grammatical slip at a teachers’ conference. The officer, who confessed to have been teacher of the sciences, was explaining a point and asked teachers not to be overly focused on language. “So long as you get the point,” he ruled, “English don’t matter!” 

But if you asked Prof Laban Ayiro, today, he would tell you that it really matters. In his new book, The Art of Institutional Leadership: Unleashing the potential of Emotional Intelligence, Prof Ayiro, a teacher of chemistry, preaches the virtues of language with the zeal of an evangelist.

The Art of Institutional Leadership, which has just been published by East African Educational Publishers (EAEP), is an inspirational leadership and management book.

If anyone had told Prof Ayiro, in his early career days, that his effectiveness as leader of an organisation would often hinge on something as “inconsequential” as word choice, he would have dismissed it upfront. Buoyed with appointment as principal, he would easily have thought, “As long as I can convey my ideas, it will just be fine.”

“I would have been dead wrong!” he avers, adding that as he grew up (and older) in the profession taking up various leadership roles, he began to appreciate the importance of language in organizational management and leadership.

Leadership talk

He professes that leaders rise and fall based on the language they use to communicate. So central is language to leadership that he devotes the first chapter of the book to language: “How We Communicate Matters.” 

And he gives a glimpse into what makes him tick. He says he often takes long walks around the campus in search of one key word for a leadership talk he is working on.

“I have been known by my family to devote an entire night, using my wife as the sound board, to nail an important sentence for an important talk on vision that I need to give in my school, university or a speaking engagement that I am invited to.”

He continues: “When I was posted to the then Western Province as the Provincial Director of Education (PDE), my wife and I stayed up until 3am wondering and searching out for the most penetrating and apt statement I would use to awaken a province that was performing poorly academically.

“Bingo!” she shouted out. “Ezekiel 37, ‘The Valley of Dry Bones.’” What an impact this had in rallying the whole province to begin to “rattle” and to stand up nationally and “breath” again!”

Prof Laban Peter Ayiro has had an illustrious career, rising from a chemistry teacher in a high school to his current post as the Vice-Chancellor of Daystar University. He was the founding headteacher of Kegoye Secondary School, then went to head Lubinu High school before being appointed by founding principal of Sunshine School in Nairobi.

He has also served in the ministry of education as the Provincial Director of Education (PDE) in the then Western before rising to the Deputy Director of Education at the Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) and the ministry headquarters. His tour of duty also took him to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) as Senior Deputy Director in charge of Curriculum and Research services.

The crowning of his public service career came in 2013 when he was appointed Director of Quality Assurance at Moi University and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor soon thereafter. One month later the minister for education appointed Prof Ayiro Acting Vice-Chancellor, a position that ended dramatically in 2018, when the University Council sought to fill the vacancy substantively and local politicians pushed for the appointment of a local.

The Art of Institutional Leadership is as much inspirational as it is autobiographical. Drawing from both his professional experience and childhood upbringing in Kibera slums and Silver Spring estate in Nairobi, Prof Ayiro doles out lifetime leadership lessons .

The idea of this book came after reading John C. Maxwell’s Leader Shift while attending a conference in Kampala, Uganda. He says he was fascinated by the renowned author’s simple format and succinct text. Reading Maxwell’s book reinforced his long-held belief that great leaders not only lead well but are also able to articulate precisely how they do so in short, memorable phrases.

Leadership as an art

Although he had invented his own maxims and truisms to guide his leadership educational institutions, he practised them only in verbal speeches. From the onset, Prof Ayiro perceives leadership as an art, and proceeds to craft the book artistically, opening it on a poetic tone. It has 52 chapters of less than five pages each, grouped into four parts. Part one is aptly titled ‘The Secret Sits’ borrowed from Robert Frost’s memorable two-line poem by the same name. 

The book espouses key leadership principles. Besides his educational experience, Prof. Ayiro taps on folk wisdom from Maragoli folklore, his parents and grandfather as well as Jewish culture that he acquired while living with an American Jewish couple, to enrich the book. He also draws inspiration from the bible and deftly anchors each principle and value he propounds on a Biblical scripture.

Inevitably, he dedicates a chapter to the political shenanigans that dogged his leadership journey. He attributes his exits at Sunshine School in 2000 and Moi University in 2018 to political machinations of the day. Political expediency, he regrets, has moved the equilibrium away from quality and meritocracy to the corner of “political correctness.”

But rather than fight, Prof. Ayiro, has packed his bags and moved from one institutional role to another, courtesy of his education which he insists consists of portable knowledge and skills.

[email protected]