When Dr. Edward Odundo shares his decades of experience serving on private, public, and university boards, he distills board effectiveness into three deceptively simple principles: watch your mouth, your mind, and your mood. These aren’t theoretical constructs from governance textbooks; they’re hard-won wisdom forged through experiences that tested values, courage, and the very understanding of how institutional power operates.
One particular experience from his tenure as Commissioner of VAT during President Moi’s administration illuminates these principles with stunning clarity, offering lessons every leader navigating complex institutional environments must internalize.
When Power Creates Impossible Positions
Dr. Odundo’s story begins with a scenario familiar to anyone who has served in positions of institutional authority: a prominent businessman, after years of unsuccessfully seeking tax waivers, escalated his case to the highest office in the land. The summons arrived, the kind every civil servant simultaneously expects and dreads.
His description of the red telephone is particularly evocative. Among multiple lines on a commissioner’s desk, one stood apart ; red, singular, unmistakable. When it rang, you knew immediately: the President was calling. Something instinctive happened, Dr. Odundo recalls, you stood while speaking, even though the President wasn’t physically present. That phone represented executive authority made tangible, hierarchy made visceral.
At State House, the instruction seemed unambiguous: “This guy is a friend of mine. Please go and help him.” The words carried presidential weight, delivered in an environment architected to reinforce compliance.
The Lesson Hidden in the Second Call
What happened next reveals sophisticated understanding of institutional dynamics that separates exceptional leaders from those who merely occupy positions. Returning to his office, the red telephone rang again. “Excellency the President here. Please do your job.”
This moment contains masterclass-level instruction on leadership integrity. The first call was political theater; public performance of patronage for a persistent petitioner. The second was
actual directive; private affirmation that law supersedes personal relationships, that doing one’s job means upholding regulations regardless of political pressure.
When the businessman arrived expecting preferential treatment, Dr. Odundo delivered uncomfortable truth: “I will not be able to do what the President said because this is what the law says.” The businessman’s response was predictable: “The President has said it and you’re refusing? Okay, I’ll go back.”
He tried reaching the President. The line he’d cultivated for years was suddenly disconnected. He couldn’t access it again for many years.
Decoding Political Communication: A Critical Skill
Dr. Odundo’s reflection on this experience offers invaluable insight: “Some things, those are political statements. So when you’re doing some of these things, you know what is right, and some of these statements people make, just know that that cannot work.”
This is sophisticated institutional intelligence. Leaders operating with integrity must develop discernment between political posturing and actual directive, between public performance and private guidance. When you know what is right; when law, regulation, or institutional mandate provides clear direction, some statements from powerful figures simply “cannot work,” regardless of apparent authority.
The challenge is developing wisdom to recognize these moments and courage to act accordingly. Not every instruction from powerful figures represents their actual intent. Sometimes they’re testing integrity. Sometimes they’re creating plausible deniability. Sometimes they’re performing for audiences while expecting faithful mandate execution.
The Three M’s: A Framework for Institutional Leadership
Watch Your Mouth: Dr. Odundo’s first principle recognizes that board communication carries weight beyond immediate conversation. What you say can bind institutions legally, damage reputations irreparably, or compromise strategic positioning. Governance requires knowing when to speak, what to say, and crucially, when silence communicates more powerfully than words.
Watch Your Mind: Maintain intellectual clarity about mandate, authority, and limitations. Don’t confuse proximity to power with possession of power. Don’t mistake political courtesy for policy direction. Keep analytical capabilities independent of social dynamics and hierarchies. Mental discipline prevents the cognitive capture that compromises so many board members.
Watch Your Mood: Emotional regulation is essential professional discipline. Boards navigate crises and high-stakes decisions requiring clarity, not reactivity. Leaders who cannot manage emotional responses become liabilities during moments when institutional stability matters most.
Planning Your Exit With Dignity
Dr. Odundo’s final counsel carries particular weight: “If you are in a board, know that one day you’ll retire. Therefore, you must have a plan. Because in the public sector, you can be employed today and the following day you are sent home.”
This isn’t pessimism, it’s realism informed by institutional experience. As he emphasizes: “As you plan to exit a board, you must really know how you are going to come out so that you leave, you leave at least with some dignity and it will be appreciated.”
His wisdom teaches us that exit planning isn’t self-protection alonel it’s institutional stewardship, relationship preservation, and legacy protection. The red telephone may ring with unexpected news at any moment. Be ready, not just to answer, but to leave with integrity intact.
Dr. Edward Odundo
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