Chapter 5 The team message

Timing is valuable. I believe that a large part of leadership is not WHAT to say, but WHEN to say it. Just like a leader's speech has a powerful positive impact to boost the groups morale, the same words spoken at the wrong time has the danger of putting the team into jeopardy. I have experienced it first handed back in highschool. 

I was a leader for my class at the school sports day, and had to rally every one up before having a dance practice every day after school. On the first occasion, I started speaking when not everyone's eyes and mouth was focused on me. I felt  that people would naturally quiet down once they realized that I was talking. I was wrong. Many of the people, though the commotion, could not hear what I was saying. As a result, my voice did not reach out to many of the students, and our goals for the day was not shared. We had a terrible practice that day. 

Figuring out what was wrong, I decided to wait until I had everyone's attention on me. I asked other people in the class to quiet down the students in first and second graders (I was the leader for three grades of the same class). Once I knew they were all focused on me, I started talking. Louder than yesterday, and more simple but effectively. Thanks to my easier-to-understand speech on our goals for the day, our day's practice went smoothly.

I did make a better and simpler speech for the second day to convey the message I had, but this all would not have gone well without everyone's eyes and ears on me. I truly felt that timing was the key essence in speaking out and leading in groups.