Leaders are people who pay attention to timing

Today I read a blog post from Tim Ferriss that sounded familiar. When I scrolled back up I realized I’d read it before – a couple years ago. But here’s the thing – I wasn’t ready to try it back then. So I promptly forgot it.

Today when I read it, I was more ready to really consume the simple message. But that got me thinking.

How often are my lessons and feedback simply mistimed for others?

Just because I have a lesson to share, or an observation that applies to a situation, doesn’t mean my listener is ready to hear it.

Not every lesson you want to share is one you need to share.

This is one of those observations that I regularly need to remind myself of. It’s easy to think that my lesson is perfectly timed simply because I become aware of it.

Effective communication means both the speaker and listener are ready to and able to hear and receive the message.

To that end, leaders are people who pay attention to timing. They know their lessons need to be shared when they can be consumed.