The Law of Timing

Lesson 19 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

John C. Maxwell

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781400275786
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Operations

It got him elected president of the United States. It also cost him the presidency. What is it? Something that may stand between you and your ability to lead effectively. It's called the Law of Timing.

THE LAW OF TIMING

When to Lead Is As Important As
What to Do and Where to Go

If ever there was an example of the importance of timing as it relates to leadership, it came in New Orleans in late August and early September of 2005.

New Orleans is an unusual city. Like Venice, Italy, it is surrounded by water. To the north lies Lake Pontchartrain. To the south flows the mighty Mississippi River. To the east and west are low-lying swamplands. Canals crisscross the city. You cannot drive into or out of New Orleans without crossing a major bridge. That may not seem like a big deal—until you consider that most of the city lies below sea level. New Orleans is shaped like a bowl. On average, the city is six feet below sea level. In the lowest areas, it’s nine feet below sea level. And the land in New Orleans sinks a little more every year. For decades citizens have worried about the potential damage that a direct hit from a powerful hurricane could do to the city.

DISASTER ON THE HORIZON

On Wednesday, August 24, 2005, nobody in New Orleans could have known that the newly formed tropical storm, named Katrina, would be the big one—the hurricane the city had feared would someday come. It wasn’t until Friday that the National Hurricane Center predicted that the storm would reach landfall on Monday somewhere near Buras, Louisiana, about sixty miles southeast of New Orleans. The hurricane was already looking like a bad one. The next morning, Saturday, August 27, the leaders of many of Louisiana’s parishes around New Orleans ordered mandatory evacuations: St. Charles, Plaquemines, parts of Jefferson, and even St. Tammany, which is situated on higher ground north of New Orleans.

But what about New Orleans? Why didn’t Mayor Ray Nagin, the leader of the city, order a mandatory evacuation at the same time? Many people say New Orleanians are fatalistic and they can’t be made to move any faster than they want to go. Others say that Nagin, a businessman before he was elected, was worried about the legal and financial implications of an evacuation. I say he and others in government didn’t understand the Law of Timing. When to lead is as important as what to do and where to go.

The time to move people out of New Orleans was when the other parish leaders announced their mandatory evacuations. Nagin waited. On Saturday evening he finally announced a voluntary evacuation of New Orleans—only after Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center, called Nagin on Saturday night did the mayor become concerned enough to act. “Max scared the crap out of me,” Nagin is reported to have said after the call.¹

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

The next morning at nine o’clock, Nagin finally ordered a mandatory evacuation—fewer than twenty-four hours before the hurricane would make landfall. It was much too late for many citizens of New Orleans. And how did he plan to help those people who couldn’t make it out of town on such short notice? He advised them to get to the Superdome, the city’s shelter of last resort, howev...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• DEDICATION
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• THE LAW OF TIMING
• NOTES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR