Think of being in the front of a roller coaster, at the top of the ride, and you notice for the first time a snake wrapped around your leg.

What do you do?  Wait to kill the snake until the ride is over?

Ross Perot once said, “If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes.”

I was reminded of this quote recently when several MSP owners deferred work to improve the leadership skills of a total of 9 managers/leaders in their organization.

Procrastination. Why? No time.

But coaching leaders to develop new skills and overcome weaknesses is only 1-2 hours a week.

Investing that time creates 2-4 hours of free time a week for the manager.  (A simple 2-to-1 ROI on the time investment.)

What’s the opportunity cost of this decision? A minimum of $10,000 a month (probably much more) for each manager who is not their best. Why does one manager’s weakness cost $10,000 a month minimum? Because not only is the manager not generating as much revenue as they could, lowering costs effectively and/or missing opportunities… BUT every person reporting to them is also failing to generate maximum revenue / profits, lowering costs, and/or creating new opportunities.

I respect each owner / executive who made this decision, but I cannot agree with it.  I think they are better leaders than this decision indicates.

GREAT Leaders make the hard decisions.  Sometimes you have to take a limited hit or relatively small expense (money or time) to correct a wrong, fix a weakness, or fill a knowledge gap.

You do this because the ROI on the investment easily outweighs the cost of the hard decision.

You see a snake.  You do not have time to kill it.  You let it slither around your office because it is not killing anyone yet, just distracting them.

A sluggard avoids making difficult decisions. GREAT Leaders, according to Dr. Henry Cloud in his book NEVER Go Back, make the hard decisions because they refuse to repeat mistakes.

How about you? Are you procrastinating, or do you have the guts to kill the snake?