In this blog entry by Seth Godin, How many good days, Seth mentions the concept of ‘stalling costs’. Or, when the stalling of a tough decision or work has cascading impacts across teams and organizations.
I have been part of teams where the leader would not make a critical decision around a tough topic.
How much time was wasted because of this indecision? How many of the leaders on the teams were left to wonder what would happen next? How did this lack of decision or willingness to work through the hard thing negatively impact morale across the entire company?
Stalling costs can kill the morale, momentum, and overall focus of teams and companies.
I love the thoughts here by Seth related to buying good days with working through tough times asap, but I also think that as leaders we also look at this from the perspective of cost and I love the visual we get from the term stalling cost.
Leaders take responsibility and make the tough call. By doing so, we not only keep the team focussed and moving, but we also limit the distraction from stalling, which as Seth puts it, buys more good days…
Jason A. Belt 