Mike - thanks for the post. "The courage to choose" is a hard one. Recently, I made that decision. As a senior member of an executive team, I had to reduce the size of my team in late 2008. This year, I decided to "RIF myself" to keep a revenue generating team intact. If you practice servant leadership, it makes it easier to understand what decisions need to be done and when.  I could have easily reduced my team further to save my own postion, but realized I could get a portion of the revenue flowing, reduce costs and assign activities to a capable team. If you are a "connected" leader, who knows the personalities, capabilities, skills, heart and drive of a team, you will have better insight into any type of changes that may arise.