You Gave Them Authority. Did You Let Them Use It?

Everyone Still Comes to Me 

“Everyone comes to me for approval or some kind of blessing”, a managing director told me during a coaching conversation. He sounded tired rather than proud. “Even for small things, they still come back to me. They have the authority. I trust them. They could simply proceed. Yet somehow everything reaches my desk.”

His calendar reflected the problem. Short calls inserted between larger meetings. Messages beginning with Just checking. Draft replies forwarded for a quick view. Decisions that had already been discussed by competent managers were then carried one level higher for reassurance.

He had spent years building the company and developing the people around him. Several members of the management team had worked with him long enough to understand the business, the clients and the consequences of poor judgment.

Still, they waited.

From his position, the explanation seemed clear: people were reluctant to take ownership. They preferred the safety of involving him. Their hesitation created work that no longer belonged at his level.

There was truth in this. It was not the whole truth.

Authority Exists. Permission Still Travels Upward.

Managers do not always ask senior leaders to make the decision. Often, the decision is already taking shape.

What they want is confidence that the decision will survive.

They want to know that the managing director will not reopen it later after hearing another perspective. They want assurance that a reasonable commercial compromise will not be questioned once the financial effect becomes visible. They want to know whether “you have the authority” still applies when the result is imperfect.

This changes the meaning of a request for approval.

A manager may ask, “Are you comfortable if we proceed?” while holding both the information and the formal mandate to decide. The question is less about competence than exposure. By obtaining the leader’s blessing, the manager keeps responsibility for implementation and distributes the personal risk of judgment upward.

Within many organisations, this is learned behaviour.

People notice which decisions are genuinely theirs and which remain theirs only while the senior leader agrees with them. They learn whether informing the CEO is sufficient or whether silence will later be interpreted as poor alignment. They notice whether a mistake made independently carries a different organisational cost from a mistake made after consultation.

The delegation chart may be clear. The lived rules can be quite different.

The System Learned to Wait

A managing director rarely sets out to create this dependency.

It develops through ordinary leadership behaviour.

A manager makes a decision, and the director asks several intelligent questions. The questions reveal gaps, so the decision changes. Another manager proceeds without consultation and later hears, “I would have preferred to know.” A commercial director accepts a client concession, then spends an uncomfortable hour explaining why another option was not chosen.

None of these moments appears unreasonable in isolation.

Senior leaders are expected to protect the business. They see patterns that others may miss. Their experience allows them to identify risk quickly, and their interventions often improve the immediate result.

The organisation also learns something from every intervention.

It learns that decisions may remain provisional until the most senior person has seen them. It learns that autonomy is welcomed, provided the reasoning is close enough to the leader’s own. It learns that a five-minute confirmation can prevent a difficult conversation later.

Gradually, managers adapt.

They involve the leader earlier. They phrase updates as questions. They bring recommendations while leaving the final emotional ownership of the choice to them.

The managing director experiences this as a shortage of courage in the team. The team may experience it as an accurate reading of how authority works.

People learn the real decision rights of an organisation through consequences, not through organisational charts.

Indispensability Is Built From Both Directions

High performers often struggle to stop because the organisation continues to need them.

Sometimes that need is genuine. Sometimes it has been reinforced through years of competent intervention.

The team transfers uncertainty upward. The leader absorbs it because he can resolve it quickly. A delayed decision moves. A weak proposal becomes stronger. A potential mistake is avoided.

The transaction works.

That is precisely why it persists.

Each successful intervention confirms that involving the managing director was prudent. Each quick answer makes waiting appear cheaper than deciding. The leader’s capability becomes part of the company’s operating infrastructure.

There is also a personal dimension that capable leaders do not always examine closely.

Being consulted offers evidence of relevance. It confirms that standards remain protected, that important matters are visible and that the organisation is still connected to the leader’s judgment. The interruptions are exhausting, yet stepping away can feel strangely irresponsible.

This is how a leader can resent being indispensable while continuing to occupy the position of final assurance.

The cost reaches beyond a crowded calendar.

Managers become slower around ambiguity. Decisions are elevated before the available authority has been fully used. Senior talent remains experienced but underdeveloped in judgment. The managing director spends time protecting decisions that others could have owned and loses capacity for the work that only he can do.

The company has delegated tasks while preserving the founder’s or chief executive’s nervous system as the final control mechanism.

What Would Remain Without Your Blessing?

The managing director’s statement may still be entirely sincere: “I trust them. They have the authority.”

Trust, however, is experienced through what happens when people use that authority in ways the leader would not have chosen.

A manager may select a different supplier, tolerate a different level of commercial risk or handle a conflict with less precision. The decision may remain credible without being identical to the director’s preference.

That is where delegated authority becomes real.

Leaders often want others to decide while continuing to protect the organisation from the full variation that independent judgment produces. This keeps quality high in the short term. It also teaches competent people that the safest version of ownership includes one final visit upstairs.

The managing director cannot eliminate every request for consultation, nor would that be desirable. Some decisions belong at the top. Others require discussion because their consequences cross functions, affect strategy or expose the company to material risk.

The recurring minor request tells a different story.

It reveals what people believe will happen when they proceed alone.

And it leaves the leader with a question that reaches beyond delegation:

If your people already have the authority, what in your leadership still teaches them that your blessing is safer than their own judgment?

********************

How can I support you?

The Executive Mindset - From senior performance to enterprise-level leadership and business maturity.

The Manager Mindset - One-on-one coaching designed to boost your performance and enhance your sense of fulfilment and satisfaction in life.

Master Your Resilience - Group coaching that helps you navigate life's challenges with greater ease and flow, empowering you to thrive through adversity.

Growth Mindset for New Managers - Your online autonomy training is designed to catalyse your personal growth and ensure your fast transition to your first management role.

Strategy Conversation (FREE) - Let’s craft your personalised roadmap for transformation. Discover where coaching can take you in just 6 months with a free, strategic call to set your path toward success.