Answer first

Why am I the constraint in my company?

You are the constraint when decisions still need your approval before work can move. The first move is not another speech about ownership. Transfer one recurring decision with a boundary, an escalation rule, and permission not to quietly reverse it.

A glass narrow point holding back piles of business requests before they can move forward.
The work can pile up even when everyone knows the next step.

Start with the decision that came back twice this week. Name who should own it, where the limit sits, when it must escalate, and what you will stop reversing.

Good people cannot carry authority they were never given. A title does not move the decision. A boundary does.

The hard part is usually not naming the new owner of the decision. The hard part is letting the normal call stand when you would have chosen differently.

A manager making a normal decision while exception work stays separated for escalation.
A boundary works only when the normal call can stand without a private second approval.

Before you delegate the next decision

  • Pick one recurring decision that comes back to you every week.
  • Name the person who should own the normal version of that decision.
  • Write the boundary, the escalation rule, and the part you will stop reversing privately.
  • If that feels impossible, the problem is not delegation language. It is authority design.

Do not try to fix owner dependence with a motivational speech. The team needs a visible right to decide, a limit they understand, and proof that normal calls will not be reversed afterward. Without that, every request still learns to travel back to the owner.

Choose the next route

If the answer changes the decision, bring the actual decision.

Use the answer to name the issue. Use ongoing coaching when the same authority loop keeps returning and a real business decision is already live.

Talk about ongoing coaching Company depends on me