Why does everything come back to you?

Collect a few cases that waited for your decision. Record what was requested, what information was present, the consequence of a mistake and how long work waited. Separate major strategic choices from repeated routine approvals. A queue does not prove the owner is the problem: the team may lack necessary information, an agreed rule or authority to act safely. Start with the cases rather than a label about someone’s leadership.

You may hold customer commitments, margin limits, legal obligations or priorities that are absent from the brief. If so, make the usable boundaries explicit where appropriate. Ask the manager what they would need to make the routine call and which exception should return to you. Protect sensitive context; wider participation does not mean wider access to every company record. Advisor access also needs explicit client permission.

A manager may know what to do but lack permission. Another may have permission but face contradictory targets or missing specifications. These require different changes. Compare the owner’s account with observations from the people who prepare and execute the decision, gathered separately when practical. Retain the owner’s explanation if the evidence supports it. The investigation is not a contest to transfer authority.

Select a narrow category of decisions with clear limits. Name what the manager may approve, what information is required, what triggers an escalation and when the owner reviews the result. Preserve a route for concerns and exceptions. The prepared demo examines quote approvals rather than granting unlimited pricing freedom. A bounded test should not expose the company to a larger risk merely to make a queue disappear.

Record waiting time alongside the outcome that matters: profitable completed work, customer response, rework or another relevant signal. Faster approval with worse margin is not an unqualified improvement. Review the exception cases and ask whether the boundaries were clear. Continue, revise or withdraw the delegation according to evidence. Keep the reason and next responsible person visible so the lesson can inform later decisions.