Things Leaders Do

The 4 Questions to Stop Making Every Decision

• Colby Morris

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0:00 | 19:51

Use this 4-question framework to determine which decisions require your authority: (1) Does this require information only I have? (2) Does this set precedent or carry significant risk? (3) Am I holding onto this for the right reasons? (4) Who is best positioned to make this call?

Most leaders spend their days buried in operational decisions while their teams wait to be told what to do. The problem isn't bad decision-making—it's that leaders don't know how to determine which decisions are actually theirs to make.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • The 4 questions that instantly tell you whether a decision belongs on your desk
  • Why most decisions fail the "Do I have unique information?" test
  • The self-reflection question that separates good leaders from great ones
  • What to do when the problem isn't the decision—it's the person
  • How to hand decisions back to your team without creating chaos

Common questions answered in this episode:

  • How do I know which decisions I should make versus delegate?
  • When should a leader make a decision versus empowering their team?
  • How can I stop being a bottleneck as a leader?
  • What if I don't trust my team member to make the right decision?

Key takeaway: If you're making every decision, you're not leading. You're just really busy.

Connect with Colby:

Colby works with organizations through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training to build people-first cultures that get results.


SPEAKER_00:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_01:

Picture this. You're sitting in a meeting. Your director of ops just spent 15 minutes walking you through a scheduling conflict between two team members who both need the exact same day off. She's laid out all the details. She's analyzed the coverage gaps. She's created a spreadsheet. She's basically done everything except actually make the call. And she looks at you and says, So what do you think we should do? Now you're sitting there thinking, we, why why is this on my desk? This is your team. You know the situation better than I do. You literally just spent 15 minutes proving you know everything about the situation. Why are you making me decide? But instead of saying that, you make the call. Because that's what leaders do, right? People bring you problems, you solve them. That's the job. Except here's the thing that's not actually the job. That's you being a very expensive, very overqualified customer service desk. And if you keep making every decision that gets escalated to you, you're going to spend your entire career drowning in other people's problems while your team sits around playing a never-ending game of let's ask the boss. So let me ask you a question. And I'm serious here. I want you to actually think about this. How many decisions did you make today that someone else on your team should have made? Go ahead. Count them up. I'll wait. Okay, if the answer is more than two, we need to talk. Because you've got a decision-making problem. And it's it's not that you're making bad decisions, it's that you're making decisions that should have never landed on your desk in the first place. Like these decisions saw your desk from across the room and should have just kept walking. Today I'm giving you a framework for questions that will tell you exactly which decisions are yours to make and which ones you need to hand back to your team with a smile, and this one's on you. And if you can get this right, you're going to get your time back. Your team is going to start thinking for themselves, and you'll actually get to do the job you were promoted to do instead of playing decision jenga all day long. So let's talk about it. Hey leaders, this is Colby Morris, and this is the Things Leaders Do podcast. As always, I'm trying to give you 15 to 30 minutes of practical, actionable tools so you can be a better leader faster. Again, no theory, no fluff, just real guidance you can actually use today or tomorrow. Honestly, whenever works for you, I'm not your boss. All right, let's dive in. Here's what I see all the time a leader gets promoted. They were great at their job, they made good decisions, they solved problems, they got stuff done, so naturally they got moved up. And now? Now they're responsible for a team. And that team keeps coming to them with decisions. Big ones, small ones, and a shocking number of decisions that could have been resolved with literally 30 seconds of independent thought. Budget question? Let me handle it. Client issue? Bring it to me. Scheduling conflict. I'll figure it out. Someone asking if they should order more printer paper, even though we've ordered printer paper the exact same way for seven consecutive years? Yeah, bring that to me too. I'll take a look. And on the surface, that looks like good leadership, right? I mean, the leader's engaged, responsive, solving problems. The team knows they can count on them. Here's what's actually happening. The leader is exhausted. They're working nights and weekends trying to keep up. Their calendar looks like a game of Tetris designed by someone who hates them. They can't focus on the strategic work they were promoted to do because they're buried in operational decisions that a reasonably intelligent hamster can make. And the team? Well, the team has stopped thinking. They've learned that if they bring a problem to their leader, the leader will solve it. So they stop trying. They stop developing, they stop growing, they just show up, dump problems on the leader's desk like it's a lost and found, and wait to be told what to do. It's like they've outsourced their entire decision-making capacity to one very tired person. And eventually, the leader burns out, the team stagnates, and everyone loses. Sound familiar? Yeah. I thought so. Here's the root of the problem. Leaders don't know how to decide what's actually their decision to make. Did you hear that? I'm gonna say it again. The root of the problem is leaders don't know how to decide what's actually their decision to make. They think every decision that gets escalated to them is their responsibility. Like there's some law of organizational gravity that says if it floats to the top, I have to catch it. But it's not. You don't have to catch everything. In fact, you shouldn't. So today I'm giving you a tool. Four questions. Simple, practical, and immediately usable. If you can answer these four questions honestly, you'll know exactly which decisions belong on your desk and which ones you need to gently or not so gently hand back to your team.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, here's the tool.

SPEAKER_01:

Four questions. Question one. Does this decision require information or context that only I have? Look, this is the easiest filter. Okay, if the decision hinges on something your team doesn't know or can't reasonably know, then yeah, it's probably yours. For example, if you're in a leadership meeting where budgets are being cut across the board and you have information about which departments are protected and which ones aren't, your team doesn't have that context. So when a decision comes up about how to allocate resources, that's on you. You have information that they don't. Makes sense, right? But here's the thing, and this is important. Most decisions don't actually fall into this category. Most of the time, your team has access to the same information that you do. They just don't realize they're allowed to use it. Or they've been trained to think that any decision more complex than what's for lunch needs to go through you first. So if the question to number one is no, if your team has the information they need, move on to question two. Question two. Does this decision set precedent, policy, or carry significant organizational risk? Some decisions have ripple effects. They set the tone, they create patterns, they bind the organization moving forward. For example, if a team member asks if they can work from home on Fridays, if you say yes to one person, you've probably just set a precedent. Everyone else is now going to ask. And now you either have a new policy or you have an inconsistency problem and a lot of people outside your office office asking why Sarah gets to work from home, but they don't. That's a decision that carries weight beyond the immediate ask. It's worth your attention. Same thing with risk. Okay. If the decision could result in a lawsuit, you know, major financial loss or a safety issue or significant reputational damage, yeah, that's probably yours. Or at the very least, it's a decision you need to be involved in. Like, don't let the intern sign the seven-figure contract without running it by someone first. Just a thought. But again, most decisions don't actually rise to this level. Most decisions are small, operational, and reversible. They're not going to taint the company. They're just Tuesday. So if the answer to question two is no, here's where it gets interesting. And that's with question three. Am I holding on to this decision because it genuinely needs me, or because letting go feels uncomfortable? Okay. This is the one that separates good leaders from great ones. And also the ones that's going to make you squirm a little. Sorry about that. Because if we're being honest, and we're among friends here, so let's be honest, most of the time when we hold on to decisions, it's not because we need to, it's because we want to. Look, maybe it's control, maybe it's fear, maybe it's the fact that making decisions makes us feel useful. And if we're not making decisions, what are we even doing? Just sitting here? Existing? Being decorative middle management? Maybe it's because we don't trust our team to get it right. Or maybe, and this one stings, it's because we're worried that if they make the decision and it goes well, we won't get the credit. And then what was even the point of that promotion? Look, I'm not saying any of that to make you feel bad. I'm saying it because it's true. We've all been there. I've been there. I once held on to a decision about office supply ordering for a month because I was convinced I was the only one who understood the nuances of bulk purchasing. Spoiler, I was not. And until you're willing to name it, you can't let go of it. So ask yourself honestly, am I holding on to this because the decision genuinely requires my authority, or because letting go feels uncomfortable? If the answer is uncomfortable, let it go anyway. That discomfort is growth for you and for your team. It's like emotional vegetables. Nobody loves it, but it's good for you. Which brings us to the last question. Question four. If I step back, who is best positioned to make this decision? Now, this is where the rubber meets the road. Because once you've determined that the decisions don't require your unique information, that it doesn't set precedent or carry a major risk, and you're not holding on to it for ego or control reasons, the question becomes who should make the call? Not who could, but who should. Look, who's closest to the problem? Who has the most context? Who will be responsible for executing the decision once it's made? Who's going to have to live with the consequences if it goes sideways? Nine times out of ten, the answer is not you. It's the person on your team who's already doing the work, the one who knows the details, who understands the nuances, who's going to have to explain it to the client or to the vendor or whoever else is involved. Your job is not to make the decision. Your job is to empower them to make it. And then step back and let them, which I know is harder than it sounds. Now, here's where this gets real. You run through those four questions and you land on someone who should be making the decision. And it's Sarah. But you hesitate. Not because of the decision itself, but because of Sarah. You think, yeah, technically this should be Sarah's call, but Sarah's going to mess this up. She doesn't think strategically. She's going to make the easy choice, not the right one. And then I'm going to have to clean it up. And honestly, it's just faster if I do it myself. Okay. Stop right there. Because now we're not talking about decision making anymore. Did you catch that? We're talking about trust and capability and whether or not you've set Sarah up for success or whether Sarah should even be in this role. But that's a different episode. So ask yourself, does this person already have the authority and capability to handle this decision? And if not, why not? Listen, if the answer is they don't have the capability yet, that's a developmental conversation. That's coaching. That's your actual job as a leader. You don't solve the problem for them. You help them build the skill to solve it themselves. You walk them through it. You, you know, you ask good questions. You let them struggle a little bit because struggle is how people learn. It's like watching your kid learn to ride a bike. You can't do it for them, even though it'd be way faster and involves less crying. If the answer is they have the capability, but I don't trust them to use it. Hey, that's on you. That's either a hiring mistake you need to fix, or it's your own control issues getting in the way. Either way, holding on to the decision does not solve the problem. It just postpones it. And also makes you the bottleneck. Congratulations. You're now the organizational equivalent of traffic on I-35. Shout out to Austin Traffic. If the answer is they legitimately shouldn't be making this decision because they don't have the context, the authority, or the skill, great. That's that's useful information. That means you need to either involve yourself, delegate it to someone else, or invest in developing that person so they can handle it next time. But what you can't do is keep making every decision because you're worried someone else might get it wrong. Okay, that's that is not leadership. That's helicopter parenting. And it does not scale. Eventually, you run out of rotor fuel and the whole thing will crash. Okay. So here's how you use this. This week, really, this week, every time someone brings you a decision, pause. Just pause. Don't just answer, don't just solve. Don't go into autopilot, you know, where you immediately start solving problems, because that's what your brain has been trained to do for the last 10 years. Run through the four questions. Do I have information they don't? Does this set precedent or carry a major risk? Am I holding on to this for the right reasons? Who's the best position to make this call? And if the answer to questions one and two is no, and the question to three is honest, and the answer to question four is someone other than you, give them the decision. Not the task, the decision. Say it out loud. This is your call. Here's what I need from you, and here's the boundary you're working within. But the decision is yours. Make it own it, and let me know what you decided. And then, and leader, this is the hard part. Trust them to do it. Walk away. Resist the urge to check in 47 times. Okay. Don't hover, don't micromanage, don't send that follow-up email two hours later with just more thoughts. Let them decide. Will they make the exact decision you would have made? Probably not. Will it be the wrong decision? Maybe. Maybe not. Honestly, there's a decent chance your decision would have been wrong too. So let's not pretend you've got a perfect track record here. Here's what will happen. They'll grow. And you, you get your time back. You get your energy back. You'll get to focus on the things that actually require your attention instead of deciding, you know, whether the team should order the blue pins or the black pens. And you'll actually get to do the job you were promoted to do. All right. Here's what I need you to remember: decision making is one of the most important skills a leader can develop. But it's not just about making decisions, it's about knowing which decisions are yours to make in the first place. Run through the four questions, be honest with yourself, and start giving your team the authority to lead. Because here's the truth if you're making every decision, you're not leading. You're just really busy. Before we wrap, a quick reminder: if you're a leader who wants to build a people-first culture, develop your team, or just get better at the hard conversations that come with leadership, I'd love to work with you. You can find me at next stepadvisors.com. That's NXT Noe. Or connect with me on LinkedIn. I also do keynote speaking, leadership training for organizations that are serious about building strong, capable leaders. I want to appreciate you and say thank you for listening to things leaders do. Would you do me a favor and share, like the show, all the things that you know you're supposed to do at the end of these podcasts? I greatly appreciate it. And yes, share it with a leader who's trying to make some decisions. And remember, keep asking the right questions, keep empowering your people, keep letting go of the decisions that don't belong on your desk. And you know why?

SPEAKER_02:

Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.