---
title: "Build #117 – Writing down a decision right is giving it away"
url: https://www.simonwakeman.com/blog/2026/11/04/build-117-writing-down-a-decision-right-is-giving-it-away/
description: "Saying someone owns an area isn’t the same as giving them the decision. This is why writing a decision right down is how founders can let go."
published: 2026-11-04T07:00:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-04T07:00:00+00:00
author: Simon Wakeman
---
# Build #117 – Writing down a decision right is giving it away

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## Build #117 – Writing down a decision right is giving it away

We talk a lot about ownership in leadership teams. Sarah owns delivery. Tom owns the team (this one never sits well with me, maybe it’s the concept of owning a bunch of humans). The new MD will own the P&L. You get the gist.

When we make these statements it sounds like something has been handed over but most of the time it hasn’t.

Then when I ask what “owns” means in practice, I usually get a slightly awkward pause. What happens next is that typically two people will give me two different answers.

**Delegating out loud and keeping it in practice**

This is one of the most common patterns I see in founder-led businesses as they grow.

The founder genuinely wants to let go. They’ve hired good people and they’ve said, often in front of everyone lots of times, that a particular area is now someone else’s.

But nobody has written down which decisions actually shifted over. Sometimes the transfer of accountability is too implicit to be in any way useful in practice.

So the first time something tricky comes up, the question or issue goes right back to the founder. Can we offer this client a discount? Can I move someone onto another project? Do we need to tell the board? Not sure it’s my call…ask the founder.

And then because it’s urgent the founder answers because it’s quicker. And nobody notices that the area they “own” has just shrunk back to the easy bits.

To be honest I did exactly this as an MD in my early days. I’d tell my leadership team something was theirs and then in the background be the person everyone checked with. I didn’t think of it as holding on. I thought I was being helpful in giving them space, while still being able to shape direction.

**Why vague feels safer**

What’s interesting though is that the vagueness suits everyone a bit. We can all play along happily, until someone becomes unhappy.

It suits the founder because nothing is really given up. They can step back in whenever they’re worried and it never looks like they’ve gone back on their word because nothing specific was ever promised.

It suits the person who “owns” the area too. If the decision goes wrong it’s not entirely on their shoulders. There’s always the option of checking first.

So the arrangement stays fuzzy and the founder stays the default decision maker for everything that matters.

**Writing it down is the giving away**

My view is that a decision right only really is transferred when it’s written down specifically and shared with the people it affects.

Specifically means something like this:

“Sarah makes the final call on client timelines and scope changes up to £10k. She’ll talk to the client lead first and let me know afterwards. Anything bigger she brings to me with a recommendation.”

That one sentence does more than a lot of hand-waving good intentions like “Sarah owns delivery”.

It says who decides, what about, where the limit is, who gets consulted and who just gets told. And because the team has heard it, the founder can’t quietly take it back without everyone noticing.

That last part is the uncomfortable bit and it’s also why it works in the real world. Having to think about and write it down means specificity is where the founder actually feels safe to let go.

**What I’d suggest founders try**

Here are a few things I’ve seen work in the real world:

-   **Pick the decisions that keep coming back to you.** The questions you get asked twice are the ones that haven’t been given away yet. Keep a log and use it in the next 1:1s or team meeting to drive that specificity.
-   **Write one sentence per decision.** Who makes the final call, on what, up to what limit, who they consult and who they tell. It doesn’t need to be a massive tome or a huge spreadsheet. Short and specific beats trying to cover every eventuality.
-   **Draw the line in plain terms.** Money, customers and reputation are usually enough. Below that line let people decide. Above it or for genuinely irreversible decisions agree they’ll bring you a recommendation, not a question.
-   **Say it out loud to the team.** A decision right that only lives in a founder’s notes hasn’t actually gone anywhere.
-   **Expect to feel uneasy the first time it’s decided differently from how you’d have done it.** That’s the moment it has actually been given away. Remember they won’t decide like you do and they probably won’t care as much as you do. That’s not a bad thing as it’s just the way it is. Get used to it.

**This week’s reflection points**

So here are a few questions I often ask founders when we get into this kind of thing:

-   Which areas in your business does someone “own” without anyone having written down what they can decide?
-   What were the last three questions that came back to you that you’d said were someone else’s?
-   If you wrote one sentence for each of those today, which one would you find hardest to actually send to one of your team?

That last one is usually the decision you most need to give away. Have a good week.