Why does my team keep asking me for permission on things they can decide themselves?

When people ask before doing what they are clearly allowed to do, they are telling you something. They have learned that acting on their own carries a risk. Somewhere along the way, asking first felt safer than deciding and being wrong. That habit did not appear out of nowhere, and noticing it is the honest first step. This is not a flaw in them. It is a signal about the room you built. Maybe a past decision got second-guessed, or a mistake was met with a sharper reaction than the moment needed. People adjust to keep themselves safe. If you want them to own their choices, they need to trust that owning them is welcome, not just tolerated. Start by handing one decision back on purpose. When someone brings you a call that is plainly theirs, say plainly: this one is yours, I trust you, go. Then let them run with it, even if they choose differently than you would. Do that a few times and they will begin to believe you mean it.