Why won't my team make a decision without me?
You built the review because the work was sloppy, and the review fixed it. That was right. But a gate built for one season does not remove itself. It stays, and the team builds their habits around it, like water finding the lowest path. Now look at what you have made. Your people bring you drafts instead of decisions. They ask what you think before they have thought anything themselves. This is not loyalty. It is the absence of practice. A muscle unused does not wait patiently — it weakens. The team's ceiling is not their talent. It is you, standing in the doorway, checking every exit. You cannot complain that they will not walk through doors you refuse to let them open.
Your team waits because you taught them to wait. Every time you review their work, you tell them their judgment is not enough. Stop reviewing everything. Choose three decisions this week you will not touch. Let them be made badly, if they must. That is how judgment grows.
What changes unlock by starting
- You will see clearly which team members are ready to decide, and which are not.
- The quality of decisions will dip before it rises. That dip is the cost of their learning, not proof you were wrong.
- You will have more time and less control. Both are the point.
- Your team will start bringing you problems instead of drafts, because they will have already decided what they think.