From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Empowering Teams with Decision Authority

I remember seeing a statistic once: a decision is needed on a project for every $1,000 of spend. That means a $1 million project will involve around 1,000 decisions over its lifecycle. The largest project I’ve managed had a budget of $700 million—that’s potentially 700,000 decisions. Am I meant to log all of those in the decision register?

There Are Too Many Decisions to Shoulder Alone

In almost every project I’ve managed, there are simply too many decisions to make alone.

If decisions only happen through an approvals process, the project would grind to a halt. Balancing risk and speed—because it is a balance—means accepting some risk to maintain a reasonable project pace. Ideally, this balance is formalised in an approvals matrix, so everyone understands the limits of their decision-making authority.

If you’re feeling like a bottleneck on your project, try sharing some of the decision-making load.

Time-Sensitive Decisions

Some decisions need to be made quickly to be effective.

Empowering your team to make decisions, rather than requiring approvals, means they can capitalise on time-sensitive opportunities more readily. This also lets people operate from their gut. You know those moments when you just know the right course of action but can’t quite articulate why? If such decisions are routed through approvals, a lack of rationale might lead to a lack of support. But experienced people often have a good sense for such calls.

How often has your gut feeling been right? Give your team more opportunities to act on theirs.

Authority and Responsibility Drive Engagement

People care more and think more deeply when they have the power to make decisions.

I believe people are fundamentally good and genuinely want to do a good job. When they’re given authority and responsibility, they take it seriously, thinking through decisions more carefully. It’s no longer a matter of “If it doesn’t work, it’s not my fault because I didn’t make the call.” Now, it’s about personal reputation, and everyone cares about that.

Giving your team decision-making power can significantly increase their engagement and commitment to the project.

Of course, this should be done with care, with clear guidelines, governance, and observability in place. But when it’s done right, delegated decision-making can help a project run more smoothly than if everything has to go through a hierarchical approvals process.