Foundation Five: Who Is In Charge
The final foundation is often the one leaders ignore until something goes wrong. You need clarity on who makes decisions, who owns outcomes, and what happens when you are not available. Without this structure, your business relies on assumptions and whoever speaks the loudest.
Leadership structure is not about titles or org charts. It is about decision rights. Who says yes to a new client. Who approves hiring. Who communicates with customers when issues come up. If the answer is always you, growth will stall. Every delay and every escalation will come to your desk.
A Typical Scenario
An IT services company had two senior technicians with five years of experience. Both were capable. Neither understood who made client commitments. One promised a server migration by Friday. The other promised two weeks. The client received both messages within an hour and decided to work with another provider. The issue was not technical skill. The issue was authority. No one knew who owned communication or timeline commitments, so every decision became guesswork.
Name Your Number Two
The fix starts with naming your number two. This is the person who makes decisions when you are not available. Not shared decisions and not permission based decisions. Real decisions.
Give them authority within defined limits, not blanket authority. If you do not have this person today, you need to develop someone internally or plan to hire externally. A business cannot grow if every question waits for your approval.
Define Decision Authority
Next, define decision authority for your leadership team. Decision rights work best when connected to clear responsibilities. Use three levels.
1. Decide and inform: make the decision, then communicate
2. Decide with input: ask for opinions, then make the call
3. Escalate: bring the decision up the chain
Most decisions should be level one or two, made by people closest to the work. If everything escalates, you do not have leaders. You have employees waiting for instructions.
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Examples
Operations lead- Decide and inform on scheduling questions and process changes under a certain dollar threshold
- Decide with input on major workflow adjustments
- Escalate hiring decisions or anything that affects multiple teams
- Decide and inform on standard pricing for repeat services
- Decide with input on custom pricing or new service offerings
- Escalate contracts that require custom terms or legal review
Write these rules down with clear limits. “Approve purchases up to 2,000 dollars without asking” is better than “use good judgment.” Make authority visible. Include the framework in your leadership handbook, pin it in team channels, or display it in shared project documents. Visibility prevents confusion.
Follow Up and Review
Review decisions at your monthly leadership meeting. Delegation without follow up creates the same problems as no delegation. When you assign authority, let leaders own the outcomes. You may have chosen a different path. That is not the point. The point is building decision capacity across the team.
Plan For Crisis
Plan for crisis before a crisis happens. Decide who communicates if a major client threatens to leave. Decide who leads if two people resign in the same week. Decide who manages external vendors if a critical supplier fails. Silence creates confusion faster than bad news. You will not think clearly in the moment. Establish roles now.
Senior employees are not automatically leaders. Longevity does not equal decision making skill. Your best technician may struggle in a management role. Leadership requires good judgment under pressure, clear communication, and trust from the team when you are not in the room.
What To Do Next
- Name your number two this week. If the role is not clear, start developing someone or plan to hire within six months
- Write decision authority for all leadership roles using the three level framework. Include specific examples and dollar limits
- Test your system by asking three common decision questions. If you get different answers from different people, the system is not ready
- Create a basic crisis plan outlining who communicates, who decides, and who executes in difficult situations
This usually takes two to three weeks to document and another month to refine. You will know it is working when you take a long weekend, return to the office, and nothing is waiting on your desk because someone else handled it. This clarity supports stability and meaningful growth.