At some point, approval turns from protection into friction.
In early stage companies, centralized decisions feel efficient.
Fewer people. Faster answers. Clear control.
As the company grows, that same model quietly breaks execution.
When everything needs the CEO’s approval, speed collapses.
Not because teams are slow. Because leadership design did not scale.
Approval Is a Symptom of Missing Structure
When decisions stack at the top, it is rarely about trust. It is about clarity.
- Teams seek approval when ownership is unclear. Decision rights are vague. Priorities compete. People escalate not because they want permission, but because they do not know where authority actually lives.
- Leaders feel indispensable because they built a system that requires them everywhere. Meetings multiply. Context switching increases. Strategic time disappears. The business moves, but only when the CEO pushes it forward.
This feels like leadership. It is actually a bottleneck.
Scalable Companies Push Decisions Down, Not Up
High performing organizations do not rely on constant approval. They rely on design.
- Clear roles define who owns which decisions. Teams are trained to decide within boundaries, not wait for validation. Execution speeds up because accountability is built into the system.
- Leaders stop being the approval layer and start being the clarity layer. They define direction, priorities, and standards. Teams execute without constant escalation.
This shift is uncomfortable for many leaders. Control feels safe.Letting go feels risky.
But approval based leadership does not scale. It suffocates momentum.
Leadership Is About Building Decision Capacity
If your calendar is full of approvals, reviews, and sign offs, the issue is not workload. It is leadership design.
Great leaders build organizations that think and act without them in every room. They invest in leadership capability early so execution does not depend on permission.
That is how speed compounds instead of collapsing.
The Bottom Line
If everything needs your approval, the system is broken. Not the people.
The solution is not pushing harder or working longer. It is developing leaders who can think, decide, and execute without waiting.
If you want to build that capability inside your company, Invest in Your Leaders is designed to help managers and leaders step up, take ownership, and reduce dependency on the CEO so the business can scale with confidence.
