What to do when you don’t like a decision you delegated

When you have delegated a particular decision to one of your staff and you don’t like the decision they have made you have three options:

overrule the person
ask the staff member to change it
accept it

The correct answer is 3: Accept it.

multiple signs on a post — Don’t like the direction a team member is taking?

Authority only matters when we disagree. If you change the decision after they make it, you are undermining your staff member’s authority. Accept their decision, then talk to them/coach them later on what you disliked about their decision. Being trained by being overruled is humiliating and unfair.

If you accept that, with the exception of extreme cases, you will not be overruling your staff, you should see a shift in your thinking. You will make sure you train people carefully on how to make good decisions, what decisions they should make, and what decisions they should come to you on.

IBEX Payroll extends our profound respect and immeasurable gratitude to all the ancestors and keepers of the land on whose traditional territories our work takes place. We acknowledge that we are on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people. This land is sacred, historical, and significant.

Every time we acknowledge this truth, we have an invitation and an opportunity to reflect on the wrongs of the past, what we do in the present, and what we can do to continually honour the people whose lands and water we benefit from today.

This statement only acts as a first step in honouring the land we reside on and its peoples, and must be paired with education, understanding and informed action.