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.
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.