Slow Decisions Break Companies Before Bad Strategy Does
Slow Decisions Break Companies Before Bad Strategy Does
HBR makes a blunt point: as organizations scale, leaders can become the bottleneck. The “hero” who used to solve everything ends up slowing everything down.
The CEOs who outperform are not the ones who personally make better decisions.
They build a system that makes better decisions across the company, every day.
When the pace of change accelerates, centralization turns into a choke point.
Information and approvals climb the hierarchy. Time disappears. Momentum dies.
That’s why distributed decision-making wins. Not just delegation. Not chaos.
Decision rights pushed to the edge, with clear guardrails.
The leaders who win do three things:
➤ Define the few decisions that must stay at the top
➤ Set guardrails so teams can move without asking permission
➤ Build trust, then stop pulling decisions back to the center
The leaders who lose tell the organization to “move faster” while keeping every meaningful call tethered to them.
Where have you seen distributed decision power speed up outcomes?
🔗Source: Great Leaders Empower Strategic Decision-Making Across the Organization
