TL;DR: Harvard Business Review is spot on that organizations hit a decision-making breaking point as they scale. But no framework fixes the real problem: a leader who won’t get out of the way. The approval loop doesn’t exist because of a structural flaw. It exists because a leader built it.
The Approval Loop Is Killing Your Organization’s Speed
Nothing is so difficult as not making a decision.
—Jim Rohn
Harvard Business Review recently published a piece on why fast-growing organizations hit a decision-making breaking point. Their diagnosis is correct. As organizations scale, things slow down. Agility disappears. Execution stalls.
Their solution is a model called structured empowerment: give frontline employees defined options and hold them accountable for results instead of process. Smart framework, and worth reading.
But here is what it does not say, and what I see playing out inside organizations every single day: no framework fixes a leader who will not get out of the way.
You can redesign your decision model, roll out a new operating structure, and call it empowerment. But if the leader at the top is still pulling decisions back to their desk, still requiring sign-off on things that should have been delegated six months ago, still treating every handoff as a checkpoint instead of a trust signal? Your team is still stuck in the approval loop. And that loop is what is killing your speed.
What the Leadership Approval Loop Actually Looks Like
You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.
—Michelle Obama
I was working with a senior leadership team recently. Smart people. Strong performers on paper. The kind of organization that should have been moving fast.
Yet they were completely gridlocked.
When I dug in, the pattern was obvious: almost every significant decision required multiple rounds of review before anyone would pull the trigger. And half the time, even after those reviews, the decision came back with “let me think about it a little more.”
The team had stopped trying to go fast…They had been trained not to.
That is the part most leaders miss: your team is not slow. Your team is waiting on YOU.
Why Leaders Build the Bottleneck Without Realizing It
The greatest enemy of good is better.
—Voltaire
It almost always comes from one of three places.
Control dressed up as diligence. The leader tells themselves they are staying involved to catch problems before they happen. It feels responsible. It is micromanagement with better intentions.
Risk aversion dressed up as collaboration. Instead of making a call, the leader calls another meeting, gets more input, socializes the decision further. All of which sounds thoughtful, and all of which delays the actual decision while everyone waits.
It’s ego dressed up as accountability. The leader needs to be the one who decides. Not because the decision requires their expertise, but because being the decider feels like being in charge.
All three produce the same result: the team slows down, stops bringing things forward, and eventually stops trying. High performers disengage quietly. And the leader has no idea why.
How to Break the Organizational Approval Loop
Delegation is not about dumping. It’s about developing people.
—John C. Maxwell /em>
If you suspect you might be the bottleneck, here is where to start.
Do an honest audit. How many decisions crossed your desk in the last 30 days that someone on your team could have made without you?
If the number is more than a few, you have a delegation problem. And the problem is you, not your team.
Get explicit about what actually needs you. Major strategy shifts, significant resource allocation, anything that touches the organization’s core direction. Everything else should be moving without you. If you are involved in everything, you are leading nothing.
Stop rescuing. When someone on your team makes a decision you would have made differently, resist the urge to overrule them unless there is a clear business reason. Let the decision stand. Let them own the outcome. That is how you build a team that operates at speed without needing you in every room.
The Real Cost of Slow Decision-Making
Time is the only capital any human being has, and the one thing he can’t afford to lose.
—Thomas Edison
Every day decisions pile up waiting for sign-off, the organization pays a price most leaders never fully calculate. Your best people get frustrated and start looking elsewhere. Your competitors make moves while you are still in review. Your teams learn to wait instead of act.
Speed is a leadership behavior. So is bottlenecking. The difference between organizations that outperform during disruption and those that fall behind is not usually strategy. It is how fast decisions move from conversation to execution.
The approval loop does not exist because of a structural flaw. It exists because a leader built it. And only a leader can tear it down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my organization so slow at making decisions?
In most cases, the speed problem is not structural. It is behavioral. One or two leaders are creating bottlenecks by requiring approval on decisions that should be moving without them. The fix starts with an honest look at who decisions are waiting on and why.
How do I know if I am the bottleneck in my organization?
Ask yourself: how many decisions required my sign-off in the last 30 days that my team could have handled without me? If the honest answer is more than a few, you are the bottleneck. The next question is whether you are willing to change that. Because no framework or org redesign will do it for you.
How do I get my leadership team to make faster decisions?
Identify where decisions are stalling and who they are stalling on. Have direct conversations about what requires senior involvement and what does not. Faster decisions require leaders who trust their teams with outcomes and stop treating every decision as a referendum on their own judgment.
