685 | Your Manager Is Waiting for Permission You Never Gave

Your manager keeps checking in before making the calls you think they should own. You hired them so you could stop being in everything.

Instead, you're in everything just with an extra step. You keep telling yourself they need to grow into their role. But here's the question nobody asks.

Did you ever actually tell them they had the authority to? That is what's coming up next.

Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

Today we are talking about one of the most common frustrations I hear from business owners.

A manager who seems capable, who you believed in enough to put in the role, but who keeps checking in before making decisions you really believe they should just own. And most owners I work with have the same reaction.

Why won't they just lead? But here's what I found in almost every single situation when we go looking for the answer, it's not that they won't. It's that nobody ever told them that they could.

Today I want to show you how the one conversation that fixes everything is probably the conversation that's never happened.

Manager Is a Title. Authority Is a Conversation. (00:01:33)

Now, important thing to understand, very clear idea, Manager is a title. Authority is a conversation.

So here's the assumption that most owners make, that the title communicates the permission. It seems natural. It seems like this should be an obvious thing.

I gave you the title manager. Just go and do your job. The problem is, is that title does not communicate authority. A title tells someone what they're responsible for.

It doesn't tell them what they're authorized to do. So this is a super important piece that you've got to get into your mind when you're thinking about, does somebody, you know, why is somebody not making the calls that they should make?

So when a manager, and gosh, I just hate the term manager, but that's the one that makes most sense to everybody. When a manager doesn't have a map, you know, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Here's the authority I have, right? It is incredibly difficult to have responsibility without authority. It is a terrible place for a leader to be in, to have responsibility, to have expectations on you, but you have no authority, that is a terrible place to be.

So when a manager doesn't have that map of what is my authority, you know, here's what I'm supposed to do. What calls can I make?

You know, every single call that they're about to make or should make feels, even if it's a slightly significant call, it kind of becomes an uncertain thing to push forward. Right. It becomes something that, you know, is this mine? Do I make this call?

Does the owner make this call? Who in the world is supposed to pull the trigger on this thing?

So on top of that, they might be asking the question, if I do make this call, would the owner have done it differently? Would they have made a different call, go a different route?

Is there something that's in their head that I don't know about? Am I overstepping in this area?

So when you do not have a clear line, checking in with the owner, believe it or not, is a rational move. It makes total sense. I don't have a clear line on whether or not I'm supposed to make this decision.

I don't have a clear line on how this decision should be made. I don't have a clear line on whether or not I'm overstepping my boundaries. So what seems rational go back to the owner?

It's not a confidence problem. I know it can seem it. Now, I'm not saying that all situations are this way. There are some caveats in here.

If somebody does have the authority, they very clearly have the authority, but they don't want the authority, then that's probably a confidence issue that they keep coming back to you with. Right.

But that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about the manager that was put in place and just doesn't seem to be making any significant calls.

So that's not a confidence problem. It's not technically a leadership failure on that person's part. Right. It's this rational idea to them. It's a logical response to operating in what they consider to be a vacuum. Right?

So the crazy thing, it seems when you hire somebody that you have done a great job defining the role. You've given them a job description. The job description covers the responsibilities. Here's the things that I want you to do.

Here's the things that need to get done. You've got the title that seems to cover the rank. It should. Right. You have the expectations of this manager being a great leader.

The problem is that the manager now has to figure out, or they're expected to figure out the rest of this from the context of you've got a job description with responsibilities and you've got a title. Go and do.

But that gap is never going to close on its own. The gap of title to authority that never closes on its own because nobody names it and both sides, owner, manager, both sides assume that the other side understands.

If you're the owner, you assume that the manager understands what they're supposed to do and that they have the authority to do so because you gave them a title.

If you are the manager who doesn't feel like they've been given authority yet, you assume the manager or the owner knows this, and that's the reason why you're going back to them.

And they should understand that because they haven't told you you can go make these calls. So the way you close this gap is by drawing a line.

Some decisions are theirs alone, some they make and tell you about after, some they bring to you first. I'm going to show you exactly what that type of conversation should look like.

The Story — An Operations Manager Stuck in a Vacuum (00:06:44)

So picture a fairly typical owner. You know, her operations manager has been in the role for about a year.

Very smart, very organized. The team respects him, but he checks in constantly before approving vendor invoices, before responding to certain client requests, before making scheduled calls that he's been literally making for months. Right.

Well, how do you think that leader feels? Well, she's frustrated. And I tell you, she would say, literally, I hired this person so that I could stop being in everything, and I'm still in everything every day.

It's something that, that he should just handle. Now picture asking her just one question, right? If you were sitting down with this owner, what would you ask? What I would ask is this.

Hey, when that person came into the role, did you ever sit down with him and map out specifically what he's authorized to decide without you? Now, most owners on the spot are probably going to say the same exact thing.

You know, some owners are going to go, well, yeah, of course I gave him the title. I told him the responsibilities of the role, right? Or, you know, I told him he was responsible for all of operations.

And so, you know, he knows what his job is. He should be able to make decisions. The problem is telling somebody that they're responsible for operations instead of adding to it, hey, you are authorized to decide.

Those are two completely different things. Was he ever told explicitly that these are the calls you make and never need to run by me. These are the ones that you make and you tell me about afterwards.

You don't have to come to me on this. You can just let me know, fill me in. So I'm aware. I can tell you there's a ton of decisions that get made inside of my business that I'm like, listen, just update me.

So I know that that actually happened. You don't have to bring that to me. We don't have to sit down and talk about it. We don't have to go through any crazy processes. Just update me so that I don't step into a room.

And I'm confused when somebody says, hey, great decision on that thing over there. And I have no clue that we did it right. But the truth is, is I have strong leaders that are able to make decisions that they don't have to come to me about.

And they're able to make decisions that they just, you know, brief me about later as well as there are certain decisions that you need to stop and come to me first again on my team, man, that is a very small number of decisions.

And that's because I have spent so much time over the years making them great, making sure I'm spending time training them, teaching them, guiding them, directing them, not just throwing them in a role and then hoping that they do exactly what I think they should do.

Instead, I help them to understand. And so there's been a phenomenal trust built, phenomenal loyalty, phenomenal expertise. So there's very few things that they truly have to come to me for ahead of time.

When you ask an owner the question, have you done this? Almost always the answer is going to be, well, no. I kind of figured that he'd figure it out. And there is the problem. We have a tendency to believe, right?

The manager in this picture isn't just over checking because he lacks confidence. He's operating in a vacuum. What's that vacuum?

The vacuum is, is that we tend to believe because we told you your title, because we told you some responsibilities, that in that you understood all aspects of what would be needed to pull this off.

You know, not saying those things isn't safe to that manager, right? He has no map.

So every decision that feels slightly significant, he brings to the owner because he genuinely doesn't know which ones are his to make alone.

The Three-Column Mapping Exercise (00:10:55)

So this is where the mapping exercise comes in.

So walk through the categories of decisions in a role like his and sort them into three columns. Column one, decisions. This manager leader owns completely. He makes the call, he doesn't report it to you unless something breaks.

There is absolutely no confusion here. We build great clarity into it. If it is this type of decision, you know, here's your role, here's the types of decision.

And by the way, this might absolutely be incredible for you to realize what kind of decisions get made in any kind of role and what kind of decisions need authority, right?

So by doing this, this will help you to go, oh, my gosh, I never thought about, you know, these are some things that are going to be decisions this person's going to make.

And so this helps you to go, okay, column one, you own these completely. Don't come to me. You don't need to bring this up. Unless something breaks, you make the decision, you rock on.

Column number two, these are decisions that he makes and tells the owner about afterward. Right? They own the call, they keep the owner in the loop, but the manager literally does not wait for the input first.

We're not looking for input from the leader. Now, this is important for you to think about. So I will tell you. There are certain times, like I say, there's very few decisions that need to come to me, but there is one thing I absolutely want to do.

As my leaders are growing in this decision making process, I want to be able to guide and direct with information.

So if in column two, you are saying, make these decisions and then let me know afterwards, and then the first thing you do when they let you know they made a decision is go, oh, well, that's not how I would have done it.

Then I can promise you this, everything in this column is going to move into the third column, right, which is needing to come to you first.

So you cannot build somebody's confidence by telling them that they could go make decisions and they have authority to do so on something.

If every single time they come to you and you go, I wouldn't have done it that way. Now you can give them a, you know, hey, great job on that, you know, or ask them, how did you come up with that idea?

Or hey, how did you come up with that process? Or, you know, what led you to making that decision? And then say, great, I'm glad you did. Well done for the future.

Here's something I would probably tweak, and here's how and why I get to this process, or here's how and why I get to this answer. So you're letting them know with positivity.

Hello, you're helping to build up their confidence that they did a good job the first time they made that decision.

But for future not, I wouldn't have done it that way. Hey, you need to go change that thing. I mean, you know, unless there's a problem here.

But if you let them know for the future, here's how I process through or even by asking them perspective gaining questions to see how they got to their process and then helping them to see when you do this in the the next time, try this or think about this or ask this question here.

By doing so, you are guiding them on that column two to feel confident that they can make a decision, let you know about it, and they're not going to get their head lopped off. Right?

Again, if you do not do it that way, if you do it the way that so many people do, why'd you do that? Oh, I wouldn't have done that then. Guess what? Everything in column two is going to end up in column three, which is where they bring the decisions to you first.

So try to, you know, this is. Help them to know. This is where authority stops for you, right? Make sure it's explicit. Make sure it's not something that's assumed.

Help them to see why. Here's why I need these decisions to come to me first, because I have to give input. Because I'm probably the only person who's going to know the answer to that, right?

I've got, you know, the experience that I have with these clients.

I've worked with them for so long that this level of a decision is something that it probably needs to even go through me. I might even be have to be the one who gives the decision to them.

That type of stuff helps them to learn how you process. If you help them when they come to you with stuff in column three, then help them to understand how you got to the actual decision.

So by doing so, you're not just holding on to these decisions in some controlling manner. You know, you don't get to make these at all. Guide and direct them through every single decision as much as you possibly can.

So you grow the leader, grow the manager, help them to learn how to make those decisions. Another thing that I really love to do with column three type stuff is I like to ask them before I tell you or, you know, before I give the decision here, what would you do?

You know, every time you come to me with a, with a column three decision making, you know, issue, I want you to come with your answer as to what you would do, what would you decide in this situation.

So I get to see how are they thinking, how are they processing? And then I get to also comment on it. I get to guide and direct on what I would do.

Here's the problem. When you do not do that, they will not think for themselves. Instead of coming to you and even stretching their brain, you know, exercising the process, they will just sit and wait for your answer.

And that is not what you want. You want them thinking for themselves.

You want this to be something where a lot of those things in column three eventually get handed off to them and they can run with them themselves.

The Aha Moment and What Changes (00:17:01)

Almost every time an owner does this exercise, the same moment happens partway through. Something clicks. Something just all of a sudden becomes very clear. Oh, my gosh.

He's been asking me about these things that are obviously column one. I've been answering them like they were column three. Boom. That's the problem. It is clear I did not give authority, which makes sense, right? He didn't know they were column one.

He was guessing every single time. Is this something I'm supposed to run by the owner? Is this something I need input on every single time?

And that's when it makes total sense to the owner. I should have done this process, right? So the fix is the same in every version of the story. Sit down, walk through the map. Say it out loud. No assumptions here. Just say it out loud.

These are yours. I don't need to hear about these. Unless something breaks. These are ones you got to come talk to me about. So the outcomes tend to be the same as well.

Behavior changes within, I mean, days, if. I mean, it might even take a week, but it's going to happen pretty darn quickly. And it's not because the manager became a different person. It's because he finally had permission.

He finally had a clear line. Clarity, folks. Not implied, not assumed, stated. And that's the only kind of permission that actually changes how somebody leads.

So think about your managers, right? Any leaders that you have. Not a struggling manager, not a newly promoted one, but whoever keeps checking in on calls that you believe they should just make.

Folks, that pattern is the signal. That is the red flag that you need to do something.

Your Assignment and the Workshop (00:19:01)

So your assignment this week. Here's what I want you to do this week is just have one conversation. Not a feedback session, not a performance discussion.

Instead, make it a mapping conversation. You know, use the same three columns that I talked about in the. The illustration of this, the story.

Sit down together and sort. And you. It'd be good for you to actually send this to them. Hey, here's three columns.

I want you to write down what you believe are, you know, the. The. The calls. You have the authority for the calls. You have the authority, but you got to let me know in the calls that you have to come straight to me.

It would be great for you for a couple of reasons. One, because it's great to see what they're thinking, but two, they're probably going to come up with some stuff that you might not even have thought about.

So sit down together. Sort their decisions into those three columns and then say them out loud. I know it seems silly, but say these are yours. I don't need to know unless something breaks.

You know, go through each process. Say it out loud. Ask them if they have any questions, ask them if they understand. So write it down, give it to them, then hold to it. Make sure.

So the first few times they bring you column one decision out of habit, the temptation is going to be just don't answer. Right. Don't redirect it.

Hey, that's yours. So help me to understand, why did you bring that one to me? That's one that we talked about, right? That's something that you already know.

You have the authority when you do this. Go back, you know, point back to their little three column map, if you will.

When you do this, that helps them to do one of two things. This is going to point out something super important, by the way. This is going to go back to something I said earlier on.

The person who doesn't want the authority. If it's somebody who's just confused or still testing to make sure that it's accurate, they will agree. Yep, you're correct. That's right. All right, I got it.

Sorry for bringing that to you. And boom, they're on their way. If it is somebody who doesn't want authority, this is where you're really going to see the struggle.

This is where you're going to see them. Well, but I wanted to make sure. Well, but I know in the past they'll have some kind of lame excuses. That's where you then have to choose to get a little bit deeper on this.

Hey, help me to understand though. If we said this was your authority and we mapped it out and you knew this was in that column, help me to understand why you're not making the call.

This will kind of flush out some of those insecurities. Hopefully. It may, it may not. They might get really stubborn in the moment, but hopefully it's going to flush out some insecurities that you can actually deal with.

Now, if ultimately what you feel is, is that this is a person who keeps dumping responsibility back on you and they are not making the calls that they need to make and they understand it. It's been described.

There should be no reason, then you probably, probably have an issue with this person being in a leadership role or being in a role that requires the authority to make decisions, because they will probably keep putting it back on you or somebody else as being the responsibility because they don't want the responsibility.

So I hate it. But as soon as I can figure that out, if I, you know, I've had that in the past years and years ago.

And as soon as I found it out, it was a great change to be able to get that person out of that role.

Even though I believed they could do a good job, it was great to find out that the struggle was going to be that they were never going to ultimately take responsibility and I needed to do something about it.

So there you go. This week, one conversation, 30 minutes, one time. It will do way more for the capability of your leader than you can possibly.

Way more than six months worth of feedback, I can tell you that. Right. Frustrating feedback on why they keep checking in, that's for sure.

So the authority was never the problem. The mapping is the thing that was missing. Now, if mapping out one manager's decision felt like a relief, that's just one piece of a much bigger picture.

On August 6th at 11 Central Standard Time, I'm hosting a free live workshop called four steps to build a business that runs without you. Today was about getting one manager to stop checking in.

The workshop is about the bigger shift behind it, The 4 Steps that Get your Whole Business off your Shoulders and into a structure that Runs Whether you're in the Room or Not. So if today's episode hit close to home, don't just make a mental note.

Go register right now. Before you forget, head to chrislocurto.com/build that's chrislocurto.com/build to save your seat again, that's chrislocurto.com/build and we would love to see you there.

Well, folks, that is all the time that I have for today. I hope this has been incredibly helpful. As always, take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.