Tasks versus decisions
A task is go pick up the part. A decision is figure out how we stop running out of that part. Handing off the task saves an hour. Handing off the decision saves the same question next month and the month after.
Owners often keep decisions because they fear a wrong call. The fix for that fear is not keeping everything. It is making the handoff clear enough that a wrong call is caught early.
Write down what you are handing over
Before the conversation, write the decision as one sentence. Add what you already know, the limits the person must stay within, such as a spending ceiling or customers that need the owner's call, and the result that would count as success.
That page is the difference between delegation and dumping. The person receiving it knows what they own and where the edges are.
One person, one date
Give the decision to one named person with a due date. If two people share it, each can fairly assume the other has it. The date is not a deadline for perfection. It is the day you will look together at what happened.
Agree how you will check it
Decide up front what you will look at on the due date. Fewer stock outs over the next month. Quotes sent the same day. A callback log with every finished job called. When the check is agreed in advance, the review is about the result, not about the person.
Stay out of the middle
The hardest part is not stepping back in. If the person asks for help, help. If they do not, wait for the due date. Stepping in halfway teaches the team that decisions still belong to the owner.
The following is a generic illustration, not a client. A landscaping owner hands the weekly crew schedule to a lead, with two limits. No overtime without approval, and the two largest accounts keep their usual days. The check is set for two weeks out. On that day they look at missed visits and overtime together.
Make the record visible
A shared list of open decisions, each with an owner and a date, lets an owner see everything without asking about everything. North Star Vision keeps that list ranked with a published formula, so the owner can see what is moving at a glance.