As a leader, you are likely no stranger to feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of decisions you need to make every day. These constant, incidental decisions can quickly eat away at your time and leave you feeling drained. They also take away from your productive hours leaving little room for strategic thinking or growth-focused initiatives. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
The Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of the results. Yet, many leaders find themselves bogged down in the remaining 80%—small, incidental tasks that don’t contribute to growth. According to a survey by the New York Enterprise Report, 33% of small business owners work over 50 hours a week, and 25% exceed 60 hours. The majority of this time is spent making decisions that could be delegated. Imagine reclaiming even 20% of that time—time that could be redirected toward growth-focused initiatives.
In this blog, I will share a simple yet effective system that I have repeated used over my 20 years of leadership experience to reclaim my time, reduce decision fatigue, and empower my team. This has allowed me to focus on what truly matters, i.e., growing my business. Now I invite you to steal my systems as it is or adapt them to your needs. If you need my help, you can always book a clarity call with me.
The Proven System to Delegate Decision-Making and Reclaim Your Time
You might often be feeling that you are always caught up in fire-fighting day-to-day tasks because roles and responsibilities within their teams are unclear. Without a clear framework, decision-making bottlenecks occur, and your team members default to seeking your approval on everything, no matter how small.
One of the most important systems to put in place is defining roles and responsibilities in a structured manner for your team. Sounds simple, right? But when done properly and in a structured manner, this can free up a significant amount of your time.
Here is a structure you can follow:
Step 1: Map Out Roles and Objectives
Start by clearly mapping out the current roles in your organization. This is not just about job titles, rather about understanding what success looks like for each role. Define each person’s objectives and targets and clarify what they are responsible for.
Step 2: Identify Major Tasks Tied to Your Value Stream
Next, identify the major tasks your team performs that directly contribute to fulfilling your company’s value stream—these are the tasks required to deliver your customer promise. Make sure every task is tied to a specific role.
Step 3: Use the RACI Matrix
The RACI Matrix is a powerful tool that helps you define and assign roles for each task in a structured, clear manner. It clarifies who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for every significant task, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks, and decisions can be made without bottlenecks. Here's a breakdown of how it works:
- R (Responsible): The individual or team responsible for carrying out the task. They are the “doers” of the task and take ownership of executing it. Often, there may be multiple people responsible for different aspects of the task, but they all contribute directly to getting it done.
- A (Accountable): The person who has the ultimate authority over the task. They are accountable for the completion and quality of the task. The accountable person oversees the work of the responsible individual or team and ensures that the task meets the necessary standards and deadlines. There should only be one accountable person for each task to avoid confusion over who has the final say.
- C (Consulted): These are the individuals whose input is required before a decision or task can be completed. They may not be directly involved in the execution but offer advice, expertise, or approval that shapes how the task is performed. Involving the right consulted individuals ensures that tasks benefit from the necessary knowledge, reducing mistakes and improving outcomes.
- I (Informed): This group consists of individuals who need to be kept updated about the progress and outcomes of the task. They don’t directly participate in the task but are looped in on important updates. This ensures transparency across the team or organization, avoiding surprises and keeping stakeholders aligned.
By mapping out these responsibilities using the RACI Matrix, you establish clear boundaries for decision-making authority.
One key point to remember is that this process works best when done in collaboration with your team. Involving your team in setting up the RACI Matrix empowers them to take ownership of their roles. It also helps them understand how their contributions directly affect the broader goals of the organization, leading to increased buy-in and reduced pushback.
Case Study: Sam’s Success Story - How One CEO Reclaimed 20% of His Time
Let me tell you about Sam, the CEO of a growing company who was struggling to stay on top of daily decision-making. Like many leaders, Sam was caught up in the operational details—answering questions, putting out fires, and handling tasks that should have been handled by his team. As a result, he had little time to focus on strategic growth initiatives, and his stress levels were through the roof.
Sam realized he needed a solution, so he turned to the Growth Leadership Framework. Specifically, he decided to use the RACI Matrix to help distribute decision-making responsibility within his team. Here is how he transformed his leadership approach:
Step 1: Mapping Out Roles and Objectives
Sam’s first step was to clarify the roles in his organization. He gathered his leadership team from departments like sales, marketing, and operations and held a huddle to outline everyone’s responsibilities. Rather than just focusing on job titles, Sam went deeper, clearly defining what success looked like for each role.
For example, in marketing, the head of the department, Lisa, was responsible for driving brand awareness and managing customer engagement. Sam made sure Lisa understood that she was accountable for the marketing department’s performance, but specific tasks like content creation, social media strategy, and ad campaigns were distributed across her team.
Step 2: Defining the Value Stream and Key Tasks
Next, Sam worked with his team to identify the major tasks tied to the company’s value stream. They looked at the key processes that were critical to delivering the customer promise.
In operations, for instance, Sam realized that they were spending a lot of time reacting to issues rather than proactively managing workflows. Tasks like inventory management, customer support escalations, and product fulfilment were handled without clarity, leading to confusion about who owned which process.
Together, they outlined every major task, from customer support tickets to inventory updates, and began mapping them to specific roles.
Step 3: Implementing the RACI Matrix
Finally, Sam introduced the RACI Matrix to clarify who was Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informedfor each task.
- R (Responsible): Lisa’s team was responsible for executing the content strategy and social media campaigns, with each team member handling specific platforms or pieces of content.
- A (Accountable): Lisa, as the department head, was accountable for the overall performance and success of the marketing initiatives.
- C (Consulted): Sam was only consulted when there were major shifts in strategy or significant budget decisions, allowing Lisa the freedom to make day-to-day decisions.
- I (Informed): Sam and the rest of the executive team were kept informed about the campaign’s progress through regular updates, but they weren’t involved in the actual execution.
By implementing the RACI Matrix and empowering his team to take ownership, Sam noticed a dramatic change. His team began making decisions on their own, without constantly coming to him for approval. This allowed him to reclaim 20% of his time, which he reinvested into strategic initiatives such as expanding into new markets and exploring new product development.
Sam’s marketing team, under Lisa’s leadership, was able to run multiple campaigns independently, which boosted brand visibility by 15%.
The structured approach Sam used, grounded in the Operational Excellence skillset of Growth Leadership Framework, didn’t just free up his time—it empowered his entire team to work more efficiently and confidently. Through this system, Sam was able to shift from being involved in every minor decision to focusing on leading his company toward growth, with the added benefit of fostering ownership and accountability within his team.
Why You Need to Act Now
Putting a structured system in place can feel time-consuming at first, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial effort. By freeing up time from incidental decisions, you are able to focus on growth, strategy, and innovation.
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