Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
Business Plan Writer & Financial Projections
What Are Decision Rights, and How Do You Stop Taking Decisions Back?
Putting Someone in Charge Means Letting Them Decide.
After 1,000+ clients, business consultant Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, sees this one all the time. You put someone in charge. Then you walk by, see a call you would have made differently, and change it. You do it three times before lunch. By noon your lead is writing a resignation letter. Below: how to write down who decides what, and how to stop taking it back.
Last Updated: 11/08/2026 · Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
The Definition
What Do Decision Rights Mean?
Short Answer
Decision rights are a written record of who makes each kind of decision in a business, who must be consulted before it is made, and who is simply informed afterward. They usually include spending limits. They only work if the owner respects them, including when the owner would have decided differently.
Decision rights = who decides + who is asked first + who is told after + the limits
Doctor Owl, in Plain English
“Three calls, three reversals, before noon. You did not put her in charge. You put her in the way. Write it down, then keep your hoof off it.”
How This Guide Works
Need the answer fast? Read the Short Answer above and the numbered steps. Want the full picture? Follow Colt, a horse who runs forest tours from Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest Business School Series, as he overrules his new lead three times in one morning. His story shows up in a few short gold notes along the way. The math sits in one section, clearly marked.
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Meet Colt Again: Three Calls, Three Changes
Some lessons stick better as a story. Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest Business School Series teaches business through a forest full of small business owners. Doctor Owl, a dry-witted consultant who lives in the Lone Oak, helps them fix the same problems real owners face.
Today he arrives at the Forest Trails barn because Greta, Commander Colt’s goose, sent a note that said only: come now. The pelican Colt made lead guide for the afternoon tours has made three calls this morning. Colt walked by and reversed all three. She is in the tack room writing her notice.
Why It Matters
Why Do Owners Keep Taking Decisions Back?
Owners take decisions back for understandable reasons. They know the business best, they have always done it a certain way, and they are passing by anyway. Each reversal feels small.
To the person in charge, each one says the same thing: your judgment does not count here. After a few, they stop deciding and start asking. The owner becomes the bottleneck again, and good leads leave. Decision rights make the handoff real by putting it in writing.
In the Fabled Forest
The pelican moved the gentler guide to the tour with small children. Colt moved him back. She approved a two-coin refund for a family whose grandmother fell ill. Colt overruled it. She picked the wagon with better brakes for the hill. Colt picked the old one, because it had always been the ridge wagon.
Write It Down
How Do You Create a Decision Rights Chart?
- List the recurring decisions. Schedules, assignments, refunds, equipment, weather calls, purchases.
- Assign each one. Who decides it. Not who might have an opinion.
- Add who is asked first. Only when another person’s input is truly needed.
- Add who is told after. Usually the owner, at the end of the day or week.
- Set limits. A dollar amount above which the decision moves up. A RACI chart is one formal version of this.
In the Fabled Forest
Colt wrote the chart out himself, using the blank side of the pelican’s resignation note. She decides the afternoon schedule, which guide goes where, which wagon to use, same-day weather calls, and refunds. Prices, new routes, and any spending above 30 coins stayed with Colt. Everything else, he would hear about after closing.
Keeping Your Hands Off
How Do You Stop Overriding Your Team?
Expect to disagree sometimes. That is the point. If the person in charge makes a call you would not have made, and it is inside their rights, let it stand. Talk about it at the end of the day if you need to, and adjust the chart if the lines are wrong.
The test comes when the stakes feel high. That is when owners are most tempted to step in, and when respecting the chart matters most. Delegation only works if it survives a hard day.
In the Fabled Forest
That afternoon the sky over the ridge turned a strange green-yellow. The pelican cancelled the four o’clock ride and refunded twelve riders. Colt’s hoof twitched on the desk, but stayed there. Thirty minutes later, a violent storm swept over the ridge. The riders watched it from the dry barn, drinking Greta’s tea.
The Numbers
What Did One Morning of Overrides Cost?
Here is the day at the barn, before and after the decision chart.
| Time | What happened |
|---|---|
| 9:00 | Lead moves a guide to fit a family. Owner reverses it. |
| 10:30 | Lead approves a 2-coin refund. Owner reverses it. |
| 11:00 | Lead picks the safer wagon. Owner reverses it. |
| Noon | Lead drafting her notice |
| Afternoon | Chart written; the family gets its 2 coins back |
| 3:00 | Lead cancels for weather, refunds 12 riders 24 coins |
| 4:30 | Storm hits; riders safe in the barn |
Step 1: The cost of overriding. Three small reversals nearly cost the business its lead guide, who would have been expensive and slow to replace.
Step 2: The value of the chart. 24 coins refunded in the afternoon, against twelve riders caught on a ridge in a storm.
Step 3: Your version. Count how many of your team’s calls you changed last week. Each one taught them to stop deciding.
Illustrative numbers in forest coins, from the book.
Step by Step
How Do You Set Up Decision Rights in a Small Business?
Four steps, about an hour.
List the decisions that come up every week.
Write them down as they happen for a few days.
Write who decides, who is asked, who is told.
One line per decision. Keep the owner’s list short.
Set spending limits.
A clear dollar amount above which the decision moves up.
Post it and leave it alone.
Review it monthly. Change the chart, not the decision.
In the Fabled Forest
Doctor Owl’s scroll for Colt had the three words decides, asks, and is told. Colt pinned it to the barn desk, right where his hoof would land.
Colt’s Full Story
Did the Pelican Stay?
This page gives you the short version. The book gives you the whole day: three calls reversed before noon, a note from a goose that said only come now, a chart written on the back of a resignation letter, a family’s two coins, a green-yellow sky, and a hoof that stayed on the desk.
Every chapter of Human Resources for Small Businesses works the same way. One owner, one problem, one real idea you can use on Monday, plus a one-page worksheet to do it.
A Business Consultant’s View
What Would a Consultant Put on a Decision Map First?
Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA · Business Consultant
When Dr. Paul builds a decision map with an owner, he starts with the decisions that happen daily and cost little to get wrong: scheduling, assignments, small refunds, equipment choices. Those move to the team first, because they free the most owner time and build the most trust. He writes spending limits as a number, not a judgment call. Then he asks the owner a hard question: which of these would you have overruled last week? Those are the ones to watch. A decision map that the owner keeps breaking is worse than none at all, because it teaches the team that the paper does not mean anything.
FAQ
What Gets Asked Most About Handing Off Decisions?
What are decision rights?
How do I stop micromanaging my team?
What is the difference between decision rights and a RACI chart?
Keep Going
More on Leading Without Doing It All
This is foundation 18 of 20. These pages build on it. New to a term on this page? Every one is in the human resources glossary.
Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business consultant and author with 14+ years of experience and 1,000+ clients served. Hiring, paying, or managing a team and want a second set of eyes? See business consulting and prices.
This page is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal, financial, employment, or other professional advice. Figures are illustrations. The Fabled Forest and its characters are fictional. For decisions about your own business, consult a qualified professional.