Where your say ends
Where your say ends
The edge of your own authority, which almost nobody is told and almost everybody guesses too low.
Decisions this page is about, and where the line actually was
Changing the wording on a customer-facing error message
4 → 1It had been yours all along
Refunding a customer under fifty pounds
3 → 1A written policy you had never been shown
Rescheduling the weekly review
2 → 2Hiring a contractor for two days
5 → 3Your own budget line covered it
Reordering your own week
4 → 1You asked twice before believing the answer
- 1Decide it alone and say nothing
- 2Decide it alone and mention it afterwards
- 3Check with one colleague first
- 4Check with the person who assigned it
- 5Needs a decision one level up
- 6Cannot be decided here at all
five decisions · four of them you had more room than you thought · one you had exactly right · the median gap was two steps on the scale
Five of the nine decisions counted on this site.
Nobody ever draws the line
Everybody acts on a line nobody told them. The reason is not secrecy: the people who know where it runs cannot see that it needs saying.
The six steps of deciding alone
A scale for authority, from decide it and say nothing to it cannot be decided here, which turns a vague feeling into something two people can discuss.
Why people guess their authority low
Guessing too low produces no feedback and guessing too high produces a lot. Over a year, that asymmetry moves everybody's estimate in one direction.
The decision you could have made
Four of nine decisions on the record had more room than the person assumed. Nothing visible happened in any of them, which is exactly why they are worth counting.
The time you overstepped and nobody minded
Three of nine decisions had less room than assumed. What happened next in each case is more instructive than the mistake itself.
Finding the edge without testing it
Four ways to find out where your authority ends that do not involve crossing it, for anybody who cannot simply be told.
Spending limits and other real numbers
Some authority can be written as a number, and where it can, it should be. A list of the limits worth stating and what each one retires.
When the line moves without notice
Authority is not a fixed quantity. It contracts after an incident, expands when somebody is away, and changes entirely when the manager does.
Draw your own line and check it
Do not wait to be told. Write the line down yourself, send it, and ask for corrections — which is a much easier thing for somebody to give than a map from nothing.