Hand over one recurring decision. Without losing control A seven-day practical exercise: choose one decision, agree who owns it, set the boundaries and review what happens. Start with one decision that regularly comes back to you. Over seven days, you will write a usable handover agreement and test it on a suitable real case. The aim is one ordinary decision handled within agreed boundaries without needing your approval. If no suitable case occurs, keep the agreement and test it when one does. You have delegated the work. Yet you still carry the responsibility. People ask what to do, customers want you, and the numbers only become useful after you explain them. Stepping back feels risky because you cannot see whether the business will hold. Founder Independence means building teams that decide, deliver and grow without everything coming back to you. Sales, people, operations, finance and customer independence underpin that confidence. The founder can stay involved by choice, with clear visibility and agreed exceptions. Use the five areas below to recognise where your involvement is essential and where an operating agreement is missing. Bring a recent example to each question. Mark it as handled by the team, requiring your involvement, or not yet observed. This is a reflection tool, not a score or verified diagnosis. Choose one manageable, reversible case to improve first. Keep legal commitments, safety matters, major spending and other genuinely reserved decisions within their existing authority. The five areas of Founder Independence Sales independence Can we win business without me driving every sale? You open the doors, shape every proposal or rescue the close. The pipeline moves when you push it. Check a real case: Choose a recent opportunity. Who owned the next step, the commercial recommendation and the follow-through? Would it have moved if you were unavailable? Starting action: Name an opportunity owner. Agree the next outcome, the pricing and promise boundaries, and when your involvement is genuinely needed. People independence Can my team lead, decide and take ownership without constantly checking with me? People have jobs and tasks, but you still settle priorities, resolve disagreements and check that things happen. Check a real case: Ask one manager what outcome they own and which choices they can make without approval. Compare their answer with yours. Starting action: Agree one outcome and the authority to deliver it. Ask for a reasoned recommendation when a choice falls outside that authority. Operations independence Can we deliver reliably without me coordinating or rescuing the work? Handoffs, capacity clashes and delivery exceptions come back to you. Work depends on what you remember. Check a real case: Follow one recent job from promise to delivery. Where did it wait for you, and who owned resolving that interruption? Starting action: Give one person ownership of the delivery outcome, a visible status and an agreed route for exceptions. Finance independence Can we understand the numbers and make sound commercial decisions without me interpreting everything? Reports arrive, but you still have to explain what they mean, chase a forecast or decide what action follows. Check a real case: Ask the finance owner what the current cash, margin or forecast picture means for the next decision. Can they explain the assumptions and recommend an action? Starting action: Agree the information needed, who interprets it, when it is reviewed and which financial decisions remain reserved. Customer independence Can we retain and develop customer relationships without me being the essential contact? Customers ask for you, difficult conversations reach you first, and renewals or expansion depend on your relationship. Check a real case: Choose one important customer. Who knows the commitments, owns the next conversation and can resolve an ordinary issue within agreed limits? Starting action: Name a relationship owner and agree service, promise and escalation boundaries. Introduce their authority clearly to the customer. Delegate decisions without losing control Decide and inform: Within the agreed authority: make the decision, act and report through the normal review. Recommend for approval: Outside your authority: bring evidence, options and a recommendation, plus the specific approval needed. Escalate immediately: An agreed urgent exception: contact the named person with the facts and immediate action required. Do not wait for the routine review. Bring a recommendation, not just a problem Situation: What has happened, and what outcome needs protecting? Evidence: What do we know? What is uncertain? Options: What realistic choices have you considered, with costs and trade-offs? Recommendation: What do you recommend, and why? Authority: Can you act within the agreed limits, or which specific approval do you need? Follow-through: Who will act, by when, and when will we review the result? Stay in control through a useful review Agree a review rhythm suited to the work. The owner brings the outcome, what was decided, evidence of progress, emerging risks and any recommendation needing approval. Review exceptions sooner when the agreed trigger occurs. Use this visibility to improve the agreement rather than reopening every reasonable choice. Your first seven days: transfer one outcome Day 1: Name the work that keeps returning (Direction) List three things you were asked to decide yesterday. For each, write what was waiting, who brought it to you and what outcome mattered. Choose one repeated, bounded decision rather than trying to delegate your whole job. Evidence to keep: One named decision, its desired outcome and a recent example. Ask the team whether they recognise the same pattern. Day 2: Find the missing authority (Decisions) Ask the person closest to the work: “What could you decide yourself? What would you still need from me?” Listen for unclear limits, unavailable information, competing priorities or a decision you routinely reopen. A job title does not settle these questions. Evidence to keep: A written explanation of why the decision returns. Distinguish missing authority from a genuine capability or information gap. Day 3: Agree ownership of the outcome (Leadership) Name one decision owner. Agree the result they own and which trade-offs they can make. Check that they have the information, time and capability to act. Responsibility without those resources will simply create a more accountable person waiting for permission. Evidence to keep: The owner can describe the outcome and their authority in their own words. You both understand what remains reserved. Day 4: Write the limits and exceptions (Decisions) Agree the ordinary case the owner can handle, the limits of that authority and the conditions that require escalation. Define what information an exception should carry. Use existing commercial and risk limits; do not invent a new spending allowance to make delegation look complete. Evidence to keep: A short decision record covering owner, outcome, permitted choices, limits and escalation trigger. Test it against yesterday’s example. Day 5: Give the owner a useful picture (Data) Identify the minimum information needed to make the decision: perhaps capacity, margin, customer commitment or cash timing. Ask where it comes from and how current it is. If it is unreliable, name who will correct it. More dashboards are not a substitute for one trustworthy answer. Evidence to keep: The owner can find the required information without asking you to join the dots. Unknown information is visible rather than guessed. Day 6: Let an ordinary case move (Delivery) Use the agreement on the next suitable case. Let the owner make the decision within the boundaries. Resist reopening a reasonable choice simply because you would have chosen differently. Intervene when an agreed exception occurs, and record why. Evidence to keep: What was decided, what happened next and whether founder intervention was required. If no suitable case occurred, record “not yet observed”. Day 7: Review the mechanism (Leadership) Review the case together. Did the outcome hold? Was information missing? Were the limits clear? What made the work return? Improve the agreement before expanding it. A quiet week alone is not proof of independence; the useful evidence is how work moved and who decided. Evidence to keep: Keep, change or investigate the decision agreement. Record: what worked, what came back to you, why it returned and what needs changing. Count suitable cases handled by the owner, cases needing your approval and agreed exceptions separately. Set a next review date; do not count an untested agreement as a successful handover. Your decision record Recurring decision: What exactly keeps coming back? Outcome: What result must the decision protect? Owner: Who decides and owns follow-through? Authority: What choices can they make without asking? Limits: Which existing risk or commercial boundaries apply? Information: What must they know, from which source? Escalation: What specific exception needs whom, with what evidence? Review: When will you check what happened and improve the agreement? An illustrative example, not a client claim For a delivery-date change, the owner might choose between available slots within an existing customer commitment. If the change breaches that commitment, needs extra spend outside their authority or displaces another promised delivery, it follows the agreed exception route. Illustrative decision record: recurring decision — moving a delivery slot; outcome — meet the customer commitment; owner — delivery manager; authority — choose an available slot within the existing promise; limits — no extra unapproved spend or displacement of another commitment; information — current capacity and the agreed customer deadline; escalation — a breached promise or unavailable capacity goes to the named commercial owner with options and a recommendation; review — check the decision log together at the next agreed review. The business must define its own actual limits. Start your review with three questions: what worked, what came back to you, and why? If you want Antony to review five real recurring decisions, explore the personal Decision Handover Map at https://independence.antonydraper.com/decision-handover/guide-ready. That page explains the paid service, current availability and scope; the free guide remains yours whether you buy or not. Where does your business still need you to make it work? The five areas help you locate the dependency. The free Assessment examines the operating conditions behind it: Direction, Decisions, Delivery, Data and Leadership. Use the result to investigate the pattern, alongside examples from the work. A score is not a verified diagnosis or a reason to buy an intervention. Take the free Founder Independence Assessment: https://independence.antonydraper.com/assessment Antony Draper Advisory · Founder Independence · General guidance, not a verified Review.