The Leadership Discipline Owners Need In Order To Stop Fixing and Start Trusting

In a previous blog, I showed you how owners sabotage decision rights.

Too much interference = the Helicopter. Too little accountability = the Vanisher.

So what’s the alternative? You build muscle. Not just in your team… But in yourself.

Here’s the story:

One owner I worked with gave her director full authority over scheduling. Great on paper. But every time the director made a choice she didn’t love, she’d jump in and “fix” it.

The director stopped deciding. The muscle never grew.

Another owner wrote the contract, set the cadence, and actually followed it. Even when the manager made shaky calls, he held back. He asked questions. He reviewed decisions at the agreed check-in.

And over time, the manager got sharper, faster, more confident.

Both leaders had the same contract. One built trust. The other broke it.

Here’s the hidden gem:

Decision rights don’t just build your team’s muscle. They build yours.

Your muscle to stay disciplined. Your muscle to trust the process. Your muscle to let others carry the weight without rescuing or rewriting.

Training Both Sides

For the team:

• Start with smaller decisions.

• Add guardrails.

• Reps + feedback at every cadence.

For the owner:

• Hold the cadence, even when tempted to skip.

• Stick to two questions, not ten opinions.

• Don’t override unless a guardrail is truly broken.

• Celebrate good process, not just good outcomes.

That’s how trust develops. That’s how both sides build muscle.

The reflection is simple:

Which muscle do you need to strengthen more right now— your team’s ability to decide… or your own discipline to let them?