QUESTIONS FOUNDERS ASK
My managers have titles. Why does every decision still come to me?
By Ivanka Menken, Strategic Mentor·Updated
In Ivanka Menken's experience, a title without decision rights changes nothing. Managers keep escalating because the founder still overrides, still reviews and still holds the final word. The fix is to hand over one area at a time to a named person, write down what they now decide, and not override it.
Why do managers keep bringing decisions back?
Because it has been safer to. If the founder has overruled a decision before, or quietly redone the work, the team learns that the real decision sits with the founder. They are not being weak; they are reading the business correctly.
What does a real handover include?
- One named area, such as hiring, pricing quotes or a client account.
- One named owner, who decides inside that area.
- A written line on what they decide alone and what they bring back.
- A period with no override, so the team sees the change is real.
Why one area at a time?
Handing over everything at once rarely holds. One area each fortnight is slow enough to support properly and fast enough that six months changes how the business runs. Ivanka's single-person-risk shift starts by asking what would break if the founder were gone for 30 days, and works through those dependencies in that order.
What is the founder's part?
Keeping out. The hardest part of a handover is usually the founder not stepping back in when the decision is made differently from how they would have made it. In Ivanka's mentoring, the no-override period is written as the fortnight's commitment and checked at the next session.
How do you know the authority is real?
Decisions in that area stop arriving in your inbox, and when they do arrive, they come as information rather than as questions. Commitments kept on the monthly scorecard show whether the founder held to it.
How does Ivanka work on this?
This is the work of Ivanka's Builder-of-Leaders and Letting-Go Mentoring, with two tools that structure the handover.
What else do founders ask about this?
What if the manager makes the wrong decision?
Some will, and Ivanka Menken treats that as part of the price of a business that does not stop without its founder. Most decisions can be walked back, and a reversible decision is the right place for a manager to learn. Save the founder's veto for the few decisions that cannot be undone, and say in advance which those are.
How long does it take for a team to stop escalating?
In Ivanka Menken's six-month mentoring, founders usually hand over one area each fortnight. The team often tests the first handover by bringing decisions back, so the first weeks matter most. Once they see the founder hold the no-override line, escalation in that area tends to fall away.
Do I need a general manager first?
Not always. Ivanka Menken often finds the founder needs to release areas to the leaders they already have before a general manager would have room to work. Hiring a manager into a business where the founder still holds every decision usually produces an expensive assistant.
What does mentoring with Ivanka on this cost?
Ivanka Menken's Builder-of-Leaders and Letting-Go Mentoring are six-month 1:1 programmes at AUD $1,500 a month ex GST, with 12 fortnightly 60-minute sessions and a monthly one-page scorecard. You can book a 20-minute conversation first to see whether it fits.