Leadership.

The framework

1. 01

   Name the rung before the work starts — out loud, with a number.

   The five levels only work if both people know which one is in play. Before handing anything over, say the number: 'this is a level three — bring me a recommendation and I'll approve it', or 'this is a level five — I don't want to see it again unless it breaks.' The sentence feels awkward precisely because most delegation is deliberately vague; ambiguity lets the delegator keep an undeclared veto, and the vagueness is the point. Naming the rung costs you the veto — which is exactly what makes the handover real.

2. 02

   Set the rung by stakes and track record, not by how busy you are.

   Two variables decide the level: how expensive the decision is to reverse, and what this person has already decided well. Cheap-to-reverse decisions should sit at level four or five even for junior people — the cost of a wrong call is smaller than the cost of you staying in the loop. Expensive, irreversible calls stay at two or three regardless of seniority. What the level should never track is your diary: delegating higher because you're overloaded this week is how level-five language ends up wrapped around level-one trust.

3. 03

   Treat every override as a demotion — because that is how it lands.

   If you gave someone level four and then reversed their decision, you didn't correct one call; you retroactively converted the assignment to level three, and everyone watching learned the same lesson. Sometimes intervening is right — new information, a risk they couldn't see — but do it honestly: say 'I'm pulling this back a level, and here's why', rather than pretending the ladder still holds. An override you name is a reset; an override you don't is a lie about the level, and people stop deciding for you soon after.

4. 04

   Move people up one rung at a time — the ladder is the development plan.

   The levels aren't just an assignment tool; they're the most concrete promotion path you own. Someone who has held level three well on a class of decisions for a quarter has earned a run at level four on that class — say so explicitly, and widen it deliberately. The goal isn't to run everything at level five; it's a team where routine decisions sit at four and five, and your attention is reserved for the few calls that genuinely need it. Judge yourself monthly on the direction of movement, not the current distribution.