---
id: "action-limit-senior-decisions"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Mistake 4"]
tags: ["delegation", "executive-focus"]
related: ["claim-senior-leaders-over-accountable", "contrarian-four-decisions-a-year"]
action: "Identify only four decisions a year where senior leaders must be Accountable; delegate the rest."
outcome: "Empowers employees, strengthens succession pipelines, and prevents executive burnout."
sources: ["governance"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-governance"
originDay: 7
articleStem: "hbr-sig-48-decision-rights"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/07/what-companies-get-wrong-about-decision-rights"
sourceTitle: "What Companies Get Wrong About Decision Rights"
---
# Limit Senior Leaders to Four Decisions a Year

**Do:** Challenge senior executives to identify a **maximum of four enterprise-wide decisions per year** (e.g., strategy, senior hiring, major investments) where they must be the Accountable person — and force them to delegate accountability for everything else.

**Why it works:** it directly counters [[claim-senior-leaders-over-accountable]] and the executive-bottleneck failure mode; the reasoning is developed in [[contrarian-four-decisions-a-year]].

**Outcome:** empowered employees, stronger succession pipelines, and less executive burnout.

**Caveat (enrichment):** the numeric limit is normative and context-dependent, not evidence-based — regulated or high-risk sectors, boards, and external stakeholders may require visible executive accountability across more decisions.