Two weeks off, and eleven decisions were waiting for your return. Part of you sighs. A quieter part is pleased: nothing moved without you.

Peter Senge called this pattern shifting the burden. Most recurring problems have two solutions. The symptomatic one works now: you decide. The fundamental one works slowly: the team learns to decide. Every time the quick fix runs, the pressure that would have built the slow one drains away.

The loop has a third movement, and it is the one that stings. The quick fix doesn’t just delay the fundamental solution; it erodes it. Judgment is a capability built by use, and every escalation you absorb is practice your team doesn’t get. So the next question arrives a little sooner. When I follow teams over a year, the escalations rarely grow harder. They grow smaller. The threshold for asking drops as the habit deepens. And the fuller your inbox, the more essential you feel, so the loop rewards the one person positioned to break it.

This week, answer one escalation with your reasoning instead of your ruling. Not the call, but the two things you would weigh to make it. Then let them make the call.

What was waiting for you after your last time away? That list is a map of everything you’ve taught your team not to decide.