More than one decision maker is almost the same as having none

Any leader working in a scaling company has had to create an org chart more often than they would like to think about.

Early days it was simple, and you mapped out the reporting lines. You were a small and mighty team that got a lot done, covered several areas, was easy to align, had few stakeholders to manage, and knew who made what decisions. Most of it ran on tribal knowledge.

When your team and the teams around you grow is where you need more than reporting lines. You need to know who does what, who works with whom, and the hardest one: who decides what. And whether they are ready to make a decision.

Having more than one decision maker is almost the same as having no decision maker. People do a lot of work, more meetings to align start to fill your calendar — but if no one makes a decision so that you can move forward, it all starts to become busy work.