Nobody told them they could just fix it.

Hi Nik,

Every week I share one thing I have observed in the field of commercial leadership. This week it is about ownership without waiting for permission.

A team can be performing well by every measure and still have a handful of small, known problems that nobody quite owns. Not because anyone is underperforming. Because it has never quite clicked that they were already allowed to just fix it.

This week in the field

It is a pattern I keep hearing echoed, in different shapes. A team runs well day to day. Somewhere alongside that, a small, visible issue sits unresolved for weeks, sometimes months. Everyone can see it. Nobody moves on it. Not because they lack the ability, but because nobody has ever told them plainly that they are allowed to act on it without asking for permission.

What it means in practice

This is rarely a motivation problem. It is an awareness problem. Most people already have the autonomy to notice a gap and close it. What they often lack is the explicit permission, said out loud, to act on it without checking first. In my experience, the shift happens when a leader names that permission directly, not as a one-off instruction to fix a specific issue, but as a standing understanding: if you see it and you can help, you do not need to ask. Once that lands, teams start noticing and closing gaps the leader never even flagged.

The question to sit with this week

Does your team know, without having to check with you first, that they are allowed to fix something the moment they spot it?

Curious where you'd score on this? Take the free CODE Leadership Scorecard, five minutes, free.