Whoever pays the cost decides

A decision belongs to whoever pays the cost of being wrong.

That’s the whole thing. Not the person with the title, not the person with the most experience, not the committee three rooms away. The person who will live with the consequences is the one who should be making the call.

Put the decision anywhere else and the same failure shows up every time. The decider isn’t wearing the outcome, so the call drifts toward whatever protects them rather than whatever fits the situation. The cost-bearer pays for a decision they didn’t get to make, and learns nothing in the process because they never had to choose.

This is a rule about delegation, but it’s a rule about your own life too. Most of the calls being made about you, by other people, fail this test. Find one this week and take it back. Pay the small cost if you’re wrong. That’s how the muscle returns.