Bottlenecks are a very real business risk

A few weeks ago, I submitted an invoice to a client. Nothing unusual. It wasn’t large. Indeed, it was a regular monthly payment and I expected the usual process: approval, payment, closure. Instead, I received a prompt but surprising message from the Director of Finance: Payment would be delayed. Not because there was a query. Not because cashflow was tight. Not because the invoice had gone astray. The reason? The CEO was on holiday.

I paused. A director of finance, a senior c-suite professional, couldn’t authorise the payment of a modest invoice without the CEO present. And so the process ground to a halt until one individual returned from annual leave.

That small moment revealed something bigger: about trust, about delegated authority, and about the fragility that creeps into organisations when decision-making becomes too concentrated.

When authority is too narrow

Delegated authority is, in essence, a system of trust. It's the way organisations translate “we believe in your judgement” into clear thresholds, processes, and permissions. Done well, it frees leaders to focus on the strategic while giving others the confidence to manage the operational.

When authority is restricted to one individual however, everyday transactions become dependent on their availability. That might look like control, but in reality it’s a bottleneck. Business continuity falters. What should be routine becomes contingent.

It’s rarely about the invoice itself. The real issue is the signal being sent: “We don’t trust anyone else to decide.” And that signal doesn’t just affect finance. It ripples throughout an organisation. If staff know they’re not trusted to authorise payments, what does that say about their freedom to act in other areas, such as managing suppliers, handling issues, innovating in service delivery? Authority withheld in one part of the system often undermines confidence everywhere else.

Bottlenecks are business risk

When we talk about resilience, most leaders think about major shocks: pandemics, regulatory change, cyberattacks, reputational crises. But resilience also lives in the ordinary. Can the organisation function smoothly when the CEO is on holiday, or in hospital, or simply unavailable?

When decision-making is locked at one level, risk accumulates in subtle ways:

• Operational risk: work slows, projects drift, and everyday momentum is lost.

• Reputational risk: suppliers and partners perceive the organisation as disorganised or controlling.

• Financial risk: late payments damage goodwill, and in some cases incur penalties.

• Leadership risk: senior figures spend energy on low-value approvals instead of strategy.

The risk profile shifts from “what if something goes wrong?” to “how often will something stall?” And stalling, over time, corrodes trust. Suppliers notice. Staff notice. Members notice.

Resilient organisations aren’t those that never encounter disruption. They are those that can absorb it and keep moving. And that depends on ensuring no single person is the linchpin for everything.

The false comfort of control

Why do organisations end up here? Why would a finance director not be able to authorise a modest invoice?

Sometimes it’s legacy. “The CEO has always signed everything.” Policies that once made sense, in a smaller or younger organisation, calcify into permanent practice.

Sometimes it’s fear. “What if someone gets it wrong?” Leaders worry about misuse or misjudgement, and so they centralise approval to limit exposure.

And sometimes, though rarely admitted, it’s ego. There is comfort in being indispensable. If only one person can authorise, then only one person truly matters.

All of these are illusions. Refusing to delegate does not eliminate risk; it simply relocates it. The appearance of control is purchased at the cost of efficiency, trust, and resilience.

Real control is not about holding every decision personally. It is about building systems where delegation is clear, oversight is proportionate, and accountability is transparent. That way, when the CEO is away, the business carries on, and when they return, they can review, not rescue.

Culture matters more than policy

Most organisations have some form of delegated authority framework. A document that sets out who can approve what, at which thresholds. The problem is rarely the absence of a policy. The problem is culture.

In some cultures, delegation exists only on paper. Staff hesitate to act, fearing repercussions. Leaders escalate decisions “just in case.” Authority is technically delegated but practically withheld.

In healthier cultures, delegation is lived. Staff know their limits. They act within them with confidence. Leaders expect them to do so and support their decisions. Escalation happens only when necessary, not by default.

That’s why the delayed invoice matters. It’s a small story that reveals a larger truth: if the organisation cannot trust its finance director to approve £5,000, where else does trust stop? And what does that mean for agility, innovation, or even morale?

Small signals, big consequences

On the face of it, a delayed payment may seem trivial. Nobody’s strategy collapsed. No member resigned in protest. Life goes on. But the small things are telling. They signal whether an organisation is designed to keep moving or to keep waiting. Whether it has confidence in its people or whether it hoards authority at the top.

Suppliers notice when payments are delayed without reason. They read it as a sign of disorganisation, or worse, disregard. Goodwill weakens, credit terms tighten, relationships sour.

Staff notice too. They learn quickly whether initiative is rewarded or punished. If all decisions must travel upwards, why bother developing judgement? The path of least resistance is to wait.

And waiting is the opposite of resilience.

Lessons for leaders

So what can leaders take from a small but telling moment?

1. Design authority sensibly: Financial thresholds should match risk, not habit.

2. Review regularly: Delegation should evolve with the scale and complexity of the organisation.

3. Audit bottlenecks: Map where processes stall when individuals are absent.

4. Build cultural trust: Encourage staff to use their authority, and back them when they do.

5. Test resilience: Simulate absence. Ask: could the business function if key leaders were away for a month?

Delegation is not abdication. It's a discipline of trust, supported by oversight. When done well, it creates space: space for leaders to lead, space for staff to act, and space for the organisation to keep moving no matter who is away.

That delayed invoice was not, in itself, a crisis. But it was a signal. A reminder that resilience is built not only in the big plans and crisis manuals, but in the everyday mechanics of trust and authority. If the organisation halts when one person steps away, the problem isn’t the absence. The problem is the design.

Resilient organisations embed trust in their systems. They distribute authority sensibly. They ensure continuity in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary. Because in the end, resilience is not only about how we face disruption. It is about how we keep moving, day after day, without waiting for one person to come back from holiday.