Debbie Lawrence

There's a woman in this community right now who has been consulting her team on a decision that was hers to make weeks ago.

The team has given their input. Some of them have moved on. She's still gathering.

She thinks she has a team problem.

She doesn't.

She has a decision she hasn't claimed.

She's not doing it wrong. She's doing exactly what the broken playbook told her to do. She’s making sure everyone feels included, making sure no one gets left out, making sure the decision feels shared before she owns it.

The broken playbook counted on that.

Tomorrow in The Permission Slip, I'm writing about what happened when I sat across from a woman like this in a coaching session. And the one question that shifted everything.

That someone might also be you.

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I walked into Monica's office for a coaching session and knew before she said a word something had gone sideways.

She ran a small manufacturing company. Her team kept bringing her problems. She kept solving them. Her own work kept waiting.

"It's just easier to do it myself," she said.

The simple act of not answering, of asking instead, changed everything.

Not dramatically. In a 30-minute conversation.

I introduced a framework called the PAR Principle: name the problem precisely, surface every possible course of action, ask for a recommendation.

She started using it with her team the following week.

Six weeks later, her team members were walking in with solutions they'd already implemented. Keeping her in the loop. Stopping by to say: "By the way, we had an issue. I handled it. Just wanted you to know."

Thirty minutes of a different approach. A fundamentally different team dynamic.

Are you the one solving every problem that walks through your door?

If this resonated, Issue #12 of The Permission Slip covers the full picture: https://debbielawrence.ca/2026/06/10/one-of-the-most-expensive-business-decisions-youll-make-is-solving-it-yourself/