You hired experience. Why are the decisions still yours?
You brought someone in to take responsibility. They manage their team and attend the meetings, but the difficult decisions still land with you. Before concluding that you hired the wrong person, examine the conditions around the role.
Capability and performance matter. So do clear outcomes, decision authority, reliable information and enough capacity. Repeated disappointment is a reason to investigate those factors, not proof that either the person or the structure is solely at fault.
Review one outcome the role should own
Choose a recent result that missed expectations. Agree what good would have looked like and whether that expectation was clear from the start.
Trace the decisions behind it. Which could the hire make, which required approval and where did another department control the answer?
Check access to numbers, customer commitments, resources and support. Ask what they could reasonably have done differently with the authority they held.
Make cross-team decisions explicit
Illustrative example: a sales leader can propose a delivery date, but operations must confirm capacity before it becomes a customer promise.
Agree who owns the final commitment, what happens when capacity is disputed and which exceptions need founder involvement.
Test the agreement on a real case. Review both the outcome and how the senior hire used their judgement.
Support performance without becoming the role
If capability is missing, agree specific development or performance expectations. If authority is missing, write down what the person can decide within existing business rules.
Use a review date and observable evidence. Do not replace every decision with another approval meeting.
Keep genuinely reserved choices with the appropriate person. The aim is a role that works within clear limits, not unlimited autonomy.