Answer first

Why am I the bottleneck in my company?

You are the bottleneck when capable people still need your approval for normal decisions before work can move. Being busy alone is not proof. Test one recurring decision with a boundary, an escalation rule, and authority to act without private second approval.

Start with the decision that came back twice this week. Name who should own it, where the limit sits, when it must escalate, and what you will stop reversing.

Being overloaded does not automatically make you the bottleneck. If work waits because the team lacks capacity, skill, or information, fix that problem. You are the bottleneck when capable people still need private approval for the normal call.

Good people cannot carry authority they were never given. A title does not move the decision. A boundary does.

The hard part is usually not naming the new owner of the decision. The hard part is letting the normal call stand when you would have chosen differently.

Test whether you are actually the bottleneck

• Pick one recurring decision that comes back to you every week.
• Confirm that the person has the skill and information to own the normal version.
• Write the boundary and the exact condition that requires escalation.
• Let one normal call stand without private second approval, even when you would have chosen differently.
• If the work moves, authority was the constraint. If it still stalls, investigate capacity, competence, incentives, or missing information.

Do not try to fix owner dependence with a motivational speech. Run the test for one week. The team needs a visible right to decide, a limit they understand, and proof that normal calls will not be reversed afterward. Without that, every request still learns to travel back to the owner.