My managers ask me to approve everything. How do I stop being the bottleneck?

Oblong's answer

Start by naming the decisions you're happy for them to own, out loud and specifically — not "use your judgement," which isn't really authority. Then protect the first few decisions they make under that authority, even if you'd have made a slightly different call. If you overturn or relitigate an early decision, you've just taught them that asking first is still the safer option — and the pattern resets. The goal isn't a perfect decision every time. It's a manager who stops checking.