By Chally Kacelnik
Escalation is often treated as good practice. If something feels uncertain or risky, you can just send it up the line, right? If this happens frequently, it’s often a sign that something isn’t working.
When decisions constantly move upwards, it tells you that people don’t feel authorised to act, don’t trust the system to back them, or don’t have clarity about what they’re accountable for. None of those issues are solved by another layer of approval.
Over time, habitual escalation creates bottlenecks. Leaders become overwhelmed with decisions that add little value at their level, while work slows down and frustration builds below. Teams stop thinking problems through properly because they expect someone else to make the call. It just feels easier to pass something off, even if it comes back to bite later on.
The real work for leaders is to ask why things are being escalated. Is the decision genuinely beyond the scope of a team member’s role, or has authority never been made explicit? Are people being criticised after the fact for making decisions that were in their remit? Are processes unclear or inconsistently applied? Do people not have the training or knowledge needed to undertake the work of their roles?
Addressing escalation means designing clear decision-making authorities and standing behind them. People need to know not just what they’re allowed to decide, but that they’ll be supported when they make reasonable calls in good faith. Without that backing, escalation becomes the safest option.
At LKS Quaero, we help leaders see escalation as feedback. Where work consistently travels upwards, it points to gaps in role clarity, authority, skills, or trust. Fixing those gaps not only speeds things up, but also builds stronger judgement and accountability at every level of the organisation.
At LKS Quaero, we help organisations to get the right work done at the right level. For more information, visit us at lksquaero.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
