The Demand

This week, you run the diagnostic on yourself: are you doing work that belongs to a hire’s domain right now. If you are, that is not helpfulness — that is evidence Role Drift is already in progress, and the hire is accurately reading an environment that told them their authority was not real.

The Work

  1. List every domain you have formally handed off to a hire in the last six months.
  2. For each one, check honestly: are you still doing pieces of that work yourself, checking in before they decide, or entering the territory without invitation.
  3. For any domain where you found yourself doing this, identify which of the four override patterns caused it — Public Override, Silent Redo, Walk-Through Adjustment, or Retroactive Standard.
  4. Have a direct conversation with that hire this week: name that you have been retrieving the domain, that it was not a reflection of their capability, and that you are handing it back explicitly.
  5. Stop doing the retrieved work yourself starting this week. Let their decision stand even when it is not the decision you would have made, as long as it meets the documented standard.

This week, you find one domain where Role Drift has set in, name it to the hire, and stop doing their work for them.