The authority statement is two sentences on a page: what one colleague can now decide without you, and the point past which they should come and find you. Beneath it is a promise about what happens when a call goes wrong, and beneath that a log of every decision they make under the new authority for a week. The log is the test. An empty one means the authority is not yet real.
Where it comes from
Chapter 5 of the book is called Giving the Keys, and Aaron Kaupp, then general manager of Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris, supplied its starting point: never micromanage your team; they need to be empowered to take ownership and responsibility of their roles, and that empowerment leads to mutual trust. Michael Ziemer, then general manager of Mandarin Oriental, Taipei, described what he expects when the authority is used.
“I would rather them ask me for forgiveness than for permission.” Michael Ziemer, then general manager of Mandarin Oriental, Taipei
The chapter also describes why most empowerment does not take. It is announced in a meeting, never defined, and quietly withdrawn the first time a decision goes wrong in public. The book sets out a checklist for a real transfer: the decision named, the boundary stated, the consequences of a wrong call agreed in advance (a private conversation, no public reversal, the authority still theirs), the decisions logged, and the good calls recognized by name in front of the team. The page follows that checklist line by line.
What is on the page
The decision class, in one line (a small service recovery, a plate pulled from the pass, a late checkout). The authority sentence: what they can now do. The boundary sentence: the point past which they come to you. The promise, written out and signed by both of you. Then a log with a week of rows: the decision, what they decided, why, and a column for your note at the week’s end on anything you would have weighed differently. A final box for the one good call to name to the wider team.
How to use it for a week
Pick a decision that lands on your desk several times a week and that one trained colleague could handle. Write both sentences. Sit down with the colleague, read them the sentences and the promise, and ask them to log each decision as they make it. At the end of the week, read the log together, say what you would have weighed on any call you would have made differently, and confirm the authority for the following week. If a call produced a good outcome, name the colleague to the team for what they did.
What to look for
Look at whether the log fills up. If it stays empty, the colleague has correctly judged that the authority is not yet real, and the reason is usually in the promise: they do not believe a wrong call will be handled in private. Look also at how often you were tempted to step in during the week. Each of those moments is a decision you have not actually handed over, and Mahmoud Skaf, then general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur, framed the stakes exactly: this is as much a service decision as it is a business decision.