Approvals and standing rules: staying the boss

With dozens of Bots working for you, the most important job is the one you can't hand off: making sure every important decision runs through you. Chapter 9 covers how to keep that true as the volume grows.

The comfortable mistake

It rarely goes wrong with a disaster. It goes wrong with comfort. Weeks of good drafts lead to skimming, then approving in batches, then wondering why you check at all. That's the day a price off by a zero slips through. The approval step is the brakes. Keep reading.

Three kinds of actions

• Things Bots can just do: research, drafting, organizing, summarizing, checking. Nothing leaves your world or costs money.
• Things that need your yes: anything public, anything sent under your name, price or listing changes, any spending. These arrive as drafts.
• Things only you do: passwords and payment details, signing agreements, anything about your identity, bank or taxes, and big calls like starting or closing a business. No Bot touches these, not even as a draft.

Rules that don't bend

Nothing spends money, goes out under your name, or deletes or shares anything important without your approval. No Bot ever asks for your passwords in a chat; if one seems to, stop and check. No fake reviews, fake names or made-up claims.

Checklist

1. Write the three kinds of actions on one page and give it to every manager.
2. Check that every job card matches that page.
3. Put the rules that don't bend at the top of every Bot's standing instructions, for example: "Never send an email, post anything or spend money without asking me first. Show me the draft and wait."
4. Also turn on whatever approval settings your tools offer for sending, posting, buying and deleting, so two layers protect you.
5. If an approval request is unclear, ask for a plain explanation or the draft before you answer.
6. If the queue is too long to read properly, slow the work down or move safe items to "they can just do it". Don't read faster.

Saying no

Bots will suggest new products, bolder headlines and trends to chase. Ask whether it fits who you are and what you want these businesses to be. If not, say no, even if the numbers say it might work.