The Château Margaux Rule

Our aim at Athena is to give you your time back so you can spend it in the ways that matter most.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips.

The Château Margaux Rule

At Château Margaux, two centuries of winemaking excellence come down to a three-hour window on a Tuesday morning in March.

The master vintner stands before 30 barrels of wine drawn from different plots of the estate's 262 acres.

Each barrel tells a story…

The limestone-rich soil near the river. The century-old vines on the eastern slope. The perfect micro-climate of the southern corner that produces their most prized grapes.

A single degree of temperature difference during fermentation changes everything.

The same grape varietal grown 100 meters apart yields entirely different notes. One barrel might carry hints of black cherry and tobacco, while another whispers of violets and earth.

The technical measurements are equally precise:

→ pH levels of 3.45 to 3.55

→ Alcohol content between 12.5% and 13%

→ Tannin levels tracked to two decimal places

Decades of data inform every decision. But finally, the vintner sets aside the charts.

They close their eyes.

They inhale.

And taste.

The same way a master chef knows exactly when to pull the soufflé, or how an expert mechanic can diagnose an engine by its sound. There's a point where expertise transcends measurement.

Delegation works similarly. The best delegators don’t chase perfection — they create the right conditions, provide guidance, and then step back, allowing the process to evolve.

Read more about how to delegate imperfectly.

Pre-Process Your Decisions

Last Tuesday, I lost 47 minutes to three letters: "FYI"

My assistant forwarded me an email with just that in the subject line. No summary. No context. Just a raw message waiting for me to process.

What followed was a 22-message thread excavation into six months of back-and-forth.

The real killer of executive performance isn't necessarily the big, high-stakes decisions. It's the endless micro-decisions that should never reach you in the first place.

Train your assistant to pre-process decisions by filtering, framing, and reducing noise before it ever reaches you.

To make that shift, ask them to:

1. Synthesize, don’t forward

No raw emails. No “FYI.” Every message should come with context and a recommended action.

• Instead of: "FYI, John emailed about the proposal."

• Try: "John wants to push the deadline to Friday. You’ve denied similar requests before due to his perfectionist tendencies —should I push back?"

2. Propose, don’t ask

Your assistant should not ask open-ended questions without a recommendation. Your job is to approve or tweak decisions, not make them from scratch.

• Instead of: "Vendor dispute—how should we handle?"

• Try: "Vendor is pushing back on pricing. We can either hold firm or offer a 5% discount (total impact: $8K/year). Preference?"

When your assistant pre-processes decisions, you think less and move faster.

Ready to take the first step? Implement this tactic.