Owner dependence is not a personality flaw. It is a structural property of the business, and it can be measured rather than argued about.
The two-week test
The honest test is simple: if you were unreachable for two weeks, what would stop, what would slow down and what would carry on unchanged? Most owners can answer that in five minutes, and the answer is usually uncomfortable.
Where dependence actually lives
Dependence rarely sits in one place. It usually accumulates in four: decisions that only you are allowed to make, knowledge only you hold, relationships only you have, and exceptions only you can resolve.
Why it does not fix itself
Dependence compounds. Every time a decision comes back to the owner, the team learns to route the next one the same way. Growth accelerates that, because more volume means more exceptions, and more exceptions mean more escalation.
The fix is structural: clear decision rights, documented processes for the work that repeats, and management information good enough that you do not have to be the reporting system.