accountability-leadership

Accountability in Leadership: How to Hold Yourself and Others to Account

Accountability is a visible indicator of your leadership style and effectiveness.

What Is Accountability?

There are many definitions of accountability. Here is mine:

‘Accountability is the promise to deliver on your commitments and to be answerable for the results of your actions and decisions’.

Accountability Versus Responsibility

Responsibility is the expectation that you will complete a task or fulfil a role. Accountability goes further: it means owning the results, whether good or bad, and being open about your progress along the way.

Accountability Versus Ownership

Ownership is the intrinsic commitment and initiative you bring to your work. Accountability is answering for the results. Both are essential, but ownership drives leaders to commit fully, while accountability ensures they actually deliver against that commitment.

Leading With Accountability

Accountability starts with you. You must take ownership of your decisions and outcomes without making excuses or blaming others.

You do this by: 

•            Setting clear goals with specific metrics

•            Sharing your commitment to accountability with others

•            Embracing humility and admitting mistakes openly

•            Seeking feedback or feedforward through coaches or trusted colleagues

•            Focusing on outcomes instead of activities

In so doing, it’s equally important not to:

•            Blame external factors like the economy or team dynamics

•            Rely solely on internal motivation

•            Demand perfection from yourself or others

•            Ignore uncomfortable feedback

Holding Others Accountable

Many leaders make these two critical, diametrically opposite mistakes:

1.           Forcing Accountability on Others

This approach is doomed to failure for the simple reason that accountability cannot be imposed by someone else. It comes from an internal sense of commitment to achieving an external goal.

If people don’t believe in the objective, aren’t persuaded that change is necessary, or don’t see how they can make a real difference, no amount of pressure or coercion will force them to become accountable.

‘Laying it on the line’ or stating that someone is ‘on the hook for this’ creates fear, not accountability.

2.           Shielding Others From Accountability

This approach feels kind, understanding, and empathetic, but ultimately is entirely unhelpful. When members of your team have made a public commitment to deliver a result and they begin to struggle, resist the temptation to rush in and rescue.

By all means, offer support when it’s needed, but holding someone to account means they must take ownership of their actions, decisions, and performance, and at times face the consequences of not acting or not delivering.

The middle ground between these two wrong approaches is to set clear expectations focused on achieving required outcomes, rather than simply completing tasks.

Then review progress against objectives regularly through a transparent and supportive process that keeps responsibility with the person who’s accountable for the results.

The 5 Conditions for Accountability

Naturally, accountability starts with you. When team members see you being accountable, they are more likely to follow suit.

However, as a leader, you must be more than a mere role model. You have to create the five conditions for accountability.

These are as follows:

1. Clarity

Help people understand the outcomes they’re accountable for and how they will be measured.

Ensure that you have clearly written job specifications, updated RACI charts, and accurate OKRs.

Set aside time to review progress regularly.

2. Focus

Don’t overload people with too many accountabilities. If your team takes on more than it can handle, there’s a real risk that little will actually get achieved.

As Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great. “If you have more than three priorities, you have none!”

A similar logic applies to accountabilities, albeit that 5 is normally held to be the correct number in frameworks such as the X-matrix.

3. Safety

Taking accountability can feel risky, and people will only do it when they feel psychologically safe.

Stepping up to a challenge or initiating a change is essential for learning and growth.

So, make it safe to struggle. Disconnect discomfort from fear and allow your team to move from the comfort zone to the learning zone.

4. Support

Use appropriate approaches to support your team as they hold themselves and others to account.

Examples might include guidance when getting started with a new challenge, coaching to navigate change, and feedforward to recover from setbacks.

5. Consequences

When we assume accountability, we accept that there will be consequences for the outcomes of the actions we take.

Where interventions are necessary, wherever possible, avoid being punitive; instead, promote learning and agency.

In Summary

Accountability cannot be imposed on people. It must come from within.

As a leader, first hold yourself to account through high standards of conduct, transparent goals, and a commitment to what Kim Scott calls ‘radical candour’.

Then create the five conditions that allow your team members to develop their own internal sense of commitment and the psychological safety to take ownership of their objectives and those of the wider team.

Ultimately, holding others to account the right way positions people to succeed rather than setting them up to fail.

When leaders get this right, they create cultures where people take ownership, make better decisions, and more consistently deliver the results for which they are accountable.

See All Coaching Insights

Trust is the magic ingredient that inspires teams to perform at their very best. Skilled leaders know how to build trust using a simple yet effective process.
Accountability is a visible indicator of your leadership style and effectiveness. This article explores how leaders can hold themselves and others to account the right way by setting clear expectations, fostering psychological safety, and creating the conditions for people to take ownership and consistently deliver results.
Navigating challenging conversations is one of the toughest aspects of being a leader, yet it's what differentiates real leaders from mere managers. Research shows that 70% of managers actively avoid difficult discussions due to fear of mishandling situations or making matters worse. Avoidance is not the answer. Find out how to navigate challenging conversations with confidence, care and compassion
Great leaders are great listeners In this article, I explore why listening is the most underrated leadership skill, how it builds trust and insight, and practical ways you can strengthen your own listening as a leader.
Many people dread feedback. It often feels personal and backward-looking. Feedforward is different. It’s future-focused, practical, and encourages growth without defensiveness. In this blog, Chris Dunn explores why feedforward works better in leadership conversations and explains how to use it effectively.
Intellectual capability is no longer sufficient for leaders to stay ahead. This article explores why EQ matters more than IQ. In today’s AI-powered workplaces, emotional intelligence is the leadership superpower of our age.
Leadership isn't about title or status. In this blog, Chris Dunn explores what makes a great leader today. 7 traits mark you out as a great leader. These include integrity, vision and values, emotional intelligence, trust, accountability, flexibility and coaching. This blog explains why these leadership characteristics form the foundation of modern leadership.
According to Gallup a staggering 77% of us are not engaged with the work we do or the organisation we do it for. There's an answer to the engagement problem and it's probably not what you expect!
Are you a distrusted high flyer or an authentic leader? Understanding the difference and knowing how others see you will help you build your professional success.
Change can often feel unrelenting and sometimes even overwhelming. Coaching is the catylst for change.