Leadership and Accountability

Many people think of accountability only when something goes wrong or someone is trying to place blame—but accountability has far broader implications. People who have a high level of personal accountability take initiative to ensure the success of a project, provide early warning of potential problems, and take action to resolve a problem even if it is not their fault.

How big a problem is the lack of accountability in today’s organizations? What’s the fall out?

In OnPoint’s survey of 400 leaders, 40% report that employees in their organizations are not being held accountable for results and 20% report that managers in their organizations do not deal with poor performers. It also appears that the presence or absence of accountability in an organization makes a difference—77% of leaders in top-performing organizations report that “employees at all levels are held accountable for results” compared to only 44% in less successful organizations.

Clearly we know that accountability is important—yet, many of us still hesitate to hold others accountable for their actions. It may seem faster and less of a hassle to let something go or simply wait and see what happens, but when we fail to hold others accountable, there are consequences—some obvious, some not so obvious.

Original post written by Rick Lepsinger, OnPoint Consulting.