The Leadership Teams Series

When Accountability Becomes Someone Else's Problem

There are few things more frustrating for a leadership team than feeling that people aren't taking enough responsibility.

Decisions keep coming back for approval. Commitments aren't followed through. Problems are escalated that people should be capable of resolving, and leaders find themselves stepping in to keep things moving.

The conversation around the leadership table can quickly become one about accountability. People need to take more ownership, show greater initiative or become more willing to make decisions. And sometimes they do.

But before concluding that accountability is something other people need to improve, there is another question worth exploring:

What might our leadership team be contributing to the patterns we're seeing?

Accountability doesn't happen in isolation

The willingness and ability to take responsibility are influenced by more than individual motivation or capability.

People operate within an environment shaped by the expectations they experience, the authority they're given, the support available to them and the way their leaders respond when things don't go to plan.

A person may be encouraged to take ownership but find that decisions are routinely questioned or overturned. They may be held responsible for an outcome while having limited authority to influence it. Or they may have learned that escalating a problem is the safest way to avoid getting something wrong.

Over time, these experiences influence behaviour.

What looks like reluctance to take responsibility may sometimes be a reasonable response to the environment in which someone is expected to exercise it.

That doesn't remove individual accountability. People still have choices to make and responsibilities to fulfil.

But it does give leadership teams something important to become curious about.

When helpful leadership creates unintended patterns

One of the more interesting aspects of accountability is how easily well-intentioned leadership can influence the very behaviours leaders later become frustrated by.

Consider a leader who is naturally quick to recognise problems and take action. Their willingness to step in may be one of the reasons they have been successful. They are dependable, resourceful and committed to getting things done.

When someone encounters difficulty, helping feels like the right thing to do.

But if stepping in becomes the automatic response, others may gradually become accustomed to looking upwards rather than exercising their own judgement.

The leader becomes increasingly busy, while the people around them have fewer opportunities to develop confidence in taking responsibility. Eventually, the leader may find themselves wondering why everyone depends upon them.

The pattern makes sense when we look at how it has developed.

This is one reason Self Leadership remains so important within collective leadership. Our Natural Talents influence what we notice, how we respond and what we expect from others. When those responses become automatic, we may unintentionally reinforce patterns that no longer serve us or the people we lead.

Awareness creates the opportunity to recognise what we're contributing and choose how we want to lead differently.

What happens around the leadership table matters

These patterns become particularly interesting when we consider a leadership team rather than an individual leader because every member brings their own understanding of responsibility, shaped by their Natural Talents, experiences and expectations.

Some naturally step forward and take charge. Others encourage independence, seek collaboration or prefer to establish clear boundaries before acting.

Each approach can contribute something valuable.

But what happens when those different approaches aren't recognised or understood?

Responsibility may become concentrated around particular leaders while others focus primarily on their own areas. Expectations about initiative and follow-through may vary, and the team may assume it has a shared understanding of accountability without ever exploring what that means in practice.

The result can be a leadership environment that unintentionally encourages some of the behaviours the team wants to change and because these patterns develop gradually, they can become so familiar that nobody thinks to question them.

Becoming curious about our contribution

When accountability becomes a recurring concern, it's tempting to focus immediately on what needs to change in other people's behaviour, but leadership teams have an opportunity to explore something further upstream.

What are we making easier through the way we lead together?

What might we unintentionally be making harder?

Where are we encouraging people to exercise responsibility, and where might our own habits be creating unnecessary dependence?

These questions don't assume that leaders are responsible for every problem or that other people have no accountability for their choices. They simply recognise that the environment in which people work influences how they respond and that environment is something leadership teams create together.

Leadership is experienced through the environment it creates.

So, when accountability becomes someone else's problem, perhaps one of the most useful things a leadership team can do is become curious about its own contribution.

Because the patterns we experience in others may be telling us something important about the leadership environment we're creating.