What Is an Accountability Chart?
The Accountability Chart defines the structure your business needs and the major roles each seat owns.
Instead of starting with the people you have today, you start with the structure the company needs to move forward. Then you put the Right People in the Right Seats.
Why Use an Accountability Chart?
The Accountability Chart removes the confusion that slows people down by clarifying ownership.
When roles overlap or no one knows who owns a decision, work falls through the cracks. People step on each otherโs toes, Issues bounce from person to person, and leaders get pulled into work someone else should own.
The Accountability Chart helps you:
- Clarify who owns what
- Define the structure your company needs
- Reduce overlapping responsibilities
- Make accountability visible
- Help people understand where they fit
- Spot people and structure Issues sooner
Clarity makes it easier for good people to do great work.
How Do You Build a Strong Accountability Chart?
A strong Accountability Chart starts with the structure your company needs, not the people currently filling the roles.
That keeps todayโs personalities, titles, and history from determining the structure your company needs tomorrow.
Start With the Right Structure
Ask what structure will best move the company forward over the next six to 12 months.
Donโt build around the people you already have.
Define the Major Functions
Clarify the major functions your company needs someone to own.
At the leadership team level, start with the Visionary and Integrator seats, then clarify the three major functions: Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Finance and Administration.
Create Clear Seats
Build a seat for each essential function.
Every seat should have one person whoโs ultimately accountable for it.
Define the Major Roles
List the major accountabilities that belong to each seat.
Keep them focused on the outcomes that person owns rather than filling the chart with every task they perform.
Put People in the Seats
Only after the structure is clear should you add names.
Then determine whether each person is truly right for the seat you need them to fill.
How Is an Accountability Chart Different From an Org Chart?
An Accountability Chart goes beyond reporting relationships by showing who owns each seat and what its major responsibilities are.
An org chart may tell you who reports to whom, but that doesnโt always tell you whoโs accountable for a result, decision, or function.
The Accountability Chart makes that responsibility explicit. Every seat has defined roles, and one person is accountable for them.
You spend less time asking, โWho owns this?โ and more time getting the work done.
What Does โRight People, Right Seatsโ Mean?
Right People, Right Seats means matching people who fit your Core Values to roles where they can succeed.
First, define the seat the company needs. Then, determine whether the person in that seat fits your Core Values and the role. When it comes to the role, the ideal person Gets It, Wants It, and has the Capacity to Do It (GWC).
That separation matters. A great person can still be in the wrong seat, and a seat can still be wrong for the business even when someone is performing it well.
The Accountability Chart gives you a clearer way to have those conversations.
How Does the Accountability Chart Connect to EOS?
The Accountability Chart gives your other EOS Tools clear ownership by showing whoโs accountable for what.
The EOS Toolbox
Download the Free Accountability Chart
Give your people clarity about who owns what and how the business fits together.
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