Create a Watertight Accountability Chart

Imagine standing in your kitchen and water starts dripping from the ceiling. You run around with towels and set up buckets, but the water keeps coming. There’s clearly a problem. Does it make sense to keep mopping the floor, or should you fix the leak?

Think about The Accountability Chart™ for your business like the plumbing. The wrong Accountability Chart creates leaks for your business. Leaky plumbing or faulty Accountability Charts can feel like big problems to solve, and easier to tolerate than to fix. However, creating a watertight Accountability Chart can simplify the solution and take your business to the next level.

Small Cracks, Big Problems

The Accountability Chart maps out the roles and reporting structures of your business. It illustrates what needs to get done, who will do it, and how accountability will flow through the organization. Most importantly, this structure illustrates the best way to move your company forward to the top of that next hill you want to climb.

If your business constantly grows and evolves, your Accountability Chart needs to change to keep up. That old saying “What got you here won’t get you there” holds water (pun intended) here for a reason.

An outdated or misaligned Accountability Chart causes all kinds of problems. Neglected (or overextended) tasks and functions will stall growth, creating extra work for leaders who have to compensate for gaps in work.

Diagnosing the Problem

If something feels wrong in your Accountability Chart, ask yourself these easy questions:

1. Do you have the right structure to get your business to the next level?
   Your Accountability Chart structure should look forward to the next 6–12 months. It should outline the structure you need to support your goals. Plan to update it regularly to account for additional change and growth.
2. Do you have all the right people in the right seats?
   Does everyone in your organization align with your core values? How about in their individual roles? Does each person get, want, and have the capacity to do their jobs well – and at the level we need them done? At EOS®, we call that getting, wanting, and having the capacity (GWC™) to do their job well.
3. Does everyone have enough time to do their jobs well?
   Let’s go back to the capacity issue in the previous question. Have you overburdened anyone with too many responsibilities? Do managers have sufficient bandwidth for leading, managing, and holding people accountable (LMA™) in addition to their other functions?

Most Accountability Chart problems come down to an issue with a role, a person, or both. A diagnostic conversation with your leadership team will often help spot the problem quickly.

Tolerating Okay or Requiring Great

If you want a great business, you have to choose to make it great. That means facing problems in your Accountability Chart head-on. Like water leaking from your ceiling, choosing to ignore the problem won’t do any good. It only gets worse and does even more damage.

Decisions to make people moves aren’t easy, but sometimes your business critically needs you to make them. Fortunately, you don’t have to make them all at once. Set a goal of one great people move per quarter. This ensures you keep making incremental progress in the right direction.

Remember, your Accountability Chart should serve your business like a dynamic tool, but you need to update it regularly. New leaks in the ceiling can appear anytime. But with regular attention from you and your leadership team, your Accountability Chart can ensure you’ve set yourself up for success.

Business needs change; people change; and your environment changes. To get a full picture of your business’s strengths and weaknesses, take the Organizational Checkup™. See where your greatest opportunities lie to intentionally build an even stronger business.