03/28/2025

When Team Accountability Is Low

Leaders must answer these four hard questions

I once had to take a bleeding coworker to urgent care. It was a harrowing incident. He had cut himself on a broken mug that tumbled from a kitchen cabinet, and his hand wouldn't stop gushing blood. What struck me wasn't how hurt you can get from a silly accident but how hard it was to nail down who should help him.

It's not always immediately clear who is accountable at work.

I think about this incident a lot as I hear leaders tell me, over and over, that a lack of accountability on their team is the workplace behavior that concerns them the most. These leaders, sometimes exhausted and despairing, feel that their teams cannot take ownership of even the smallest tasks.

Please select this link to read the complete article from MIT Sloan Management Review.