Responsibility & Accountability

1. Responsibility, Ownership &
Accountability
These 3 very important terms have been used inter-changeably. They are powerful words
that are present in high performing leaders and teams.
The question is: Are these 3 terms really the same? Not many leaders are able to
distinguish one from the other. They can be ambiguous and confusing. The aim of this
article is to help leaders to know what each term means and how they relate to each other.
The whole team needs to be crystal clear and has the same understanding of what each
term means. This will then allow proper alignment and contracting of goals and
expectations, leading to positive outcomes and experiences.
A good place to start is to find out the dictionary meaning of these words. According to the
Oxford Dictionary, they are defined as follows:

2. 1) Responsibility: A duty to deal with or take care of someone or something
2) Ownership: The fact of owning something
3) Accountability: The fact of being responsible for your decisions or actions and expected
to explain them when you are asked
In other words,
1) When someone is responsible for a task, the person is in charge and has the duty to
complete the task. It is rational, largely cognitive, using the head and less to do with
emotions;
2) When someone has ownership of the task, the person possesses it and treat it as "mine".
It belongs to "me". It comes from the heart -- there is emotions of possession and pride.
3) When someone is accountable for the task, the person is not only responsible and own it,
but is answerable to someone for the entire task, including the processes and the outcomes.
The person is open to close scrutiny. Their motto: "The buck stops here". The whole self is
involved, including the willingness to be put oneself on the proverbial "chopping block".
The key for leaders is to move your team from "taking responsibility" to "taking
ownership", and to the highest level which is to be 100% accountable for their
responsibilities and outcomes.
The traditional top-down method of management will not be able to enable the team to be
excited about taking ownership and accountability. Sense of ownership and accountability
is best to be drawn out from our team members, and not mandated. This is best done in an
environment where the leader is willing to share his or her leadership with the team. To
this end, leaders must re-examine the way they lead and learn what it takes to develop
a shared leadership team.