Accountability in the workplace

As the size of your team grows so does the importance of Accountability. I often hear business owners say “my team members are not accountable” and my standard response is that your team members are mostly only as accountable as you hold them to be! As the business owner or leader, it is your job to set the tone, create and enforce the culture and hold your team accountable to that.

By Darryn Le Grange, issued by ActionCOACH SA Business Coaching

20 May 2026

There is a direct correlation between accountability and high performance, the higher the accountability, the higher the performance.

Let’s explore exactly what accountability is: Accountability is about employees taking ownership of their job, their tasks and their deliverables.

To hold somebody accountable means to ask them why they did or didn’t do something, this implies asking questions. Asking questions is much more effective that “telling” somebody something for a variety of reasons.

So, what should you hold your people accountable to?

Their KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators)
Their targets
Their behaviour
Their conformance to the company’s policies and procedures
Their commitment to the company’s vision and values
The above implies that the company needs to have clear KPI’s, targets, values, procedures and a compelling Vision in place.

From experience, the business owners that don’t hold their people accountable don’t do it for some of the following reasons:

They want to avoid confrontation: Accountability does not need to mean confrontation. Afterall, you are just asking questions, albeit some of them may be tough questions but there is nothing confrontational about asking questions.
They want to be seen as a Nice Person: As a manager, leader or entrepreneur you may not always be popular but that’s the nature of the role. You are there to make decisions and lead your people. Rather aim to be trusted and respected as opposed to liked.
They haven’t made their Expectations Clear: It will be an uphill battle to hold people accountable when you have not made your expectations crystal clear in the form of KPI’s, organisational values, Vision statement etc
They are poor at Management: There is no college, university or institution that can teach you how to be a good leader or manager - the best lessons are learnt on the job by doing, and of course by making mistakes that you learn from. Make it your mission to read books, watch videos, network with and get mentored by other leaders - you will soon figure out what works and what doesn’t. Remember you get the people you deserve, ie) the better the leader or manager you are, the better the quality of the people you attract and retain. A poor leader or manager will not attract or retain good quality people.

About Darryn Le Grange

Darryn is a registered Chartered Accountant and internationally certified Business Coach. From humble beginnings, Darryn is most proud of the fact that he worked and studied part-time to fund his studies and qualified as a CA through sheer hard work and determination.

Business ownership and management can be daunting. This is why we are committed to providing exceptional coaching to businesses of all sizes. Our goal is to enable people to thrive in business – in all circumstances.