Accountability Isn’t the Problem

Ask most leaders what’s missing in their team, and you’ll hear the same thing:

“People need to be more accountable.”

We act like accountability is the cure-all. Deadlines slip? Hold people accountable. Output drops? Hold people accountable. But accountability isn’t the root. More often, the issue is a quiet mismatch between what someone is told to care about and what they actually care about.

Accountability is extrinsic.

It’s what someone else wants from you. It lives in job descriptions, quarterly OKRs, or your boss’s head. It’s assigned, tracked, and reported. If you don’t deliver, someone’s going to call you on it. It’s the janitor picking up a piece of trash in the hallway because it’s clearly part of the job description.

And sometimes we need that. We need people to show up and do what they said they’d do. But accountability has a ceiling—especially when there’s no shared meaning behind it.

“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.”
— Daniel Pink, Drive

Responsibility is intrinsic.

It’s what you feel obligated to do. Not because someone told you to, but because it matters to you. It’s personal. That same piece of trash? I walk by it and pick it up—not because it’s in my job description, but because I have pride in where I work. It bothers me. So I act. That’s responsibility.

“When individuals feel ownership, they are more likely to protect, nurture, and improve what they perceive as theirs.”
— Pierce, Kostova, & Dirks, 2001

And research backs this up. People who feel a sense of psychological ownership over their work go above and beyond, not because they’re told to but because they care. Self-determination theory shows that autonomy, competence, and relatedness—not external pressure—fuel long-term motivation and performance.

The kicker? Accountability works only when what someone’s accountable for matches what they already feel responsible for. That overlap is where the magic happens. Without it, you get disengagement, resentment, and mediocre performance dressed up in good intentions.

Managers can sometimes think more process, more metrics, and more “accountability” will fix the problem. But no one ever got inspired by a dashboard. People don’t own what they’re forced into—they own what they believe in. And if the only time you check for that belief is during a weekly status meeting, don’t expect much. I unpacked that more in Your One on Ones Probably Suck.

“People are more likely to be fulfilled and productive when they do work that aligns with their internal values.”
— Daniel Pink

So try this instead.

• Make expectations clear. Fuzzy accountability is a breeding ground for confusion and misalignment. Get painfully specific about what success looks like.
• Ask what they want to own. Ownership doesn’t grow when you assign it—it grows when someone chooses it. Instead of handing out tasks, ask, “What’s yours to lead here?”
• Give them the why, not just the what. People rarely commit to a task they don’t understand. Ground the work in purpose. Say less about the mechanics and more about the mission.
• Watch for pride, not compliance. You’ll know you’re close when someone speaks like the work reflects on them personally. That’s not pressure—it’s investment.

My point isn’t that accountability is broken. It’s simply misapplied. If it doesn’t align with someone’s internal sense of responsibility, you’ll be left managing compliance rather than inspiring ownership.

“Responsibility is not given—it’s taken.”
— Peter Drucker

And if you want to hear more about how teams lose their way chasing the wrong signals, read this one. Until next time.

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