"When everyone is responsible, no one is accountable." – Anonymous
A CEO may have a bold vision, a strategic roadmap, and the backing of investors, but if leadership and department heads lack accountability, even the best-laid growth plans will stall.
Organizations that fail to hold leaders accountable suffer from slow decision-making, misalignment, and lost opportunities. Whether in a startup scaling up or a legacy enterprise undergoing transformation, accountability gaps at the leadership level create invisible but fatal roadblocks.
The Hidden Costs of Weak Leadership Accountability
1. Execution Paralysis: Decisions That Go Nowhere
- When department heads and executives do not take ownership, initiatives stall.
- Strategies remain discussions in boardrooms instead of actions on the ground.
- Deadlines get pushed indefinitely because no one is responsible for meeting them.
- CEOs are forced to micromanage, diverting their focus from long-term growth.
Case Study: Jet Airways’ Leadership Chaos
Jet Airways, once India’s leading airline, collapsed due to lack of financial discipline and accountability at the leadership level. Senior management failed to act decisively on mounting debt, leading to missed restructuring opportunities. By the time corrective action was attempted, it was too late.
2. Departmental Silos: The ‘Not My Problem’ Mentality
- A common issue in large organizations is department heads working in isolation with little alignment to overall business goals.
- Sales might blame marketing for poor leads, while marketing blames product teams for weak offerings.
- Finance might prioritize cost-cutting at the expense of innovation.
- Each department optimizes for its own success rather than the company’s collective growth.
Anecdote: The Manufacturing Firm That Never Launched
A Southeast Asian manufacturing giant invested millions in R&D for a new product line. However, internal misalignment between operations, sales, and finance led to launch delays and budget overruns. No single leader took charge of resolving issues, leading to a missed market opportunity and sunk costs.
3. Leadership Passivity: When CEOs Have to Do It All
- In many organizations, department heads hesitate to take risks or commit to bold decisions. Instead, they escalate every challenge to the CEO.
- CEO becomes the bottleneck, forced to sign off on every move.
- Leaders avoid accountability for failures, preferring to defer decisions.
- Growth slows because execution is trapped in bureaucratic loops.
Example: SoftBank’s Cautionary Tale with WeWork
Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank made aggressive investments in WeWork, but leadership at WeWork lacked financial discipline and execution clarity. With no structured accountability, the company overexpanded recklessly, resulting in a failed IPO and billions in losses.
How CEOs Can Drive Leadership Accountability
1. Set Clear, Measurable Goals for Leadership
- Every executive should have defined KPIs linked to growth strategy.
- Regular performance reviews should assess not just effort, but impact.
- Reward accountability and ownership, not just participation.
2. Align Departmental Goals with Business Objectives
- Introduce cross-functional accountability—departments should own collective success.
- Create interlinked performance metrics so no team operates in isolation.
- Establish a culture where execution matters as much as strategy.
3. Empower Leaders but Hold Them Responsible
- CEOs should delegate authority with clear accountability mechanisms.
- Every leader must own their decisions, risks, and outcomes.
- Performance dashboards should provide real-time tracking of execution success.
Case Study: Grab’s Leadership Accountability Framework
Southeast Asia’s Grab scaled successfully because leadership accountability was built into its DNA. Department heads owned their KPIs, execution was tracked rigorously, and failure was met with learning, not blame. This empowered rapid expansion while keeping execution disciplined.
Conclusion: CEOs Need Accountable Leaders, Not Just Capable Ones
"A good leader takes little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit." – Arnold Glasow
For CEOs aiming to scale their organizations, accountability at the leadership level is non-negotiable. Without it, even the best strategies will remain stuck in endless discussions, internal conflicts, and execution failures.
The best organizations don’t just have visionary CEOs; they have leaders who take ownership, drive results, and align with the company’s long-term vision. Accountability isn’t a burden—it’s the foundation of sustainable growth.
