The absence of accountability kills execution

You’ve got a team, a strategy, and meetings filled with grand ideas. But nothing moves. People nod, take notes, and disappear into the abyss of “work” without deadlines, deliverables, or consequences.

This isn’t leadership. This is a polite hostage situation where no one wants to upset the status quo.

A retail company I consulted for had this disease. Their managers “owned” projects, but deadlines were suggestions. Sales teams promised results but blamed market conditions. Finance was waiting on operations, operations was waiting on IT, and IT was waiting on… divine intervention. Have you experienced a situation where different teams blame each other until there is no one else to blame?

Nothing moved until we made it hurt.

We tied incentives to execution, not effort. No deliverable? No bonus. No deadline met? Public accountability in weekly meetings. No progress? Removal from key projects. The moment people felt the heat, suddenly, work started getting done.

A hospital I consulted had senior doctors who “owned” patient experience but never reviewed processes. Nurses were drowning in inefficiency. We flipped it. Each department had a single accountable owner with a clear, written outcome. Fail to deliver? Their name was attached to the problem in every leadership meeting. Magic happened.

Accountability without pain is fiction. Stop waiting for people to “step up.” Hold them down to real deadlines, real consequences, and real ownership. Celebrate milestones and call them out when they fail to deliver on their promises.

Because in business, if no one is accountable, everything is broken.

Pick one stalled initiative right now. Assign one name to it. Give it a deadline. And make missing it cost something. Then watch what happens. The same thing happens with corruption -- if no one feels the heat, no one stops it. I remain Mr Strategy.