Accountability is your problem, not theirs: Embracing the 5‑W framework

Every CEO I meet claims to crave a culture of accountability. Yet so many quietly moan to me, “Why don’t my people take ownership?” Let me be blunt: if stuff isn’t getting done in your business, it’s probably your fault – not your team’s. Lack of accountability almost always tracks back to a leadership failure, usually a failure of clarity. As a CEO, you cast a long shadow. Your company will never outperform its leadership team.

I learned this the hard way, and I see it in clients all the time. When deadlines are missed or balls get dropped, nine times out of ten it’s because we (the leaders) failed to be crystal clear on the Who, What, When, Way, or Why Not. I call these the 5‑W Diagnostic Framework – five simple questions to crush ambiguity and pinpoint where things went wrong. Adopting this framework isn’t about a bureaucratic checklist; it’s about baking accountability into your culture – how your company thinks, operates, and learns every day.

Accountability issues? Look in the mirror first

Let’s start by slaying a dangerous myth: that accountability is an employee problem. Wrong. When I hear a CEO grumble about their “unaccountable” staff, my first thought is, who hired and enabled them? Ultimately, the buck stops with you. If your team consistently falls short, you haven’t set the right conditions. Ambiguity is a leadership sin. It breeds excuses and misunderstandings. In contrast, clear expectations are incredibly powerful – Gallup found the number one factor for employee engagement is knowing what’s expected at work. How can anyone be accountable if they haven’t a clue what success looks like?

Imagine your team just failed spectacularly to hit a major project goal. You call a meeting to autopsy what went wrong. Does the team A) start finger-pointing at each other, citing missed handoffs, unreasonable timelines, lack of support? Or B) do they each own up to their part, discuss what they learned, and propose how to do better next time? 

If you’re seeing more blame than ownership, start with yourself. Are you modelling accountability? Do you always keep your commitments and admit your mistakes? If you preach punctuality but stroll into meetings 10 minutes late, guess what – that dog won’t hunt. Your team takes cues from you.

I often find executive teams aren’t great at holding each other to account. Many founders are visionary types – big on ideas, weak on follow-through and process. That’s fine; self-awareness is step one. But if you truly believe accountability is essential, you must recognise that you might be part of the problem. The good news? You’re also the biggest part of the solution. By embracing a more structured approach to expectations and leading by example, you can turn things around.

The 5‑W diagnostic: Who, What, When, Way, Why Not

So how do we fix clarity? Over the years, I’ve developed a simple tool to diagnose and prevent accountability breakdowns. It revolves around five questions: Who? What? When? Way? Why Not? Think of these as the DNA of any commitment in your organisation. If any strand is weak or missing, the result is a mutant failure. Here’s how it breaks down:

• Who – Every task or goal needs a single owner. Not two owners, not a committee – one name. If everyone is accountable, no one is accountable. I sometimes visit fast-growing companies with no org chart; they proudly say, “we’re too agile for that.” Meanwhile, critical work is forgotten because no one clearly owns it, leading to chaos and poor performance. Don’t let things fall into a black hole because “I thought Bob was handling it”.
• What – Be ultra-specific about the outcome you want. If you haven’t defined what “done” looks like, expect drama later. Are we talking a 10-page report or a 3-slide summary? Is success hitting £1M in sales or signing 50 new clients? Nail it down before work starts. Clarity on the what prevents those “wriggle off the hook” attempts when it’s time to deliver. Agree up front what good looks like and what the final deliverable or metric will be. Then there’s no room for confusion.
• When – Deadlines are not optional. When is it due, or how often should it recur? “End of day” and “ASAP” are dangerous phrases – they mean nothing but trouble. If I say I need it ASAP and you think that means next week, we’ve got a problem. In an accountable culture, dates and times are explicit: Friday 5 PM, no later. Every commitment gets a when. Publicly write it down for all to see. A date creates healthy pressure and shared understanding.
• Way – This is about the process or method. How should the work be done, and by what guidelines or values? “Way” can include the standard to meet, any constraints, or the approach you expect. Don’t micromanage how talented people do every little thing – but do set boundaries and support. If there’s a preferred way or a proven approach, say so. If not, at least confirm they have a way that makes sense. Often when an objective is missed, it’s because the person didn’t know how to succeed or was blocked by obstacles they didn’t raise. Which brings us to…
• Why Not – This one’s a bit cheeky, but crucial. “Why Not” means asking: What could stop this from getting done? or Why might it not happen? It forces you to anticipate obstacles and reality-test the commitment. By proactively asking “why might this not get delivered as planned?”, you surface issues early. Great leaders create a culture where team members can safely say, “Boss, I see a risk: X might prevent success”. You can then solve it together – extend a deadline, provide support, clarify the “why this matters” to get buy-in, whatever. “Why Not” turns potential excuses into action plans. It embeds the idea that we don’t make excuses here; we address them upfront.

Take a moment to reflect: the last time something fell through the cracks in your company, did you have all five of these defined? If a project languished, was it clear who was ultimately on the hook? Did everyone agree exactly what was to be delivered, and when? Did the team know the way to get it done right, and were obstacles (why not) identified and removed? In my experience, any unanswered W is a ticking time bomb. The 5‑W Framework is your deactivation code – it shines a light on the dark corners where accountability fails.

From checklist to culture: Embedding 5‑W thinking daily

Now, you might be thinking, “Alright Dom, I’ll use this checklist next time I delegate – problem solved.” Not so fast! The real magic is making 5‑W thinking a habit across your entire culture. Accountability shouldn’t rely on your personal managerial vigilance like some office inspector with a clipboard. It has to become “how we do things around here.”

Culture is the sum of what each person does every day. So embed the 5‑W mindset into all your core processes. A few examples of what that looks like:

• Meetings that end with clarity. How many meetings have you left where everyone nods sagely at the plan – then a week later nothing’s actually changed? In an accountability culture, every meeting (even a casual huddle) ends by confirming the 5‑W’s for each action. We literally round-robin: “Okay, action X – who owns it? What exactly are they delivering? When is it due? Do they know how (way), and do they foresee any why-nots?” This takes two minutes and saves hundreds of hours of wheel-spinning later.
• Accountability in onboarding. When a new hire joins, don’t just drown them in product training and free swag. Teach them your company’s accountability ethos from day one. Encourage them to ask their manager, “Can I just clarify – what exactly do you need, and by when? And do you have any guidance on approach?” Far from being annoying, this shows initiative and avoids miscommunication. On the flip side, tell managers that if a new hire is constantly seeking clarity, that’s a feature, not a bug! It means the culture is working. Over time, people internalise this and start doing it automatically. When everybody instinctively covers the 5‑W bases, you’ve achieved a self-sustaining accountability culture.
• Make goals crystal clear and owned. Company-wide, ensure every major objective has an owner and metrics defined. I’m a big fan of tools like job scorecards and OKRs to formalise this. For each quarterly priority or key result, literally assign the Who right next to it – one name, not two. Define the target outcome (What) and due date (When). This sounds basic, but I’ve seen so many plans that read like “Increase X by 20% – Team: Marketing.” Team? Nope. If it’s everyone’s job, it’s no one’s job.  The bottom line: institutionalise clarity. When you set goals, agree on owners and what success looks like up front – no wiggle room.

By making these practices routine, the 5‑W framework stops being a “management hack” and becomes part of your company’s muscle memory. Over time, employees start holding each other accountable peer-to-peer. They won’t wait for the boss to clarify things; they’ll ask each other and themselves. That’s when you know the culture is shifting – when hearing an unclear request triggers people to instinctively chase down the missing details. At that point, congratulations: you’ve created a self-correcting accountability system. Your job gets a hell of a lot easier when you’re not the only one enforcing clarity.

Ditch the blame game

It’s worth contrasting all this with the traditional, toxic approach to accountability: the blame culture. We’ve all seen it (some of us have built it, if we’re honest). In a blame-based culture, when something goes wrong the instinct is to ask “Who screwed up?” – and punish accordingly. Leaders might think this drives performance (“people will try harder to avoid blame!”), but in reality blame destroys trust and ownership. Employees spend their energy covering their backs, pointing fingers, and hiding mistakes. The whole organisation becomes fear-driven and stuck in the past – rehashing who did what, instead of ensuring it doesn’t happen again. Innovation and candour evaporate; morale tanks. Frankly, blame culture is just lazy leadership wearing a macho mask. It’s the easy but ineffective way out – and it’s the polar opposite of what we’re aiming for.

By contrast, a true accountability culture is forward-thinking and solutions-focused. Accountability asks “How do we fix the system or behaviour so we succeed next time?”, not “How do we humiliate the culprit?”. It’s about owning outcomes and learning, not berating people. One of our core values here is “No surprises” – not because we want to catch anyone out, but because we want problems surfaced early. We encourage folks to bring up bad news or roadblocks ASAP, with no fear. As a leader, your response to bad news sets the tone. Do you shoot the messenger, or thank them for their honesty and rally to address the issue? Your team is always watching and calibrating. If you consistently choose learning over blame, pretty soon people stop wasting time on covering their own backsides. They channel that energy into solving problems and meeting commitments.

Accountability works both ways

Let me underscore this: accountability is a two-way street. It’s not something you enforce upon employees; it’s something you build with them. That’s why I harp on making it a cultural norm. When you create an environment of clarity, support, and trust, accountability blossoms naturally. People want to step up because they know what winning looks like and they know leadership has their back. Contrast that with a fear-based culture where the safest move is to duck and hide. The choice is stark, and it’s yours to make as a CEO.

So, are you ready to own it? The next time you’re frustrated that someone dropped the ball, pause and run the 5‑W Diagnostic. It might reveal that you fumbled first – and that’s okay, as long as you fix it. Be the leader who says, “This is on me – and here’s how we’ll make it right.” Use the Who/What/When/Way/Why Not questions to illuminate the path forward. Hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else, and then hold your team to it as well. Ditch the ego, ditch the excuses. Embrace clarity and coach-like leadership. Do this consistently, and I promise you’ll see a transformation. Accountability will shift from a flogging post to a force for growth – something people take pride in, because it’s about achieving awesome results together, not playing “pin the blame on the donkey.”

In the end, most accountability failures are leadership failures in disguise. But here’s the flip side: most accountability successes are born from great leadership. Be that great leader. Create the clarity. Ask the 5‑W’s. And watch your people surprise you – not with excuses or finger-pointing, but with ownership, initiative and results. When that happens, pat yourself on the back (or have your team do it). You’ll have earned it. After all, you were accountable for making it happen.

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Written by business coach and leadership coaching expert Dominic Monkhouse. Contact him to schedule a call here. You can order your free copy of his book, Mind Your F**king Business here.