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Accountability may not be the shiniest corporate buzzword of the moment. It’s not as trendy as “disruption” or as overused as “synergy”. But if you’re serious about performance, it’s one of the most powerful growth strategies you have, writes Justin Angsuwat.
Our analysis of some of the fastest-growing private companies in the world, the 2024 Inc. 5000 list, shows a clear pattern: organisations that sustain revenue growth across three years are measurably better at holding people accountable (4 percentage points higher) and recognising them for great work (five points higher) than their peers. They also enjoy higher confidence in leadership, to the tune of four points.
The effect compounds over time. Companies that stay on the Inc. 5000 list for multiple years, the true repeat winners report stronger results across key cultural drivers:
- Six points higher in two-way communication.
- Four points higher in accountability.
- Four points higher in quality focus.
- Lower turnover in 2023 (32 per cent versus 35 per cent).
- Smaller turnover increases from 2023 to 2024 (5 per cent versus 9 per cent).
The data proves culture isn’t “soft”. It’s a hard business driver. The highest-performing companies on the Inc. 5000 list are getting both sides of the feedback loop right. They’re clear on expectations, and they do recognition well. That’s the sweet spot, where clarity meets appreciation, and performance takes off.
As a chief people officer, I think about this constantly. It shapes how we set goals, how we design teams, how we coach leaders, and how we drive accountability. It’s also what boards are watching closely, and the data shows that they’re right to.
But here’s the trap too many organisations fall into: they think accountability lives in HR. An accountability or performance problem shows up, and it gets “sent to HR” as if we’re the accountability department. The reality? Accountability can’t be outsourced.
High-growth companies embed accountability early and often. In interviews with Inc. 5000 leaders, we consistently heard that:
- Accountability starts with company-wide goal setting, not just after underperformance.
- It’s reinforced through multiple feedback touchpoints woven into daily workflows.
- It can’t be outsourced to HR; it must be owned at the leadership level.
Dean Carpenter, vice president of global talent practices at MRI Software, put it plainly: “We empower leaders first and foremost. We don’t believe accountability should be outsourced to HR; it’s a leadership behaviour. If a leader isn’t holding their team accountable, that’s a performance issue. And that’s something the leader needs to be held accountable for, too.”
Increasingly, we are seeing organisations taking a multi-layered approach to their action plans, where a specific focus area will be adopted at an organisational level and responsibility for team or department-level action will be owned at the respective level. This usually prompts the following question from HR, “How do we make sure our people will take action?”
Our experience is that people generally act on the feedback they’ve been given; they are intrinsically motivated to “improve their lot”. The real barrier is rarely intent, but rather a lack of tools, knowledge, or ideas. Culture Amp’s approach is one of empowerment: to put data and tools into the hands of the people who are in the right position to make change and act.
Accountability is a leadership responsibility. It’s built in the day-to-day interactions between managers and their teams, in the clarity they create, the trust they foster, and the feedback they give. HR can provide the tools, the frameworks, and the coaching. But it’s the leaders who must deliver the message, set the bar, and reinforce the standards.
Some tips to build accountability in your teams include:
- Write down exactly what success looks like. Confirm understanding, which means not just asking “understood?” but asking them to repeat it back in their own words.
- Tighten the feedback loops. e.g., have a “Friday Finish”: a 15-minute huddle that covers what you committed to, what’s done and what’s not, and what’s to be done before the next Friday Finish?
- Tightly link it to recognition, e.g., even something as simple as a spotlight in an all-hands or shout-out on email or Slack.
- Build it into onboarding. Tell new hires “How we do accountability” here with examples, tools and stories.
When people know what they need to do, feel empowered to deliver, have the tools to do it, and get the feedback to close the loop, performance doesn’t just improve, it compounds.
So yes, HR can provide the tools and guidance for accountability. But the practice? That’s on every leader in the organisation. Because at the end of the day, accountability isn’t just an HR process. It’s a leadership muscle. And for companies that want to grow, it’s one that we must get right.
Justin Angsuwat is the chief people officer at Culture Amp.
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Your organization's culture determines its personality and character. The combination of your formal and informal procedures, attitudes, and beliefs results in the experience that both your workers and consumers have. Company culture is fundamentally the way things are done at work.
