If Everyone Is Responsible, No One Is

Often, when you have multiple people working together, some important things can wind up being overlooked or forgotten. This happens a lot in small businesses, because people will say that it’s everybody’s responsibility to do marketing and business development, or it’s everybody’s responsibility to be looking after safety, or it’s everybody’s responsibility to make sure we’re managing our finances. But that thought process is so wrong.

It’s great to have team spirit, but look – somebody specific in your organization needs to be responsible for these important things, like safety, business development, finances, whatever it happens to be. If someone is not specifically accountable and responsible for those activities in your business, nobody is. Important facets of your business like these should be assigned to an individual person.

It’s great to share the responsibilities – assigning one person to safety, one person to finances, etc. But each area should have one person in charge, so that that person can ensure that what needs to be accomplished is actually being accomplished. That way, nobody thinks that someone else is taking care it, and nothing gets overlooked.

My point is this. People crave clear roles, responsibilities, and accountability, and if you as the leaders of your business are not providing that structure and clarity in your organization, and you’re just expecting everybody to do what it takes and get it done, you’re missing things. Somebody has to be responsible, and if everybody’s responsible, no one is.