Every single one of my department heads insists that "Strategy" must be listed as a role under their seat on our Accountability Chart. Our chart is starting to look like a collection of chief officers instead of execution-focused managers. How do we define who actually owns strategy?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When every seat holder has "strategy" listed as a role, your Accountability Chart becomes diluted and execution suffers. Strategy is not an individual role; it is a collaborative output of your leadership team working together on the V/TO.

To clean this up, you must define roles using clear, action-oriented verbs that focus on execution. Replace vague terms like "strategic planning" with specific deliverables. For example, a Marketing seat should have roles like "Generating Qualified Leads" and "Managing Brand Standards," not "Marketing Strategy."

The leadership team meets quarterly to set the strategic direction of the company, but the individual seats are responsible for executing that strategy through their weekly Rocks and measurables. If your department heads are focused on high-level strategy instead of running their departments, your daily operations will stall.

Review your Accountability Chart and systematically remove the word "strategy" from every departmental seat. Force your team to define exactly what they are delivering and how their performance will be measured. This keeps your leadership team focused on execution and ensures your business is running efficiently.