Most agency owners I work with – and myself, when I was in that role for the first number of years – struggle with delegation. They want to scale, and they’ve heard about delegation, but don’t know how to do it properly.
Further, most of you are familiar with the idea of an org chart: the classic top-down structure showing who reports to whom. Sometimes it seems like a thing you’re supposed to do, but its value can seem dubious. That’s because if you’re trying to scale, delegate, or simply get a better handle on your business, the org chart alone isn’t enough.
What you really need is an accountability chart—and yes, there’s a difference.
What’s the Difference?
An organizational chart shows reporting structure. It tells you who works for who, and how communication should flow.
An accountability chart, on the other hand, focuses on functions and ownership. Popularized by EOS, it lays out the core domains of the business (Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance, etc.) and assigns clear, non-overlapping accountability for each one. It forces you to answer a critical question: Who owns the outcome of this area of the business?
That clarity is a game-changer.
Personally, I prefer a hybrid: a chart showing reporting structure (organizational) alongside accountabilities for each person. Let’s work with this understanding in mind.
Why Should You Care?
I get it – sales, quality of work, new clients, client satisfaction… all this stuff is urgent. But implementing an accountability chart unlocks the barriers to scaling your firm. When you clearly define who’s accountable for what, a few powerful things happen:
- Delegation becomes easier. You know what to hand off, and to whom, and they know they’re responsible.
- Growth becomes manageable. You can scale roles and teams around clearly defined responsibilities.
- You get your time back. When accountabilities are clear, the founders don’t have to wear every hat.
- You increase maturity and velocity. Work moves faster when everyone knows what’s theirs to own—and what isn’t.
Without this clarity, it’s chaos: overlapping responsibilities, dropped balls, and endless decision bottlenecks at the top.
For example: who is accountable for sales? Development? Quality assurance? Design? Client satisfaction? Who, in each of these areas, is celebrated when things going well? Who is accountable if things go wrong?
If you don’t have a clear, single person for those types of questions, you have some work to do.
How to Build Your Accountability Chart
Start simple. Most businesses, regardless of industry, are built on three core functions:
- Sales & Marketing
- Operations (or Delivery)
- Finance & Admin
That’s your foundation. Assign one person to each area—no double-ownership. One seat, one name. You’re allowed to have one person sitting in multiple seats (especially in a small team), but you can’t have multiple people in a single seat.
Then move to the next layer: the key functions inside those areas. Under Operations, for example, you might have a seat for Development, another for Project Management, maybe QA. Again, focus on accountability, not job titles.
You’ll likely notice most IC roles (like Designer, Developer, QA) report to one of the higher-level seats. Their accountabilities are usually a bit more obvious—but mapping them out still helps.
If you’ve got co-founders or multiple leaders, start by each creating your own version of the chart. Then compare and discuss. It will lead to valuable conversations about vision, ownership, and gaps.
What Comes Next
Once the chart feels right, you can move on to the next steps:
- Add role titles to each seat (COO, Head of Delivery, etc.)
- Develop KPIs for each seat so you, as a leader, have an objective view into what satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory performance looks like. This is absolutely critical to delegation.
- Use the chart to model future growth: roles you’ll need, how many people, salary/billable expectations, etc.
- Introduce healthy management practices: meeting cadences, management best practices and standardization, span of control (rule of 5–7), and more.
Wrapping Up
An accountability chart might not feel urgent—but it’s foundational. If you want your agency to grow without burning you out, this is the scaffolding that supports that growth.
It turns chaos into structure. It turns gut-feel management into intentional leadership. And it creates the conditions for a business that can scale, sustainably.
Start there. It’s worth it.