You do raise a good point: I do not think that there is such thing as “team responsibility”. There is of course, “team accountability”. But responsibility is a personal thing, one must declare it for oneself. Teams can only be responsible, because each member took on – by choice – the responsibility of success. That is indeed a powerful – high performance – team.

It is true that we are often made accountable without all the authority we need. In fact, I think it is always the case: authority will be limited because it is bound to bump against somebody else’s. So assigning authority correctly is a wild goose chase. My first recommendation is to recognize this fact: nobody can ever be assigned all the authority they need. Success lies outside simple authority.

My second recommendation – you may or may not like it. Decide if you want to be responsible or not. As Isaid, it is your choice and yours alone. If you decide you are responsible, you will discover that you can get what you need – even without the authority. I have observed in multiple companies that people who declare themselves responsible act in a certain way: people want to be around them, people want to help them, people want to be part of their teams etc. It sounds strange but try it: look for somebody at work who makes stuff happen, and chances are the “stuff” that happens is beyond his or her sphere of responsibility.

Do you have any suggestions on how to handle that situation?