Roles and responsibilities in an advisory agency, with a RACI chart

Accountability vs responsibility: who does the work, and who answers for it

The short version: responsibility is doing the work, and several people can share it. Accountability is answering for the result, and it belongs to one person. A role is the seat that work and that answer come with. The three get mixed up, and the mix-up is where most ownership problems start.

Several people can share a responsibility. Only one person should be accountable for each outcome. The Project Management Institute (PMI) puts it as a rule for RACI charts: every task has exactly one Accountable person. When two people are accountable, each can assume the other has it, and when nobody is, the work waits until someone complains.

EOS takes a similar line with its Accountability Chart, which defines the seats a business needs before deciding who sits in them. Our guide to the EOS model covers it.

The usual seats in an advisory agency

Agencies differ, but most have some version of these five seats. In a small agency one person often holds three of them.

Write one sentence for each seat that starts "This seat is accountable for...". If you can't finish the sentence, the seat isn't clear yet.

What one seat looks like written down

Here's an example for a unit manager, the seat that's most often left vague. Yours will differ, but each seat should cover the same five parts.

The last two rows save the most time. Once a manager knows what they can decide alone, most of the questions that used to reach the leader stop.

Where work falls between seats

The seats rarely cause trouble. The work that sits between them does. In an advisory agency it's usually the same handful of things:

• A new lead comes in while the advisor is on leave or with a client.
• A client asks for a change, and the advisor and the admin each assume the other did it.
• An appointment needs confirming the day before, and nobody's sure whose job that is.
• An advisor leaves, and nobody owns their clients for two weeks.
• A new advisor joins, and the manager and the trainer each think the other is running their first month.
• A client complains, and three people reply in three chats.

A RACI chart is the simplest way to settle these.

A RACI chart for an advisory agency

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Going by PMI's definitions, Responsible means doing the work, and several people can do it. Accountable means answering for the result, and that's always one person. Consulted means giving input before the work is finished. Informed means being told after a decision or once there's progress.

In one agency example: for a new advisor's first 90 days, the unit manager is Accountable, the advisor and their buddy are Responsible, the agency leader is Consulted on the plan, and admin is Informed when the licence and contracts are done.

Here's a starting chart. Adjust the letters to how your agency runs, but keep one A per row.

Two rows deserve a note. The first reply to a new lead has the advisor accountable even when admin sends the reply, because the lead belongs to the advisor. Client complaints sit with the agency leader because a complaint is a risk to the whole agency, even when the manager does most of the work.

How to define roles and responsibilities in five steps

1. List the work as it happens now

Take one normal week. Go through your own WhatsApp, calendar and email, and ask each manager to do the same. Write down every recurring task and question: who asked, who did it, how long it took. Most leaders find they're the default owner for far more than they thought.

2. Group the work into seats

Sort the list under the five seats above, or your own. Anything that doesn't fit a seat is either a new seat you need or work that should stop.

3. Write one accountability sentence per seat

Write a single sentence that begins "This seat is accountable for..." and keep it about outcomes, such as "every advisor in the unit has a weekly one-on-one", rather than a list of tasks.

4. Fill in the RACI chart for the work between seats

Use the chart above as a start. Then go through the A column with your managers until every row has exactly one name, because the disagreements you find on the way are the gaps clients have been falling into.

5. Publish it and review it every quarter

Put the seats and the chart where everyone can see them, and walk through them in a team meeting. Review them every quarter, and whenever someone joins, leaves or changes seat.

Who a new advisor asks, for what

New advisors feel unclear roles first, because they have the most questions and the least idea who answers them. Give every new advisor a short table like this on day one:

It takes ten minutes to write and saves the leader a dozen messages a week from people who don't know where else to go.

Signs your roles aren't clear

• The same question reaches you from three people in one day.
• Two people reply to the same client, or nobody does.
• New advisors don't know who to ask about a form, a lead or a complaint.
• Work stops when one person goes on leave.
• Managers wait for you to decide things their seat should decide.

When one person holds several seats

In a small agency the leader is often also the recruiter, the trainer and the person every complaint goes to. That's normal. Write the seats down anyway, with your name in each. You'll see where your week goes, and when you can afford help, you'll know which seat to hand over first and what it's accountable for.