Can Accountability Be Delegated?
Sure ... but only if you don’t care about project outcomes
Imagine you’ve just been appointed to lead a major transformation program. The initiative just launched. The project team is chomping at the bit, fully engaged and ready.
But when you look for the executive sponsor no one’s there. The person meant to own the vision and carry the weight is absent. On paper, the pieces look strong. But without a sponsor, momentum stalls before it even begins.
You may be thinking: How can that be possible? How can a project be initiated without a clear sponsor?
The reality is, it happens more often than we care to admit. In the rush of project prioritization and portfolio planning, executives are eager to set an agenda that drives strategy. But in the process, they sometimes forget to ask the most important question: who truly owns this project?
The Missing Sponsor
When a sponsor is missing, the work doesn’t necessarily stop. The team keeps busy delivering tasks and producing deliverables. The Project Manager pushes forward, tracking milestones and reporting progress.
But at the first sign of trouble, the cracks appear. Everyone quickly realizes that beneath all the effort, the project was built on a weak and shaky foundation.
Without a sponsor, decisions stall. Risks hang in the air without resolution. Priorities shift with no one to reset direction. The project manager is left trying to fill a gap they were never meant to fill.
And that’s the danger. You can have the best plan, the most capable team, even a steering committee willing to debate the details. But if no one is truly accountable for the outcome, momentum dies.
Who Owns What
To understand why the sponsor matters, we need to separate the roles that often get blurred.
Sponsor → Provides funding, owns accountability, and carries the ultimate risk if the project fails. They’re the ones who stand to benefit or lose.
Customer → Defines what “success” should look like. They articulate the requirements, set expectations, and judge delivery against them.
End Users → Live with the outcome. They don’t set the budget, but they feel the daily impact of the project’s success or failure.
Project Manager → Responsible for delivery elements such as scope, time, cost, and quality. They orchestrate the work but don’t own the benefits.
PMO → Plays a support role at the project level, and an accountability role at the portfolio level. They ensure consistency, process, and oversight, but they don’t own outcomes of a single project.
Among these roles, the sponsor’s position is unique. The sponsor is not just another stakeholder. This person is the one who owns accountability for results. Everyone else can deliver, support, or benefit, but only the sponsor can ensure the project creates real value.
When Roles Overlap vs. When They Don’t
Sometimes the roles of sponsor, customer, and end user are all the same person. Take building a house.
The homeowner is the sponsor because they’re paying for it.
They’re also the customer because they are expected to define what success looks like (three bedrooms, open kitchen, big backyard).
They’re also the end user because they have to live with the outcome day in and day out.
In that case, accountability is clear. The homeowner owns the outcome. The project manager or contractor is responsible for delivery, but they’re not accountable for whether the family actually feels at home in the space. The project manager can walk away, the homeowner can’t at least not without significant negative repercussions.
But in many projects, those roles don’t overlap.
Take a children’s live event, think of a touring show with a popular character.
The sponsor is the event promoter or production company. They put up the money, book the venue, and carry the financial risk.
The customers are the parents buying the tickets. They decide if the price and experience are worth it.
The end users are the kids in the seats. They’re the ones who live the outcome. If the show delights them, it’s a win. If it doesn’t, no amount of logistics can fix it.
The project manager is the event organizer, responsible for execution, but not accountable for whether the show delivers real value.
This is the same complexity we see in many large programs ranging from strategic transformation to technology enablement and product development. The people paying, the people deciding, and the people using are not the same. Unless accountability is nailed down at the sponsorship level, the project risks collapsing in the gap.
But What About Product Owners?
I know what you’re thinking: this is all about “traditional project management” and the mess it creates. That’s why our organization adopted Agile.
And it’s true, Agile frameworks introduced the Product Owner role, and at first glance it feels like the problem is solved. After all, the Product Owner is described as “accountable for maximizing value.”
But here’s the catch: the Product Owner usually doesn’t control funding, carry the financial risk, or make enterprise-level trade-offs. They represent the customer, prioritize the backlog, and guide the team. But they don’t own the strategic accountability for the outcome.
Agile may change how teams work, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for an executive sponsor. Without that sponsor, the same gap appears and no one with true skin in the game is accountable for results.
Can the Project Manager Be the Business Owner?
At this point, some people push back: “Well then, why not just make the project manager the business owner? They’re already running the show.”
It sounds simple, but it rarely works. The project manager is responsible for delivery: scope, time, cost, and quality. The business owner is accountable for outcomes: value, adoption, and benefits realization. Those are two different jobs.
Could they ever be the same person? Yes, but only in very specific cases. If the project manager is also the one receiving the product, service, or result, then they end up wearing both hats. This sometimes happens in small organizations or startups, where the same person is funding the work, managing the team, and ultimately using the outcome. Constraints force overlap.
But in most organizations, that overlap doesn’t exist for good reason. Large programs are too complex, the stakes are too high, and the perspectives are too different. The project manager needs to stay focused on delivery discipline. The sponsor needs to stay focused on business outcomes. When one person tries to own both, they risk losing sight of one side or the other.
That’s why mature organizations separate the two roles. It’s not bureaucracy, but needed clarity.
If these roles overlap the organization risks blurring delivery with ownership, resulting in the creation of blind spots. It’s like a lawyer representing themselves in court. It’s technically possible, but rarely wise.
The project manager can lead delivery with excellence. But accountability for whether the project actually creates value should stay with the sponsor.
The Leadership Test
Sponsors can delegate authority, responsibility, and delivery. They cannot delegate accountability because the real test of leadership is whether they can take ownership when it matters most.
When sponsors step into that role to make the tough calls and stand behind the outcome, everything changes. Projects move faster, teams trust the direction and risks don’t get ignored.
When sponsors don’t step in, even the strongest project manager is left carrying weight they were never meant to bear.
So here’s the question worth asking:
If you’re a sponsor: are you truly owning accountability, or are you trying to outsource it?
If you’re a PM: have you ever been asked to carry accountability you never really had? How did you handle it?