The Innovation Killer: 3 Clues That Resignation Has You

A recent Gallup Study on the State of the American Workplace stated that 70% of workers are not engaged at work. What is causing this and what can you do about it as a leader.

Begin by looking for the mood and/or emotion of resignation in your work culture. Resignation shows up in individuals and organizations as a rational excuse of why things cannot and will not change. If leaders or followers are in the mood or emotion of resignation what is possible? Well, not much. Possibility is the fuel that drives innovation, ambition and results. Opening up possibilities for others is one of the hallmarks of great leadership and innovative cultures. Learning how to identifying resignation in you and in others is an essential leadership skill.

To see if Resignation is present I invite you to become an ontological observer (ontology- the study of being human) and look at three aspects of being human that shape us:

1) Language . The mood of resignation shows up in the language we use. The internal dialouge is something along the lines of “X has happened and I assess that there is nothing that I or anyone else can do about it so there is no point in even trying to take action.” If this is the conversation happening in our brains, how likely are we to make requests, or offers or declare new futures?

2) The Body . Resignation shows up in the body in the following ways. The body is mostly slumped with the focus forward and down as if the person is looking down, which means the head and neck are in that direction. The shoulders are rounded and the chest is caved inwards. This allows the focus of the person to not be looking for possibility. The breathing and speaking of the person may also include a tone of despair and giving up. A great way to see the slumping it too look at the body from the side and see if the body is slumped and concave.

Related: It's Now Imperative for Leaders to Lift up and See a Bigger Picture

3) Moods and Emotions . If we hear the language and see the body of resignation we will also see a behavioral predisposition and that is even though there are actions available to take to deal with the issue at hand we will not want to take these actions and, ironically, we may actually take action to thwart any attempt to change the current situation.

So, you as a leader, have the ability to now assess whether or not the mood of resignation is present. What to do with it? Well, in my next installment of the blog we will look for the clues of resignations opposite mood, ambition. And how creating ambition can be an antidote to the innovation killer, resignation.