Blending Leadership: Identifying Boredom and Autopilot

We’ve noticed that delight often starts for people who are in a neutral or negative state. They are either on autopilot (at best) or bored (at worst), either frustrated (at best) or fearful (at worst). On autopilot or bored, for example, they select a new program to watch and it doesn’t just perk their curiosity, it ends up giving them a completely new way of seeing the world and their place in it. Or, another example, fed up with a work culture that is toxic and allowed to be so, they find a new job in an environment that supports their growth, encourages them to take risks, and rewards them by giving them partial ownership of their most innovative products.

​Delight is often just an invitation to participate followed by the kinds of feedback loops that encourage additional, deeper engagement, and ultimately, transformation. That’s why we don’t see any of the previously mentioned neutral or negative states as downsides or risks; we see them as opportunities to begin again, to pivot into a pursuit of meaning.

Excerpt from Chapter 13 of Make Yourself Clear