I frequently find myself asking leaders the number one reason employees leave a job. It isn’t always the money. It isn’t necessarily the commute. It isn’t even their distaste for the work as much as it may be their relationship with their direct supervisor.

You’d be surprised how many of us are unaware of the impact a toxic, negative work environment can have, especially when it includes limited opportunities for career growth and development.

Taking it a step further, when a leader fails to create an environment that thrives, there is less innovation, increased fear and anxiety, and growing dissatisfaction that eventually illuminates the path to the front door in search of greener pastures.

Harvard Business School faculty member and researcher Linda Hill captures the importance of creating the right organizational conditions in her book, Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation, written with Emily Tedards and Jason Wild.

Hill and her fellow authors make the argument that in order for innovation to exist, leaders must create the environment for innovation to happen.

For this reason, I strive to create an environment for leaders to develop this ability in how they show up on the job so that the teams they lead have what they need to be successful.

Without an environment that is adaptive by nature, we cease to connect with our own true nature, which requires our adaptability in order to survive. And that survival demands we work with one another rather than against each other.

Language plays an important role in creating that environment.

When employees experience communication that dismisses their ideas, minimizes their contributions, or discourages questions, they may become increasingly reluctant to participate. Over time, the organization loses access to the very perspectives and capabilities it needs to grow.

Creating an environment where people can thrive is much like preparing the land for farming. We must first cultivate the soil and then nurture the growth of what we plant to produce a prosperous yield. The same principle applies to leadership, where the conditions we create influence the potential for growth. We see this relationship between conditions and outcomes in agriculture, financial investments, and even chemistry, where the right elements and environment can make all the difference.

That said, when leaders communicate with curiosity, respect, and an interest in developing others, they create opportunities for people to contribute more fully.

This becomes especially important when organizations face disruption. The instinct may be to tighten control, return to familiar processes, and concentrate on protecting what already exists.

Yet disruption can reveal opportunities to examine assumptions, develop new capabilities, and discover approaches that might otherwise remain unexplored.

Regenerative language supports this process by encouraging leaders to move beyond maintaining the status quo and begin exploring what the organization has the potential to become.

The challenge for leaders is to ensure that the words they use reflect the environments they intend to create.