Is it just me, or have there been more than the usual number of resignations lately from leadership positions? Many thousands of people quit their jobs every day for any number of reasons, but when high-profile executives step down, people wonder what it means.

They ask:
Did they really resign or were they "asked to leave?"

Is this an isolated incident or does it signal something more serious?

What does this mean to me?

No matter what is reported in the news, we almost never know the whole story. The reasons often remain hidden by the organization. Even if they don't leave quietly, the affected leaders often keep their true motives to themselves for any number of reasons.

Here are just a few recent examples.

Richmond's rash of resignations

In just the last few months, Richmond, VA has seen an unusual spike in high-visibility voluntary departures. For example, Deborah Jewell-Sherman resigned as superintendent of schools after a long and nasty public squabble with the mayor. She was later named Virginia's Superintendent of the Year. Police Chief Rodney Monroe resigned his position to serve the same role in a much larger city. Sheila Hill-Christian suddenly quit her post as chief administration officer for the city with virtually no explanation and only eight months on the job. Three top executives at Virginia Commonwealth University, including Robert Holsworth, Peter Kirkpatrick and Michael Pratt, resigned their leadership positions but retained their teaching roles in protest over the university's investigation of the aforementioned police chief's college degree. Another left the same institution over the same issue and took a position in another college system.

Why did these successful, well-regarded individuals take such dramatic steps to part ways with their employers? Surely, they did not join these organizations or take these positions on a whim. Likewise, their employers were not cavalier in the selection processes, so they had a stake in making things work out for the better, too. What leads to these high profile departures and what do they mean for every-day leaders?

Bad fit wants to quit

Except to move to more lucrative or rewarding opportunities, people don't usually resign at these levels. The other exception is if there are ethical dilemmas. The key to most organizational divorces is poor fit, and you should consider three types. Specifically, you can be a good or bad fit with your boss, your job or your organization. Your assessment of these should begin during the hiring process and continue throughout your tenure in the role.

Good fit with your organization means that you feel motivated by the business' mission and comfortable with its culture. The mission is why the organization exists (i.e., to help people, to make money, or to solve a problem that is important to you). For example, a person who is excited about making a lot of money would be a potentially bad fit in a civil service job or non-profit environment. Another example would be someone who is fun loving and would feel mismatched in a very serious business, like the department of corrections or banking. If you are a bad fit with your organization, you may be able to tolerate the work if your job in that environment is still a reasonable fit, but the mismatch will likely persist and give you the feeling of being a poor fit without knowing exactly why.

An organization's culture is the sum of its actual norms, how people work together, unwritten rules of conduct, and its business practices. For example, the norms of many Silicon Valley businesses are very different from those of a traditional utility business. Someone comfortable in one environment may feel very disconnected in the other.

One can also have a poor fit with their job. For whatever reason, you might have gone to school to study accounting or engineering, but you actually prefer the dynamics of working with people rather than data or things. People who become aware of this mismatch early enough may find the courage to change their career paths. Alternatively, they might continue to suffer in a job or career path because they feel stuck with their initial decision.

Perhaps the most difficult and pervasive fit problem is with one's boss. In fact, you might have a good fit with your job and organization but have a bad fit with your boss, which often trumps the other two. In fact, about 75 percent of resignations are because of bad fit with bosses. "Personality conflicts" of this type often lead to irreconcilable differences and sometimes resignations, even at the highest levels.

Organizations are changing so rapidly and often these days that your job, organization and bosses can change around you. Through no fault of your own, what started as a good fit might become a bad one, perhaps the most disconcerting scenario of all.

An ounce of prevention

If we could pull back the curtain on the high-profile divorces mentioned earlier, we would likely see that these individuals discovered a bad fit with one or more of these factors. If that is the case, we should be happy for them that they took the initiative to make a necessary adjustment. We can also be sad that they had to make such a change and sorry for the organizations that they lost good and needed talent.

My advice is to make a careful assessment of fit before you take a job and monitor your true fit as your role and organization undergoes change. There are a number of assessment tools that can help give you needed insights in this area, and there are career counselors, professional coaches and other human resource professionals who can provide assistance. Don't wait for the fit to become so painful that you have to resort to resignation. Sometimes small changes in your current organization can rectify the problem.

While it may be a last resort, you owe it to yourself, your family and your organization to find a better fit, either within or outside your current employer. It is the key to your happiness and success, and it's your job.

Tom Davidson is a Richmond-based executive coach and professional speaker. He is widely known for his memorable keynotes and workshops on contemporary leadership issues. His monthly newsletter, weekly tips and tip sheets for managers can be found at www.DavidsonLeadership.com, and he can be reached directly at Tom@DavidsonLeadership.com or (804) 217-8365.