Curtis Scaplen’s Mom spent seven years not knowing when her last day would come.

Something changed in her. No ego. No masks. No wasted moments. Just presence.

It made me ask myself a question I haven't been able to shake since:

Why do we wait for the wake-up call before we start becoming who we already know we're meant to be?

Change doesn’t fail because people resist it.
It fails because leaders underestimate how heavy it feels.

Looking back on a change initiative that didn’t go the way I hoped forced me to ask a harder question:
What could I have done differently?

This piece is about the awkwardness, fatigue, and pressure of change — and what leaders can do to make it more human, more achievable, and more likely to stick.

🧠 Leadership Autopilot Is Killing Your Impact

You ever drive for 20 minutes and realize you don’t remember a thing?

Now imagine doing that with your team.

This week’s Leadership In Focus newsletter explores what distracted driving can teach us about distracted leadership — and why your team can’t afford a leader who's just coasting.

👉 A wake-up call you don’t want to snooze on.