Asleep at the wheel is no way to drive...

Several years ago, my wife and I were driving back to Upstate New York after spending the day in Boston. It was late. We hadn't left the Back Bay until after 9pm, and we didn't have the option of spending the night in the city, as we had commitments in the Adirondacks the next morning. Like most decisions made in your 20's, the choice to drive the entire length of the Mass Pike in the dark, while tired, was largely influenced by a heavy dose of hubris and "It'll probably be fine."

And it was, at least until we got west of Springfield. Everyone else in the car had fallen asleep and I was alone. I started pinching myself and counting mile markers to stay awake. 43, 42, 41, 16.

16! The adrenaline surged through me. It felt as though someone had injected a cold milkshake directly into my blood system. I had driven over 20 miles and didn't remember it. That was no longer an issue. I was fully alert in a way that I hadn't been all day. I knew this wouldn't last, so I woke up my wife to talk to me over the last 80 miles of our trip. We made it back safely.

That experience wound up being very important for me. I had a sharp encounter with a situation in which I was responsible for others and had put them in harm's way. I think about that when I consider what actions I want my teams to take in the field or when I need to make big decisions that affect others.

Turns out I've seen this happen as well. One of the benefits of driving a squad car for so many years, especially at night, is developing a baseline for what normal driving behavior is. This helps law enforcement officers quickly detect when something is wrong, and when a car might need to be stopped.

One night, probably around 2:00am, I came up behind a conversion van in the left hand turn lane at Five Points, a major intersection in Urbana. The green turn arrow illuminated, and the van didn't move. I briefly tapped my airhorn, signaling the driver it was time to go. After a few seconds, my interest was piqued, and I activated my dash camera in the event that this would turn into something of note. Knowing that our cameras would only capture 60 seconds of footage before our overhead lights turn on, I wanted to capture the entire light cycle if this vehicle turned into a DUI case.

I waited for the green arrow sequence to fully process (about 15 seconds) before the light turned red again. Being unassigned to a call, I had the time. No one else was out. A few moments later, the green arrow illuminated again, and the van continued to sit in the lane. No movement from inside.

At this point, I initiated the traffic stop and summoned additional units to assist me. The intersection was large, and I wasn't sure what we were dealing with yet. I assumed we had a driver passed out at the wheel, for one reason or another. Another officer arrived quickly, and we walked up to the vehicle. We were right. The driver was asleep, hands on the wheel, foot on the brake. The vehicle was running, and locked.

This represents a problem. We wanted to shut the vehicle off, so that it wouldn't just drive away and into something else with the driver still asleep. Before we could position another car directly in front of the van and "catch" it with our push bumpers, the driver's foot slipped.

Northbound the van began to roll, thankfully at idling speed and not faster. We "pursued" the van as it crossed the large intersection, crossed into the oncoming lanes, jumped the curb, and wound stuck in the large bushes surrounding the Wendy's drive-through.

The driver, and his sleeping passenger, had quite the bumpy trip traversing the large curb and stone blocks on the north side of the intersection. This managed to wake them up. Thankfully, due to their willingness to cooperate (and their "altered" state), we were able to handle the rest of the call without injury or incident. Both occupants of the vehicle were fine. It wound up being a lot of work, however. A DUI arrest, drug evidence and processing, an arrest report, traffic citations, and an accident report.

This was a relatively simple accident. I worked many more where vehicles left the roadway and did a considerable amount of damage.

What amazed me, many times, was that the vehicle would sustain damage, and damage other things, but the driver would be relatively unharmed.

This term, "asleep at the wheel", is commonly used in our culture to describe a person who is inattentive, neglectful, or failing to fulfill their responsibilities, especially in a situation where their attention is critical. It often refers to a person who is not paying attention to an important task or obligation, allowing problems to worsen or spiral out of control.

The metaphor fits. I've worked in organizations in which the person at the top has no awareness of what is happening within their company. They lack the awareness and facility to effectively manage the vehicle they are responsible for. This inability to drive can be intentional or not, but the effect persists. It need not be the top person. Sometimes this happens in middle management as well; a failure to drive based on either incompetence or unwillingness.

That's not to say that every instance of this is because of poor character. Sometimes leaders lack situational awareness or overall command of their responsibilities due to over-saturation or other stressors. People fall asleep driving because they're exhausted. It's a physical thing. In either case, intervention is necessary. You don't want the car to roll away and into the shrubs, or worse, pick up speed and harm others.

An inattentive leader can be just as dangerous in an organization as it is on the road. The key is recognizing when you're losing that focus and taking deliberate steps to re-engage or get help.

What if that person is you? Maybe it is. It might be time to pull over for a minute, stretch your legs, or let someone else drive. What does that look like in leadership? Pulling over might mean more delegation or being more purposed about your time. It might mean more self-care and eliminating behaviors that work against you.