What Now? From Autopilot to a Life You Choose: Yaprak Sapanli Gorur on catching the drift
Yaprak Sapanli Gorur was leading human resources for 3M’s largest business when she sat down to take an energy assessment and scored almost zero on every dimension. “I needed to leave the room, because I was feeling like a panic attack,” she said. That moment became the seed of her new book on autopilot drift, What Now? From Autopilot to a Life You Choose. Yaprak, an executive coach and former Fortune 500 global human resources leader, joined our Chief Knowledge Officer, Pam McLean. In their conversation, they talked about how high-functioning people drift away from their own direction without noticing. Furthermore, they discussed what it takes to start choosing again.
In What Now? From Autopilot to a Life You Choose, executive coach Yaprak Sapanli Gorur argues that autopilot itself isn’t the problem. The problem is autopilot drift, the slow pull away from your own values and direction when habits run unchecked. Her book names six drift patterns and offers self-guided exercises for spotting them early and making intentional choices.
Three takeaways from the conversation
Three takeaways from Yaprak
1. Autopilot isn’t the problem. Autopilot drift is.
Yaprak Sapanli Gorur’s core idea is that autopilot is useful until it starts to drift. The book’s central metaphor comes from her sailing trips with her husband. Last summer, their boat’s autopilot started to malfunction. If they hadn’t noticed early, they could have hit the rocks. “Autopilot actually is not the problem,” she said. “Autopilot is good. It is making us efficient, productive.” The trouble starts “when we are drifting, when the autopilot starts to malfunction,” so the goal is to notice early when habits and routines start steering us somewhere we never chose to go.
2. Give yourself time to listen before you leap
Yaprak recommends paying close attention to what gives you energy and what drains it before making a big change. Her own turning point came after a long trip to Asia. When she came home to an empty house and, in the silence, realized she wasn’t happy. Her husband was ready to quit and move the next day; she asked for a year instead. During that “year of listening,” she stayed fully engaged at work while watching herself closely. “I really listened for what was energizing me. What was draining my energy?” Small experiments, like going back to finish her coaching certification, showed her that helping people grow was what gave her energy. By the time she left 3M, she knew the direction was right.
3. When leaving isn’t an option, change your perspective
Staying in a job you’ve outgrown as a valid, conscious choice when leaving isn’t realistic. “If leaving is not an option, we can change our perspective,” she said, citing a motto from a former managing director: “You either change it, either accept it or leave.” Her client Mark was ready to quit until he saw that developing people energized him. He volunteered for a leadership development program and began mentoring others. His job didn’t change, but he did, and he decided to stay. Accepting a situation, she said, still leaves room to make changes in other parts of your life, “because life is ours.”
Listen to the full conversation
These three ideas are just the beginning. Listen below as Yaprak walks through all six autopilot drifts, from the Someday drift to the Invisibility drift. She also explains how she fell back into the rushing drift while writing this very book and why an accountability partner helped her see it. In addition, she shares how managing physical, emotional, mental and purpose-driven energy, drawing on Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s The Power of Full Engagement, can be an antidote to always being “on.”
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Yaprak Sapanli Gorur offers a free autopilot drift self-assessment on her website. You can take it yourself or use it with coaching clients, and it also appears in her book, What Now? From Autopilot to a Life You Choose.
Yaprak Sapanli Gorur points to managing energy, not time, across four dimensions: physical (rest and healthy eating), emotional (relationships and boundaries), mental (focus and one task at a time) and spiritual, which she calls purpose-driven energy. Above all, she said, the antidote is being present, which helps you notice the rush and slow down.
Partly. Yaprak Sapanli Gorur said the exercises in her book can open up some blind spots, but working with a professional coach who asks powerful questions “is going to be so different.” She discovered her own blind spots by working with another coach, which is why, she said, “we always need each other.”
About the author
Yaprak Sapanli Gorur is an executive coach, advisor and former Fortune 500 global human resources leader with more than 25 years of experience. She spent over two decades at 3M, ultimately as Vice President of Global Human Resources for the company’s largest business group. In 2020, she founded YSG & Associates Coaching and Consultancy. She is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation.
Write your next chapter
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