Free field guide for leaders
AI adoption is a leadership test.
Leading Through the AI Shift is a free, practical field guide for bringing AI into your work without losing trust, judgment, or your people. Five stages, five tools you can use right away, and a 90-day pilot plan. No technical background needed.
- Adjunct Professor of Business
- Organizational Development & Communications Director
- MBA, Organizational Development & Strategy
- John C. Maxwell Certified Coach & Trainer
- Author, The Executive Leader’s Handbook
Sound familiar?
Buying AI is easy. Leading people through it is harder.
An organization can buy licenses in a week. Helping people trust the plan, learn the tools, and protect what matters takes leadership.
- Licenses were bought, but real use is uneven and hard to see.
- Some people rush ahead, some avoid it, and some use public tools quietly.
- People are worried about their jobs, and nobody has said much.
- You’re counting logins and trainings, but you can’t tell if the work got better.
Who it’s for
- Executives and managers who have to lead the change
- Business owners and nonprofit leaders with small teams
- Educators and team leads who want a shared, plain-English framework
What it isn’t: a product review or a list of prompts. Tools change every month. The leadership questions last much longer.
“Drew’s executive coaching has helped me strategically think through challenges and various communications I need to have in my role over operations. I have grown in my ability to empower my team and focus on items at the executive level.”
Christine WatsonEVP of Operations, Trinity Oaks Mortgage
Why I wrote this
A note from Drew
Fort Worth, Texas
Dear friend,
I’ve worked as a plumber, a forklift driver, a supervisor, a pastor, a leadership trainer, a consultant, and an organizational development leader. Those jobs look very different on paper. Each one taught me the same things about people.
People want to know what’s expected of them. They want their work to matter. They want leaders to tell the truth, especially when the future is uncertain. They need room to learn without being embarrassed, and they need clear standards, because a lack of standards eventually hurts everyone.
Artificial intelligence doesn’t erase any of that. It exposes it.
I began writing about AI for leaders in 2024, and I helped lead an AI Leadership Summit at Tarrant County College. What I see again and again: the technology moves fast, and the people side decides whether it pays off.
The tools will keep changing. The leadership questions last longer. What problem are we solving? Who will be affected? Which decisions must stay human? How will people learn? What will we measure?
This guide gives you those questions and a simple way to act on them. Take the scorecard. Pick one real problem. Run one 90-day pilot.
Best regards,
Drew
The field guide
What’s inside
Five simple stages, one practical tool at the end of every chapter, and two appendices you can use with your team this month.
AI adoption is a leadership test
Why access isn’t adoption, and the questions that decide whether AI becomes useful capacity or an expensive distraction.
Define the purpose
Start with a real problem, set success measures before the pilot, and decide what must stay human.
Discover the human and operational reality
Study the work task by task, find the AI use that already exists, and listen for the fear beneath resistance.
Distill the right starting point
Choose one use case that can teach you something, design the handoff between people and AI, and set stop conditions.
Develop people and practice
Lead yourself first, read the emotional reality of the team, and build psychological safety with clear standards.
Multiply learning and scale
Make the scale decision with evidence, measure outcomes instead of activity, and grow people who can guide others.
AI Change Readiness Scorecard
Twenty plain statements across five areas. A conversation tool to see where you’re ready and where you’re exposed.
The 90-Day AI Pilot Plan
A step-by-step path from defining the problem to a clear stop, revise, extend, or scale decision.
All of it is free. Read it, use the tools, and share what helps.
A quick win
Try this today: the purpose check
From the introduction and Chapter 1. Before anyone talks about tools, ask your team these questions. If you can’t answer them yet, you’re not ready to pick a tool.
- What problem are we trying to solve?Name one real, recurring problem, not a product.
- Who will be affected?List the people whose work changes, including the ones not in the room.
- What are people afraid of losing?Jobs, status, competence, control, or meaning. Ask, then listen.
- Which decisions must stay human, and what will we measure?Decide both before the pilot starts.
“I specifically loved how Drew tied his personal life experiences into the presentation. He was able to relate to multiple generations and really helped us think outside the box when it comes to bettering ourselves personally and professionally.”
Eric AllenEVP Head of Sales, Great Western Home Loans
Here’s everything you get, free
- Leading Through the AI Shift, the field guide
- Five ready-to-use tools, one per chapter
- The AI Change Readiness Scorecard (20 statements)
- The 90-Day AI Pilot Plan
- Plain-English guidance. No technical background needed
Why give it away?
Because my dream is to help you live yours, and for a lot of leaders right now, that means leading well through a change nobody fully understands yet. You don’t need to buy anything, book anything, or become a technical expert to use it.
My results
What clients say about working with me
“I have known Drew for several years and have witnessed how effective he is in training, motivating and energizing leaders and teams at all levels of an organization.”
Tony FordExecutive Coach & President, Success Fort Worth Executive Coaching“The material he covered was extremely beneficial and helpful for my professional life. I will definitely be able to use what I learned immediately and pass it along to my team.”
Heath MarionAgency Director, Liberty National“I did like the high-level format for this first go around…it helped us think about an applicable weakness rather than general clichés.”
Shannon WattSVP, Frost BankFrom clients I’ve served through consulting, training, and speaking.
Questions
Questions you might have
How do I know if we’re ready for AI?
Use the readiness scorecard in the guide. It’s twenty plain statements for a conversation with your team, not a grade.
Is it really free?
Yes. There’s nothing to buy and no trial to cancel.
Do I need a technical background?
No. The guide is about leadership: purpose, people, standards, and learning. It doesn’t teach any particular product.
Can I share it with my team?
Yes. You’re welcome to share it with your team unchanged, with credit to Drew T. Jackson.
Is this legal or IT advice?
No. It’s general leadership guidance. Bring in the right professionals when a decision carries real legal, security, privacy, or HR risk.
What emails will I get?
First, an email with your download. The weekly post is optional. The box is checked when you sign up, and you can uncheck it or unsubscribe anytime.
P.S. If you do just one thing this week, ask your team the purpose questions above before anyone mentions a tool. Then download the guide for everything that comes next.