The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness
Lolly Daskal, 2017
Portfolio
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101981351
Summary
When successful people begin to feel uncertain or challenged at work, the one thing they want to know most is why things are going wrong after they have gone right for so long.
In The Leadership Gap, Lolly Daskal reveals the consequences highly driven, overachieving leaders face when they continue to rely on a skill set that has always worked for them, even when it is no longer effective. Over decades of advising and inspiring the most prominent chief executives in the world, Daskal has discerned that leaders fall into one of seven categories — The Rebel, The Explorer, The Truth Teller, The Hero, The Inventor, The Navigator, and The Knight — and have risen to their position relying on a specific set of values and traits. However, every leader reaches a point when their effectiveness is compromised by the gap hidden in those traits -- intuition becomes manipulation, for instance, or integrity becomes corruption.
Based on a mix of modern philosophy, psychology and her own vast well of business experience, Daskal offers a breakthrough perspective on leadership — a new system for rethinking everything you know to reveal the path to becoming the kind of leader you truly want to be.
In The Leadership Gap, Lolly Daskal not only confirms her stature as an exceptional business mind, but also reveals the insights and observations of one of our most important leadership experts — a businesswoman known for providing trusted advice, actionable solutions, and provocative ideas to the world's top executives. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world. Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies.
As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program is engineered to be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world. Based on a mix of modern philosophy, science, and nearly thirty years coaching top executives, Lolly’s perspective on leadership continues to break new ground and produce exceptional results.
Of her many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World.
Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others.
Lolly Daskal was born and lives in New York City. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Lolly Daskal on Twitter.
Book Reviews
Our weaknesses live in the shadows of our strengths, and this book does more than help us spot them—it shows us how to overcome them. Lolly Daskal takes us into the trenches of her executive coaching practice, carefully unpacking the self-awareness gaps that hold leaders back and lighting the path to expanding our comfort zones.
Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take
I've seen talented leaders unwittingly make the biggest mistakes of their careers simply because they don't understand the complexities and pitfalls of their own strengths. The Leadership Gap offers terrific insight and valuable wisdom for high achievers who want to understand the tendencies that stand between them and meaningful success.
Sydney Finkelstein, author of Superbosses and Why Smart Executives Fail
Great leaders understand who they are as leaders and what motivates them to do the things they do. If you want to become one of them, read Lolly Daskal’s deeply insightful book. It has invaluable advice for leaders who want to propel themselves to the next level. It’s essential reading for those who want to be great.
Heidi Grant Halvorson, author of No One Understands You and What to Do About It
The Leadership Gap is an exciting new contribution to the tired conversation of leadership, and artfully explains why some leaders succeed while others don’t. Lolly Daskal draws on a wealth of expertise as leading global leadership consultant to identify the skills and gaps that exist within all of us.
Cy Wakeman, author of Reality-Based Leadership
As a leader there’s one thing standing between you and your ultimate potential. Once you are aware of it; once you embrace it, and once you know how to close that "gap," you can then become the magnificent leader you are meant to be.
Bob Burg, coauthor of The Go-Giver
There’s no shortage of thinking and writing about leadership, yet there’s a desperate shortage of leaders everywhere we look. That’s what makes Lolly Daskal’s book so powerful. Thoughtful and practical, analytical and personal, it invites leaders to rethink what it takes to be great, and promises to help bridge the “leadership gap” that plagues business and society. I urge you to read it.
William C. Taylor, CoFounder, Fast Company. Author of Simply Brilliant
An insightful new take on the world from one of my favorite leadership experts. 2 Likeable Thumbs up for this MUST READ!
Dave Kerpen, author of The Art of People
In these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever for leaders to be people who are truthful and who we can trust. In her book The Leadership Gap, Lolly Daskal reveals the qualities of truly great leaders, along with the gaps that stand in the way of their greatness. This book guides you towards your greatness in the quest to become a better and more effective leader.
Lauren Maillian, TV personality, startup investor, and author of The Path Redefined
Lolly Daskal is a keen observer of human behavior in general and leaders in particular. The Leadership Gap does an excellent job of helping aspiring leaders and seasoned professionals alike to find their blind spots and to understand the variety of styles that are required to be a positive influence on the people around them. This book might just be the next-best-thing to having your own personal coach.
Art Markman, PhD, Director of the Program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Smart Thinking, Smart Change, and Brain Briefs
In The Leadership Gap, Lolly Daskal reveals exactly what it is that makes great leaders great, along with the gaps that stand between leaders and their greatness. Every leader will benefit by applying the principles contained in this book, along with their people, their customers, and their companies.
Emma Seppälä, Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence, author of The Happiness Track
In The Leadership Gap Lolly Daskal masterfully reframes the conversation about leadership with her discerning and insightful exploration of seven archetypal images that drive and challenge leaders. Drawing from her vast experience coaching senior executives around the world, Lolly paints revealing leadership portraits that expose both darkness and the light in all leaders—and in ourselves. The Leadership Gap is fascinating, provocative, entertaining, and useful—a significant new contribution to how we think and act as leaders, and I highly recommend it.
Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge and the Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
Lolly Daskal takes us on a unique and insightful journey into the 7 archetypes of leadership and shows us what it is that makes some leaders impactful over the long term and others fall miserably short. This book is a powerful tool for growing self-awareness and improving your impact as a leader. The Leadership Gap is destined to become a go-to for anyone who wants to have greater impact in the world!”
Dr Jackie Freiberg, co-author of 7 award-winning books, including CAUSE! A Business Strategy for Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness
I love love love reading Lolly's leadership insights. She inspires me to be a better man, and her writing gives me effective tools to inspire action in the teams I lead.
Adam Kreek, Olympic Gold Medalist and founder KreekSpeak
The Leadership Gap reads like my story—a deep search for ‘who I am being while I am leading.’ If John Grisham wrote a book on leadership, it would be a compelling page-turner like this one. Don’t miss this gift to the leader you can become. I promise you will be inspired, instructed, and invigorated.
Chip R. Bell, Author of Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles
I love this book. Each page is chock full of wisdom and common sense actionable ideas. Lolly gets to the heart of what keeps us from being great and what we need to do to close the gap to become our best selves. The way she has organized it around archetypes is brilliant. You can go straight to the chapter that speaks to you, pick it up at any time to learn more about yourself and others, and it’s an easy, fascinating read from cover to cover.
Jesse Lyn Stoner, co-author of Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision
In this deeply insightful book, leadership expert Lolly Daskal outlines a series of eye-opening and game-changing ideas, including why embracing weakness is the first step to achieving greatness. If you want instant insight into your clients, your boss, and even yourself, get this book. It will redefine the way you lead.
Ron Friedman Ph.D, author of The Best Place to Work
With expert analysis and soulful compassion, Lolly Daskal provides a fascinating expose on the psychological "gaps" leaders face in realizing their true potential. I’ve seen few other books with such thoughtfulness, practicality, and empathy for the human side of becoming a leader.
Andy Molinsky Ph.D, author of Global Dexterity and Reach
In The Leadership Gap, Lolly Daskal speaks truth to power through her penetrating and practical insights for today and tomorrow’s leaders.”
Bruce Rosenstein, Managing Editor, Leader to Leader. Author of Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way
Great leadership starts with self-knowledge. Lolly Daskal provides a powerful new framework for understanding yourself and rising to become the leader, and person, you want to become.
Dorie Clark, adjunct professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and author of Reinventing You and Stand Out
The Leadership Gap compellingly shows the tension that takes place inside of human beings because, within each of us are two competing sides, but only one leads to greatness. Whether you are a rebel or an explorer, a truth teller or a hero, an inventor, a navigator, or a knight, this book is a valuable resource for anyone who aspires to become a more authentic and complete leader.
Robert Rosales, Founder of Lead Academy, a positive psychology-based leadership development consultancy
There’s no way to read The Leadership Gap and walk away unchanged. Lolly Daskal brilliantly distilled her experience working with world leaders into an immediately actionable book filled with wisdom. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in becoming a leader worth following.
Skip Prichard, CEO of OCLC, Inc., Author of The Book of Mistakes (coming January 2018)
Filled with smart experience and candor, Daskal's book will help any leader get to the next level - including you.
Damon Brown, author of The Bite-Sized Entrepreneur: 21 Ways to Ignite Your Passion & Pursue Your Side Hustle
Today, leaders can only achieve greatness if they are willing to find and fill their competency-gaps. In this fast moving and highly helpful read, Lolly Daskal will show you the 7 archetypes of leadership as well as the opportunities and pitfalls each one contains. Read it and soar!
Tim Sanders, New York Times bestselling author of Dealstorming and Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends
Riveting from beginning to end, The Leadership Gap pulls back the boardroom curtain to share startling insights from an executive coach who counsels world-class leaders behind the scenes. Here, for the first time in print, Daskal shares her system of the seven leadership archetypes and their “shadows,” along with easy-to-use takeaways on how to identify your own type and traverse your own gap.
Jane Ransom, International Speaker, Success Principles Trainer, Author of Self-Intelligence
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