"This is the mistake that highly driven, overachieving leaders make every day. They have soared to the greatest heights on the basis of what they know. But there comes a time when they must rethink everything and ask themselves: What is the gap between who I am and who I want to be, and do I know what it is I still need to learn?"
- The Leadership Gap, page 4
"Being real is the first step to being great. As humans we will never be perfect, but we can be the best version of ourselves. And the way to become the best version of ourselves is to recognize our leadership gaps, leverage our knowledge in new ways, and stand in our greatness. It’s about learning the two sides of who we are—the side that serves us, and the deceptively identical side that does a disservice to us."- The Leadership Gap, page 19-20
This seems like such an oxymoron, but regardless of your own personal leadership style (archetype), you can be both a tremendous success and even an epic failure. By understanding this you can control your own destiny and that of your team or organization by merely recognizing your shortcomings and finding the solutions to overcome them.
She lays out how for every archetype, there is a “shadow” or the antithesis of that role that often manifests itself by overuse of your strengths. This simple philosophy flies in the face of some modern thought where leaders and employees are encouraged to focus only on strengths.
The archetypes are:
"Only when we discover the gaps in our leadership, and confront our shortcomings, can we become truly great leaders."- The Leadership Gap, page 22
When we realize that our greatest strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses, often because they are blind spots, we can become better versions of ourselves. Through understanding our personalities, we can begin to develop a clearer sense of what has lead us to success, and then by analyzing what can happen if we overuse that strength, we can see what remains hidden from us—but is obvious to those we work with. Regardless of which archetype you identify with the most, there are examples of each who are universally recognized as leaders.
Rebel: Rosa Parks
Explorer: Jeff Bezos
Truth Teller: Winston Churchill
Hero: Malala Yousafzai
Inventor: Walt Disney
Navigator: Sheryl Sandberg
Knight: Mother Teresa
The key to success is to understand your strengths, and weaknesses, and to leverage the positives and work around your blind spots to maximize your leadership potential. Regardless of how you lead, you can be the best version of yourself by being honest and authentic and working hard on your skills. Leadership is not given, it is earned every day.
"If you think your behaviors and your actions don’t matter, then think again."- The Leadership Gap, page 201
When things are going great we need to ask ourselves why and what we can do to keep it going… and when things start to turn sour, we need to abandon our pride, and ask ourselves what we need to do or change to resolve issues before they become magnified.
Daskal provides questions around how to leverage our strengths and overcome our leadership gap, and these become the most important and actionable elements of the book. Here are a few for each archetype:
Rebels:
Explorers:
Truth Tellers:
Heroes:
Inventors:
Navigators:
Knights:
The Leadership Gap is a truly enjoyable book, one that I consumed in a single sitting because I wanted to understand more about myself and others with whom I interact.
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.