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The leadership gap

Columnists
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.

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 chief executive officer of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership programme 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 30 years coaching top executives, Lolly’s perspective on leadership continues to break new ground and produce exceptional results.

SUCCESS LIFE: JONAH NYONI

Of her many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honoured 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.

She has a new book; The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness and I (JN) had an opportunity of talking to her (LD) one-on-one and I loved her incisive insights on the subject of the leadership gap:

JN: Lolly, you have a new book; The Leadership Gap; In essence what is the leadership gap?

LD: The leadership gap is the shadows that live within us. I have since discovered that what goes inside us is just as important as what goes on the outside. And at times what goes on the inside is that we want to create success, we want to do something magnificent and at times what happens is that we end up not magnificent. We end up being challenged. We end up coming against a lot of failures. And the difference between where you are and where you want to be, it’s the leadership gap.

JN: You have done extensive studies on human behaviour, and at times this human behaviour becomes an impediment to success. How does a leader know that they are screwing up? And what tools are available to help them get-off that unpleasant behaviour?

LD: The way we know we are screwing up is that, for instance let’s say you want something and you are not getting the results that you want. That too tells that you are screwing it up. If you really want something and not able to get it, then what’s happening? There is usually something within ourselves that is keeping us away from getting what we want.

Most people blame others; Oh this didn’t, She didn’t do this or he said that. It doesn’t work that way. The truth is, if we want to make something happen, we have to take the responsibility for ourselves. And taking the first step within ourselves is the most important step to make things work.

That’s number one: Take responsibility and change things up. As Albert Einstein, said, when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, that’s insanity.

The second question you asked me; through my book, The Leadership Gap, I have identified through my studies of psychology and philosophy that there are archetypes that lead us to greatness. Within those archetypes there are gaps. It doesn’t matter you are a chief executive officer. It doesn’t matter you are a manager, it doesn’t matter you are a shop keeper, it doesn’t matter you are a college student; this applies to every single human being. If you are living and leading, this will work on you. If you want meaningful success, if you want to make an impact on the world, this will work on you.

By knowing this system, which I call the in-thing system, the difference between greatness and the gap, you can immediately save yourself time. Knowing this knowledge will be a game changer in your life. It will allow you to choose to examine your life so, as to progress to the place you have never been before.

JN: Lolly, you have created a unique methodology based on seven leadership archetypes — the rebel, the explorer, the truth teller, the hero, the inventor, the navigator, and the knight — in which a leader has to analyse himself. Would you mind telling us, in short, how you came about this and how it will help leaders?

LD: Right, let me explain the seven archetypes as follows:

The rebel: The rebel is someone who wants to do something magnificent in the world and in order to do that they must have the characteristics of confidence. I’m not talking about confidence where we have to stand in front of the mirror and we say I’m great.

Confidence comes from competence. In the book there is a great distinction between being confident and being competent. Confidence is believing you are able. Competence is knowing you are able. Knowing that you are able to do something makes you a rebel. For every rebel out there; there is a gap. The gap is that people feel that they are imposters because they have self-doubt. When you have self-doubt it sounds like: Oh I’m not smart enough! Oh, I wasn’t born into the right family! Oh, I didn’t go to the right schools! Those are the kind on things that keep on repeating in your head and keep you from doing those most impactful things. So, you have to very mindful. Do I want to be a rebel who is driven by confidence or do I want to be a person who is an imposter, who is driven by self-doubt? These are the questions you can ask yourself.

The explorer: Is someone who wants to go to uncharted waters. They want an idea that no one has ever thought of. They want to do something very creative and very innovative. In order to do that, they have to use the characteristic of intuition. Intuition is allowing things or let go things in order for others to come in. That means you don’t really try to control things. Sometimes we try to control things and when we do we start leading from the gap; which is the exploiter who manipulates. When you are an explorer who manipulates, it’s only because you want to take control. You think things have to be in a certain way. When you do that, you are not realising that you are leading from your gap. You are not allowing things to come in with new ways. You are not allowing things to happen, and even things that you may not have thought of before. So we have to be very mindful to either to be an explorer or an exploiter.

The truth teller: I really love this because people will really recognise this archetype. Have you ever got on a truth teller, who always tells you the truth, not matter whether you don’t want to hear it? The truth teller needs to speak with candour. But for every truth teller who exists out there is a deceiver who creates suspicion. How does that look like? It means when you are having a conversation with someone else you start withholding information. And when you do that you start creating suspicion. Some people like it. So be very mindful to always tell the truth because that’s what will align you.

The hero: This is a wonderful archetype which is in all of us. The hero is someone who is courageous. That doesn’t mean we are doing acts of feats. What it means is we simply show up in our lives and if we are scared about something we show our bravery. But for every single hero that looks at fear and does it anywhere, there is a gap. And the gap is the bystander who is fearful. What does that look like? May be you see something, but you don’t say anything about it. Or maybe you hear something, but you don’t do anything about it. That’s the gap that stands within us, and it only comes by being fearful. We don’t really get a lot of greatness when we are being cowards in our life. So we have to be very careful to choose the hero or the bystander.

The inventor: The inventor is a special kind of an archetype because it’s all about the craft of what they do and how they do things. Everything they do, they do with integrity, excellence and with quality. And every inventor there is a gap and the gap is the destroyer who comes as corrupt. You might be saying that’s very hash? Let’s say you have a business and you keep saying, let’s cut corners, let’s use the cheaper means, let’s do it faster, let’s do it sooner than later. When you don’t do quality it ends up costing business, your partnership and even your leadership. You have to be mindful of not becoming a destroyer who is morally corrupt. Stay with integrity and be the inventor.

The navigator: The navigator persona is someone who is a very smart person and they are able to look at problems and challenges and find practical and pragmatic solutions. And because they are so good in finding solutions, people really trust them. But for every navigator there is a gap. The gap is that of fixer who comes across with arrogance. Anybody who is a fixer is not helping people. People they will alienate themselves against them. You have to be mindful to be a navigator not a fixer.

The knight: A knight is someone who is loyal. They love to serve and give to people. But to every person that loves to give to people, serve people and be loyal to them, there is gap of a mercenary, who is perpetually self-serving. It’s all about me me me! And we know that people who always think about themselves only go so far.

JN: There is a season when the leader/business are on plateau. How do they take themselves to the next level?

L.D: This is a discipline that I actually do every evening. After working all day with my clients, I have to ask myself of what they are doing. It’s a ritual in which I say: What have I done today? Then I say: What can I do tomorrow to do it even better? So every business, every person, should always be taking measurements against themselves. It all starts within self. So if you are running a business, you have to first take stock of yourself and ask yourself: am I the best person to lead this business? Am I the best person to take this business to the next level?

Do I know what I need to do to take this business to the next level? So everything starts from within. Then when you have those answers you are honest with yourself, be a truth-teller with yourself. Then you can find the crevices or the gaps to close as to take the business to the next level. Something very important is that you should stop comparing your business to others. Every leader needs to stop comparing themselves to the other leader. What you need to do is to take stock in your business. Take stock in your leadership. Am I the best version of what I need to be? Is this the best company I can create? If you become an ecosystem of integrity, of excellence, respect and trust everything you do will excel. It all starts within; it starts with the leader and the leader sets the example for the business.

JN: In the book you point out that. “When you stop questioning, you stop learning. And when you stop learning, you stop leading”. Kindly emphasize on the importance of learning as a leader?

LD: This is what I do myself; I read a book between the hours of 4.30 and 6.30 in the morning. The reason I do that is because in order to take myself to the next level, I must be constantly learning, questioning new things and that is the only way I can take myself to the next level. If you do something new every day, when you learn a new skill every day, if you question something everyday guess what? At the end of the week, you are seven times smarter than you were when the week started. Everyday be better than the day before.

Jonah Nyoni is an author, success coach and certified leadership/business trainer. He is the author of Inspiration for Success and Success Within Reach. He can be contacted on – Tel: 0772 581 918. Email:[email protected]. Twitter@jonahnyoni.