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Lolly Daskal: The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness
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.com 100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next 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’s new book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness, a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. is available here.
Podcast Time Stamps
[5:52] – How Lolly came up with the premise for her book, The Leadership Gap. This came out of her re-think system of coaching. We need to look at the competing sides of our character that exist within us – our leadership gaps. We must own them and become aware of them in order to move to the next level.
[7:52] – Lolly talks about the “who” of leadership. The philosophy behind it – know thyself to lead thyself. We must learn who we are first, before looking at the what.
[8:56 ] – Understanding who we are is the biggest obstacle that leaders must be able to overcome. She talks about learning the depth of your person as a key element for all of us in our lives.
[9:54 ] – Lolly talks about going back to the philosophy of leadership instead of repackaging leadership principles.
[11:05] – Lolly talks about the keys to her own success. It has to do with moving beyond impostor syndrome – learning not to benchmark herself against others, but rather to try to be the best Lolly Daskal that she could be. She realized that what she needed was inside rather than outside. Rather than looking for answers from the outside, she learned to look within for the answers.
[13:46] – Learning to have an attitude of gratitude can really help you to move beyond looking for answers from the outside.
[15:02] – Lolly defines success in two ways: how many lives has she impacted and how many times can she have someone leave a conversation with her better than when they started. To be present, meaningful and have an impact in people’s lives .
[16:16] – Lolly doesn’t look outward at the culture, but rather tries to keep her focus inward. She has learned to not care what other have but rather to look at what she can do herself.
[17:21] – Lolly talks about how she has handled challenges in life. She was held hostage at an earlier time in her life to perfectionism. She learned to realize that she would never be perfect but she could work toward excellence. This is a mind shift that has really benefited her.
[19:30] – Lolly has learned how to shift out of victim mode and to make the choice in life that we all have – to focus on the positive. Instead of thinking why me, she has learned to say why not me and found that in doing this, opportunity came to her.
[20:48] – Lolly describes a journey of her maturing in her humanity. Through this journey, this progression, she learned and grew. There is no “one moment” that changes everything.
[22:33] – Lolly has learned through her journey to not concentrate on changing the circumstance, but rather to focus on changing herself. Change yourself first.
[24:17] – In responding to difficulties in her life, Lolly prefers to not look at things as struggles but has grown beyond that. Her mindset is that everything that comes her way, both positive and negative, is something that can move her forward in life.
[25:55] – From Lolly’s perspective, we need to learn how to acclimate ourselves to our contexts. We don’t push ourselves onto our contexts, but learn how to respond to those things by looking at ourselves first.
Resources and Places to Connect with Lolly:
Website: https://www.lollydaskal.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lolly.daskal/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LollyDaskal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lollydaskal/
Top Learning Moments:
- Why a self-awareness of our gaps is the key to growing as a leader. Lolly talked about looking deeper into the philosophy of leadership that deals with who we are before anything else. We must learn to understand and own both our strengths and, as she calls them, the gaps in our leadership if we are going to be able to grow.
- It’s about the process. Lolly talked about her journey and how she has developed. That there’s not one thing or event that changes you, but rather that you learn, you grow, you develop through a process. Each day, it looks like you’re the same, but when you look back over time, you are completely different. This is why it’s important to implement some sort of intentional personal development plan. I have designed a template that you can use to help.
- Change yourself first. Lolly shared how we can’t always effect our circumstances in life, but we can always find ways to change ourselves. Whenever we encounter struggles or challenges in life, our default thought is how am I going to change these circumstance. Lolly learned something that we all need to learn – rather than trying to change our circumstances, we need to recognize how to change ourselves. And we can all do that.
You can get a personal development plan template by clicking here.
Also check out my article on The Power of Choice: Choosing Freedom Over Circumstances
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