Overcoming Your Leadership Gap

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Today my special guest is Lolly Daskal, author of The Leadership Gap.

Lolly is the founder of Lead from Within, a successful leadership firm that offers custom-made programs in leadership and organizational development. She is a leadership coach, speaker and has written for a handful of online publications, including Fast Company, Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

We talked about her story, how she found her uniqueness, her own gifts and strengths, how she broke through limiting beliefs from her childhood, her take on sales, and a whole lot more.

We really enjoyed our conversation that we actually have decided to record a follow-up episode, so be sure to click the subscribe button below!

On building a personal brand

“People that help others become thought leaders sometimes don’t think of themselves as a brand.”

“It wasn’t until somebody asked me, ‘Who are you, Lolly, in the world?’ that I realized that I might be too much behind the scenes and not so much as a brand.

Then I created a website. I was like, ‘What am I going to put on my website?’

Then I started to tweet about thing that were happening with my clients, but what should I say about my clients? So I was in this what’s called an abyss. I wasn’t sure how do I take what I do and create a brand from it.”

“I had to find what was different about me, what made me successful, and create the brand from there. That’s how it started, but I never knew I had to do that.”

The nonlinear journey to success

“I got kicked out of a lot of boardrooms. I didn’t get booked that often; I had to go to Europe to spread the message there about heart-based leadership and leading from within. It didn’t matter how many people were in your organization that everybody was a leader and everybody can have a say and that’s how you not only survive, but thrive.

…It wasn’t until people saw the results that people started to trust it. It’s not so much about how I come into an organization; it’s how I leave an organization that matters.

If they make money, if I can take them to the next level, if I can keep their employees engaged in a high level, that’s a win-win situation for them. How I get them there, at this point, they didn’t even care.”

Leading from within

“My unique thing is that lead from within; that every single person, no matter what position they’re in, no matter what business they have, they are a leader. If you’re influencing someone and you’re impacting someone, I believe you are a leader in your life. And that message was something very unique to what I was saying.”

“Lead from within is a very interesting concept because if I tell you that you can be the leader in any situation that you choose to be, listen to the words I used – choose to be. That means leadership is within you, but we don’t always choose it.

I found that people didn’t know what to choose. It’s one thing to tell someone you’re a leader; it’s another thing to know how to show up.”

Removing limiting beliefs that hold you back

“As a psychologist and a student of philosophy, what I have learned is that we are not born with limiting beliefs. We come in thinking we could do anything. If you ever look at a really young child, they do the most miraculous things because they don’t think anything is going to stop them, so they take risks, they walk into walls, they eat dirt – they do everything, right?

And you’re like, “What are you doing?”

There’s nothing telling them they can’t do it and it’s a NO.”

“We know who we are. But what I find is, those negative messages that we have now internalized and we keep projecting all the time, that if we don’t own it, it owns us.”

“Ask yourself, “Is that really true?” Because if it’s not, it’s time to get rid of it, because otherwise, it owns you. “

Lolly’s view on sales

I believe sales is human-to-human connection; I don’t think of it as sales. I don’t think of I am going to sell you something. What I’m going to do is I’m going to bring you something that will impact your life for the better.

Mentions

Connect with Lolly Daskal on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Visit Lolly’s website https://www.lollydaskal.com/ and https://www.theleadershipgapbook.com/