THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHO YOU ARE AND WHO YOU ARE BECOMING.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHO YOU ARE AND WHO YOU ARE BECOMING.
I've called this the Identity Gap.
It is the distance between:
The person you believe yourself to be...
and
The leader you have the potential to become.
I've seen this gap many times in finance.
A technically excellent professional is invited into a senior leadership discussion.
But instead of contributing strategically, they stay within the boundaries of finance.
They know the numbers.
They know the risks.
They know the analysis.
But they hesitate to bring their perspective into the wider business conversation.
Why?
Sometimes it isn't a knowledge problem.
It's an identity problem.
They still see themselves as:
"The finance person."
rather than:
"An enterprise leader who happens to come through finance."
That distinction matters.
Because leadership transformation doesn't always require another qualification.
Sometimes it requires letting go of an outdated picture of yourself.
Ask yourself:
How do other people see my leadership?
How do I see my leadership?
And perhaps the most important question:
Are those two pictures the same?
In my book Clarity • Courage • Conviction, I explore this through Sophia, a highly capable professional who has to confront the gap between her technical identity and the executive leader she is becoming.
Perhaps there is a little bit of Sophia in all of us.
📖 Explore the full journey:
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