Full disclosure. Lolly Daskal is a friend and I admire her work. I’ve followed her blog and Twitter feed for more than a decade. I knew that her latest book, The Leadership Gap, was going to be worth reading even before she sent it to me.

But, that created a problem for me. My policy is to buy the books that I review because I think it’s wrong to either suggest that people spend their money on something I got free or trash a “gift” that I was given. That works most of the time.

But I don’t think it’s right not to tell you what a great book I think The Leadership Gap is just because Lolly is my friend and she sent me her book. So, here’s why I think you should buy and read The Leadership Gap.

If you’ve lived very much at all and thought about yourself and your performance, you know that our strengths are the source of our success. You also know that those strengths, in other situations and handled differently, become great weaknesses. As you move through life, you will take what you’re good at and use it for good and for not so good.

That insight is important but Lolly takes it a lot further. Building on the work of Carl Jung, she describes seven archetypes of leadership based on her observations as a top executive coach. That, by itself, would make this an interesting book.

What makes it a great book is that for every archetype that Lolly describes, she also describes what she calls “the risk to greatness that lurks in the shadows.” The book takes you through each of the archetypes in detail and describes the danger of the leadership gap when you use its evil twin.

If you’re responsible for the performance of a group, you should read this book. If you aspire to leadership as a career choice, this book will be useful throughout your career. It will help you be on guard for the parts of yourself that can derail your success.

Don’t just buy and read The Leadership Gap. Join the thousands of us who read her blog or follow Lolly on Twitter. You will be a better leader for it.