About Gadi
My Journey
“The day I embraced my Unique Leadership Power of Empathy — after decades of being told I needed to man up — was the day I started to understand Great Leadership.”
~ Gadi Pollack
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned about Leadership is:
Every Great Leader is called, compelled, must – throughout life – work towards becoming better, expressing more and more of their truest nature through their Leadership.
And, they are given opportunities, challenges, mentors, traumatic events, people, and circumstances to help them grow into their Greatness — if they choose it.
The true Greats get out and do what they are called to do. They feel the discomfort of the next-level growth and carry it with them as they move forward.
Those that don’t merely feel the call of their potential and die with the pain of it never to be fulfilled.
My personal Leadership Journey has been about having that call, being blessed with the challenges and trauma to help me grow and learn, and daily making choices about the deep internal transformation that must happen if I am to unleash my own Great Leader inside so I can help others do the same.
My Teachers
“Great Leadership lessons don’t just come from books or study. They come from the choices you make about each encounter, trauma, and happiness along the way.”
~ Gadi Pollack
My many teacher’s wisdom and my life’s curriculum have been rich — as I’m sure yours has — including:
>> The wartime experience of being led by one of the Greatest Leaders I have ever known, following his lead to my likely death, surviving, and helping to win an unwinnable battle. His example and that experience was my most significant single lesson on the Power of Great Leadership.
>> Being raised by a man who loved me and believed that the best gift he could give me was to insist I deny the “weak” parts of myself, which helped me to truly understand what it means to deny your Greatest Leadership Powers for decades of your life. I could not help the Leaders to the depths that I now do without this great teacher.
>> War-related PTSD that required me to choose between living in a world where getting through the day “safe” drove every conscious and unconscious decision or the choose to fully live in the world so I could do the work I’m doing now at deep levels.
>> The hundreds of Leaders I have mentored and coached over the last couple of decades, each demonstrating real-world lessons through their transformations from Good Leaders to Great Leaders.
>> The group wisdom can only come from committed leaders gathering together to help each other become Great Leaders. I’ve had the honor to lead and learn from such groups for more than a decade. The issues discussed and the transformations of each member have taught me more than several lifetimes of book study. There’s just no substitute for being in the trenches with other Leaders.
>> The 5 Core Leadership Powers™ work has been the fulfillment of a significant part of my purpose. As this work was becoming clear to me through confirmation after confirmation as I worked with leaders, I learned to my core what Great Leadership is and how one can access it in themselves. I am grateful that this work has found a home in me.
>> My most dedicated Mentors and Coaches. The road to Great Leadership is never lonely. Great Leaders need others to help them on their journey. I am no exception.
“True understanding and wisdom don’t come from the back of a cereal box or during a 30-second marketing soundbite. It comes from years of being called to a bigger thing, dedication to that thing, and a willingness to get back up over and over again, eager to learn the lessons from the thing that just knocked you down — and then to muster the strength to go and apply those lessons in the real world.”
~ Gadi Pollack
My Bio
” A well-crafted resume is nice. Years of experience can be impressive. The true test of a person is what they’ve done with their experience and how they’ve helped others.”
~ Gadi Pollack
Below you will find my official bio. To me, what matters more than an impressive bio is what I’ve shared above. Experience is very important. Growing, learning, and contributing to others and something bigger than yourself is as or more important.
I’m dedicated to all of it.
2007 – Present: Master Chair — CEO Mentor — Leadership Think Tank Leader /Vistage International
2003 – 2004 Chair of the Business Leadership Council and the Ambassador Program at the Greater Houston Partnership
1987 – 1989 President of the Young Israel Synagogue of Houston
HONORS AND AWARDS
2005 Lifetime Membership in the Greater Houston Partnership
2008 Spetner Community Service Award from Agudath Israel
2015 The Community Builder Award from Young Israel of Houston
2014, 2015, 2016 Vistage Master Chair Award and Chair Excellence Award
Are You Ready To Discover Your 5 Core Leadership Powers?
Click here to go to the Connect page and let me know a bit about you, why you want to be a Great Leader, and why now is the time.
I look forward to hearing from you.
My Leadership Journey
My journey to understanding truly Great Leadership started in the middle of one of the largest and most terrifying tank battles of The Yom Kippur War of 1973.
There I was, a sitting duck, surrounded by enemy tanks ready to annihilate my fellow soldiers and me. Thankfully, I was being led by a truly Great Leader. Because of him and his leadership, not only am I alive today, we actually won the battle.
His awe-inspiring example of Great Leadership ignited in me the quest and thirst to learn all I could about Great Leadership, what makes a leader Great, and how others can become Great Leaders too.
Today, after decades of study and application with hundreds of Leaders, I am dedicated to helping you become the Greatest Leader you know you have the potential to become.