Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

Well worth the read!

This book was very useful and informative for any leader of a group or organization. It gives good insight into the psychology of leading. I would recommend this book to any manager or leader, especially in this time of economic change within the business community.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Leading through Emotions, Intellect and Cognitive Skills

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee first correctly remind us about the importance of dealing with emotions in the workplace. To their credit, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee do not downplay the dramatic impact of both intellect and cognitive skills in building a company to last. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee then explore the four emotional intelligence dimensions and their associated competencies: Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Those capabilities are key to managing others successfully. After exploring each of these four concepts of emotionally intelligent leadership, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee apply them to the six types of leadership styles: Visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding. The authors convincingly demonstrate that emotionally intelligent leaders are flexible in their use of leadership styles because some styles are more appropriate than others in specific situations. Emotionally sub-optimal leaders who are willing to improve themselves can learn through self-directed learning and with the help of others how to fill the gaps that separate them from emotionally intelligent leaders. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee also explore how to build emotionally intelligent organizations. Ignoring how to deal with the realities of team norms and organizational culture often is a recipe for disaster as Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee clearly show us. The result is indeed a toxic and rebellious environment that will have a negative impact on both customer and investor loyalty. Finally, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee examine the process for sustaining emotionally intelligent leadership over time. To summarize, Primal Leadership is a good read that brings an additional dimension of leadership to our attention.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lucid examination of leadership's emotional base

The authors of this clearly written book draw on deep research and numerous studies of psychology and neurology to show that great leadership is primarily and essentially a matter of emotional intelligence. Notwithstanding the extensive support and the documentation from academic literature, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee have written an intelligent, lucid, easily accessible presentation. They contend that, with practice, you can develop the critical leadership competencies of self-awareness, self-management and social/relationship skills. Although the authors may understate the difficulty of developing these abilities, we find their arguments reasonable, persuasive and useful.

I agree with Eric

The book has some high points, for sure. Mostly the theory it presents and Goleman's writing style. But, the book is too long and dense. It's tough to get a take home, like you do with shorter books like The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Some good stuff, Some not so good stuff

On the plus side, this book does highlight an important aspect of leadership that is often neglected - the emotional element. The book identifies six basic styles of leadership and suggests how and when each of those styles may be used effectively. This is good and useful information. On the negative side, the authors are so disconnected with reality that it is often difficult to take them seriously. They honestly seem to think that emotional intelligence (EI) is the only important aspect to business and that personality, ambitions, abilities (other than EI abilities), and strategy are irrelevant. They never acknowledge that some people don't belong in certain roles or businesses and need to be removed, ideally with 'EI', and countless other aspects of the real world that should have been addressed. The authors really should have ventured out of their ivory tower and into the real world before completing this book.

Outstanding and Motivating

This book contains a full explanation of what Emotional Intelligence is, then moves on to teach the practical application. It is not like some of those other 'fluffy' motivational books. This contains real stuff that can be used in the real world.

Optimize this well-researched resource

Throughout this excellent book, the authors talk about leaders demonstrating "resonance" defined as bringing out the best in people by being positive about their emotions. Four aspects of Emotional Intelligence -- self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management -- are examined in relation to different leadership styles. The authors suggest steps to become a more positive leader, and explain how to create a better organization. But why settle for improvement when you can easily optimize? The book needs an additional dimension -- Optimal Thinking. Leaders throughout the world acknowledge Optimal Thinking as the mental resource to be our best, and Optimal Thinking is now prevalent throughout top corporations. When Optimal Thinking is employed throughout an organization, employees respect (rather than judge, ignore or deny) negativity and ask the best questions to optimize any vulnerability. In her brilliant cutting-edge book, Optimal Thinking -- How to Be Your Best Self, Dr. Rosalene Glickman explains that disturbing emotions are optimization signals. She provides a tangible roadmap -- superior to any that have been provided until now -- to understand and optimize emotions. This roadmap puts emotional intelligence into action. By reading these books and implementing the concepts in your organization, you will optimize your leadership competence, your EI, and the EI of all involved.

Setting and Maintaining the Right Emotional Tone

Primal Leadership follows on the key concepts of Daniel Goleman¿s books, Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence at Work. Of the three books, I found Primal Leadership to be the most practical. The material shares the latest research on how the emotional intelligence of leaders affects organizations, and what characteristics of emotional intelligence are most important. Then, the findings are turned into specific steps to take to improve one¿s own performance as a leader and to develop leadership skills in the organization and in teams. For many years, the ability to get along with people has shown up as the most important skill that defines career success and effectiveness among business people. Primal Leadership refines that perspective to focus on how to develop visionary, coaching, affiliation and democratic skills while keeping pacesetting and commanding in proper check. There¿s good discussion of how creating positive emotions at work helps everyone be more effective, while stimulating negative emotions does quite a lot of damage. Each of the points is framed by a variety of case histories that capture the essence of the learning, and bring resonance to the points. Otherwise, one could get lost in abstraction about these principles. Setting the emotional tone is something that everyone admires in someone who can do it, but is sometimes hard to describe. I thought the three authors did a fine job of making this intangible much more tangible. I also agree that leaders can be developed, if the right attitude and processes are in place. Few people could help but improve by reading this book. My biggest insight from the book was to better understand the way that pacesetting can be debilitating when overdone so that high goals become debilitating rather than energizing. I would have liked to see more examples in the book of how effective leaders use humor in positive ways. In many organizations, humor is simply part of the jostling among people in the pecking order. I suspect that this point may be misunderstood by some readers. Humor needs to be inclusive and constructive. I look forward to seeing what new insights will be developed as this research continues. As I read the book, I found myself wondering if we are getting closer to the day when most organizations can provide personally meaningful, stimulating work to those in the organization while leaving room for appropriate balance in the lives of these people. Donald Mitchell, co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution and The Irresistible Growth Enterprise

Emotional Intelligence Taken to a Higher Level

?Sound thinking, the heart of real emotional 'intelligence,' is a managers most valuable leadership tool, especially in the four realms addressed by Primal Leadership - self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. By coupling emotions with sharp thinking techniques, such as those taught in Why Didn't I Think of That? - Think the Unthinkable,you will become the kind of balanced, wise leader most likely to succeed in today's competitive world.

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