About book Primal Leadership: Realizing The Power Of Emotional Intelligence (2002)
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee tackle the topic of leadership from a relatively new angle: emotional intelligence. The first part of the book discusses the four domains of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship management) and the key competencies associated with each. They explain how there are resonant leaders (those who move their employees/followers in a positive direction) and dissonant leaders (those who do the opposite) and then move into effective leadership styles and the emotional intelligence competencies required for each. There are four resonant styles (visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic) and two dissonant ones (commanding, pacesetting). The basic idea is to mostly use two or more of the resonant styles, with occasional use of the dissonant styles, and be able to seamlessly switch styles as needed. The next part of the book describes Boyatzis' really useful process for the individual development of emotional intelligence. He puts forward "five discoveries" (ideal self, real self including strengths and gaps, a learning agenda, practice and experimentation, and developing trusting relationships). The final section of the book discusses how to build emotionally intelligent organizations and is full of examples of companies that did it right and that did it wrong.I read this book for a graduate-level leadership class, and used it to develop my own leadership development agenda based on the five discoveries included in the book. This process was especially useful coupled with the other work I did in the class to assess my temperaments and strengths. The descriptions of the emotional intelligence competencies and also of the various leadership styles were especially useful to me. It put a framework and a vocabulary to many work and school experiences I've had in my career and helped me understand why my current boss is such an excellent leader and my previous boss was not. I have a pretty clear sense now of the leader I would like to be in my career. The organizational intelligence section, while interesting, was less helpful to me at this point in my career. It's likely worth revisiting at some point down the line. leadership, personal growth, self-help, business, communications, emotional intelligence
This book gets full marks in my opinion, but I would mention that it is not for everyone. This book is idea if you 1) already have worked in a few organizations enough to experience a variety of leadership styles 2) you have attempted and both failed and succeeded in some area of leadership. This book is then perfect and provides great examples on how to move forward. At the center of this book is a belief in the plasticity of the human mind.I disagree that one should just read the first and last chapter, though I can appreciate why that one might feel that way if they have, already, superior leadership skills. For the rest of us, the examples in the middle are instructive on how to be a good leader as well as how to help or improve our reaction to those we follow.Since I must return this book, below is where I'm keeping the very interesting checklist that is in the final chapter:Leadership Competencies:SELF AWARENESS- Emotional self-awareness (attuned to your inner signals, which allows you to be candid)- Accurate self-assessment (know your strengths and weaknesses to the point where you can joke about them)-Self Confidence - knowledge of yourself so that you can play to your strengthsSELF MANAGEMENT-Self Control-Transparency - act in a manner that is true to your values-Adaptability - ability to multi-task-Achievement - be the type of person people will follow -Initiative - have a sense of control over your own destiny- Optimism - allows you to roll with the punchesSOCIAL AWARENESS-Empathy-Organizational Awareness- Service - run your organization the way you want to be treated.RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT- Inspiration-Influence-Developing Others- Change Catalyst-Conflict management-Teamwork and Collaboration
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i've read a lot of management, leadership and self help books and most of them really aren't worth much, but this book, "Primal Leadership" is definitely one of the best so far. "Primal Leadership" builds on Goleman's classic work in "Emotional Intelligence", teaming him up with two other academics who were more on the training side. the resulting work re-states all of the good stuff from the original, but adds a huge amount of practical lessons and insights into how to increase a person's EI and help make a person a better "Primal" leader. after 20+ years of leadership and mgmt, this book comes closest to summarizing what i try to do every day with my teams. sometimes i do OK, sometimes i don't but i think that's my fault, not the plan... :) a must read for anyone who wants to be a better leader, manager, parent.
—Ty
Applies the ideas of emotional intelligence to the sphere of management. Proves a relationship between emotional atmosphere and profitability. Identifies practical steps to achieving emotional intelligence. Most interesting part so far: the idea of the open loop limbic system. Unlike other biological systems that are self contained, i.e. the circulatory system, the limbic* portion of the brain interacts with its environment and thus with other people's actions. *limbic system: a complex system of nerves and networks in the brain, involving several areas near the edge of the cortex concerned with instinct and mood. It controls the basic emotions (fear, pleasure, anger) and drives (hunger, sex, dominance, care of offspring
—Seair6
This book was helpful to me, it had good advice and helped me clarify some thoughts and feelings I've been having around leadership that I had not previously been able to articulate. Goleman argues that one of the most important jobs of a leader is to regulate the emotional atmosphere of the community. Emotions are contagious, and people look to their leaders to set the mood and emotional tone. He also shows that effective leadership is a skill set that can be chosen and learned -- that good leaders are made, not born. And he has practical advice about how to do that He talks about the four areas of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, emotional self-management, social awareness, relationship management) and how they relate to building leadership competency. He also reviews Boyatzi's theory of self directed learning, which was useful to me: 1. Develop a clear vision your ideal self, the person you want to become.2. Reflect deeply on your real self - develop self knowledge about who you actually are right now. Identify strengths, which are where the ideal self and real self overlap, and identify weaknesses -- areas where the ideal and real self differ.3. Develop a learning agenda which builds on strengths while reducing gaps.4. Experiment with new behaviour, thoughts, and feelings and practicing new behaviors and skills.5. Developing trusting relationships that help, support, and encourage each step of the process.This is the approach to coaching and mentoring I've been intuitively taking so it was cool to see it laid out.I've had a lot of reluctance and ambivalence about becoming a leader. I didn't want to be a leader, and haven't known how to be one, because I've never been a follower. I have slowly accepted that offering visionary leadership is part of my service, that it is something that people need and something that I have the capacity to do well, in part precisely because I hate control, authority, and manipulation. So if it is my fate to be put into positions of leadership, whether I want to be or not, I have a responsibility to do it as well as I am able, which means developing these skills with discipline and concentration and humility. This book relieved a lot of my anxiety around these issues, making this learning project seem more manageable.
—Polly Trout
