Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Leading with Emotional Intelligence)

What a fantastic theoretical and practical book on leadership. This is a must read for every leader, regardless of where you're at in your career. Don't start with leadership biographies, start with theory - this is a great starting place. The thesis of Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee's Primal Leadership is that it is neither a high IQ nor masterful skills that truly make a leader - the key essence is a high level of emotional intelligence. This emotional intelligence helps leaders create resonance, which is "a reservoir of positivity that frees the best in people" (Location 46). Leaders can do this by moving between the six different leadership styles, while also increasingly growing in the four emotional intelligence domains. If leaders grasp these truths, then the impact across their lives, teams, organizations, and society will be revolutionary. In the first section, the authors argue for the importance of emotional intelligence, while relating it to resonance. They then describe the four emotional intelligence domains (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management), and the six leadership styles - four of which are resonant (visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic), and two of which are dissonant (pacesetting, and commanding). The second part of the book details how to become a resonant leader using Boyatzis's theory of self-directed learning. This is a section that is full of important insights, such as understanding how change does not just happen because one decides to do it, but how one needs to develop manageable learning goals, seize organic learning opportunities, and practice - all of this in the context of relationships. The last section of the book highlights how emotionally intelligent leaders can extend their emotional intelligence throughout their teams and organizations. The authors are essentially integrating all the concepts of their book into this section, with a strong bent toward application. Consequently, "to build an emotionally intelligent organization, you need to do three things: discover the emotional reality, visualize the ideal, and sustain emotional intelligence" (Location 3628). This book is a gem and has helped me, and will continually help me into the future - so for that reason I give it a 5 out of 5.

This is one of the best books on leadership I've read. It's an outstanding, well-researched, and easy to read book. Goleman shares ground-breaking insight on how emotional intelligence plays a significant role in leadership. Tracing emotions through easy to understand neurochemistry, Goleman demonstrates through proven studies and corporate examples how the most effective leaders positively engage their teams' emotions and lead beyond sheer intellect. This emotional strategy is contrary to the dominant, authoritative, and often abusive type leaders seen in churches and throughout corporate America. The books is organized in three sections describing (1) the essence of emotional intelligence, (2) creating resonant leaders, and (3) building emotionally intelligent organizations. In a scientifically proven way, Goleman connects certain behaviors to particular regions of the brain, explaining how an entire staff can be affected by one person's good or bad conduct. With extensive research, he shows the six most effective traits that emotionally intelligent leaders use to govern their teams. I have never read a leadership book from a neurological and emotional perspective. This is a must read for all leaders.

This book is a landmark book espousing concepts that are very valuable for any kind of leader. Cultivating emotional intelligence not only in yourself, but in your organization, is a must in the world today. The authors do a good job of balancing theory with business principle. As the bulk of the theory is explained elsewhere, the book spends little time going deeply into what emotional intelligence looks like or what it is made up of. The core competencies of EI are only briefly listed in the appendix. It seems clear that the authors expect the reader to have read Goleman's prior work. I haven't, but I got a decent sense of what EI is all about. The book applies everything directly to the business world in a convincing way, although the stories that are told sometimes seem vague and almost invented for the book. Others go on for pages in long-winded detail, allowing the reader to choose whether to learn primarily through the concepts or through the stories. All in all, the concepts are really pretty self-evident, encouraging a leader to create harmony in relationships in order to increase effectiveness. While they are common sense principles, they seem to be rarely practiced. This makes the book endearing to me, knowing that I have here in my possession a quick reference with major points about leading effectively. The book has some detail on how to implement the strategies, but it could be a criticism of the book that it doesn't always go into much detail on process. The book is full of principles that an effective leader should be able to incorporate into an action plan, but the exact implementation is left entirely to the reader. I liked this book and plan to use it as a reference for leadership. It would be a good one to return to on a regular basis to review the principles within. It has enough information about increasing one's own capacity that it is a valuable regular read.

I would recommend this to people working at all levels of an organization. For one, it sheds light on the importance of EI and the effects it can have on not only an individual basis but on interpersonal relationships large and small. For me personally it as invigorated my urge to learn more about leadership techniques, something I previously never really thought I NEEDED to do. I'm also excited to implement these techniques to my personal and work life with the hope that I can grow into a more effective leader. If you don't think you need to learn more about leadership, read this book. If you want to learn more about leadership and are trying to figure out what to read, read this book.

Dieses Buch ist eine hilfreiche Zusammenfassung zahlreicher wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse rund um die Rolle emotionaler Intelligenz sowohl in der Selbstführung als auch im Umgang mit Familie, Freunden und natürlich Kollegen. Das Buch lässt sich sehr gut lesen und gibt ausreichend Beispiele und Erklärungen zur Selbstreflexion. Ich kann es auf jeden Fall allen empfehlen, die alte Muster verlassen wollen und den Weg der emotionalen Intelligenz gehen möchten.

Interesante la visión de los nuevos líderes. Cómo tratar con las personas con quienes trabajas. Líder no es únicamente un jefe, así que puede ser válido para todo el mundo.

I love the way this book has been writen. The balance between war stories and theory is great. The subject passionates me and rhe writers did an amazing job making it appealing and streamlined.

Es un libro que se lee muy bien, rápido y que tiene muchos conceptos de liderazgo que ayudan a quienes ejercen esos roles. Creo que es un libro de carácter introductorio a temas de liderazgo, es de un autor reconocido por escribir con base a un sustento científico y eso es algo me acercó a leerlo. Creo que los temas de couching y liderazgo tienen múltiples formas de verse y abordarse, pero este en particular desde una visión más de investigación y pragmática va más con mi forma de querer aprender de ello.

Very good book but delivery should be fast