Primal Leadership Review
“Primal Leadership:
Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence”
By: Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Reviewer: Michael L Schwartz
General Opinions:
This book, when you cut to the heart of the matter, talks about leaders involving people, making people feel good about themselves and what they do.
Much of the book discusses why this is true by explaining how the brain operates. There is discussion how neurotransmitters work and how neural-chemical reactions occur in the brain. These explanations are done in lay terms so that anyone can understand them.
There are also examples given of how this has worked. And some examples are given where, due to lack of proper implementation, this did not work.
The authors discuss Resonance, which is when leaders drive emotions positively. And they discuss Dissonance, which is where leaders drive emotions negatively. I have experienced both of these (as I’m sure everyone has) and I must agree that when I am in a condition of resonance I feel better and am more productive.
Resonance and Dissonance are driven by the leader’s Emotional Intelligence. Which is how the leader handles themselves and their relationships. Humans tend to mirror, the authors state. That is they tend to match the psychological state of those around them. I had not really thought about this before reading this book, but on reflection I can think of times where I have experienced this phenomenon first hand. I’ve had more than one occasion when getting home from work, in a relatively good mood and being greeted by my wife, who was in a bad mood due to a bad day and my mood just “went south”. (Of course, there’s been time where these roles were reversed.) Or time when you have lunch with coworkers and as soon as one person begins to gripe soon everyone is griping and in a rotten state of mind.
I generally think the authors did a good job in explaining how moods and feelings (of our leaders) affect our
Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence”
By: Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Reviewer: Michael L Schwartz
General Opinions:
This book, when you cut to the heart of the matter, talks about leaders involving people, making people feel good about themselves and what they do.
Much of the book discusses why this is true by explaining how the brain operates. There is discussion how neurotransmitters work and how neural-chemical reactions occur in the brain. These explanations are done in lay terms so that anyone can understand them.
There are also examples given of how this has worked. And some examples are given where, due to lack of proper implementation, this did not work.
The authors discuss Resonance, which is when leaders drive emotions positively. And they discuss Dissonance, which is where leaders drive emotions negatively. I have experienced both of these (as I’m sure everyone has) and I must agree that when I am in a condition of resonance I feel better and am more productive.
Resonance and Dissonance are driven by the leader’s Emotional Intelligence. Which is how the leader handles themselves and their relationships. Humans tend to mirror, the authors state. That is they tend to match the psychological state of those around them. I had not really thought about this before reading this book, but on reflection I can think of times where I have experienced this phenomenon first hand. I’ve had more than one occasion when getting home from work, in a relatively good mood and being greeted by my wife, who was in a bad mood due to a bad day and my mood just “went south”. (Of course, there’s been time where these roles were reversed.) Or time when you have lunch with coworkers and as soon as one person begins to gripe soon everyone is griping and in a rotten state of mind.
I generally think the authors did a good job in explaining how moods and feelings (of our leaders) affect our