Rating: 
Summary: A thought provoking book worth reading!
Review: Primal Leadership; Realizing the Power of Emptional Intelligence by bestselling author Daniel Goleman and his coauthors theorize on emotional intelligence suggesting a logical premise for creating emotionally intelligent leaders.Daniel Goleman and his coauthors emphathize the importance of developing what they term (resonant leadership) focusing on the four domains of emotional intelligence -- (self awarness, self management, social awarness, and relationship management). The over-all idea of the author insists the fundamental task of leaders...is to prime positive feelings in those they lead. Primal Leadership is a thought provoking book worth reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally Sound Bytes
Review: The control board 'Emotion' requires balanced computerised system programming of Thoughts and Actions. How Powerful are emotions that override circumstances with ease! The author focus on four domains of emotional intelligence - self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. At a workplace, Management always stands at cross roads and is hard to understand but you got to slowly convince coz they too need to be Savvy in some areas too. In Primal Leadership, the author emphasis on 'smart leaderships' to cultivate emotionally intelligent savvy leaders.
The development of the four EI competencies initiate leadership qualities that call attention to vision for their organization restricting the commanding and authority style which hinders pace setting reach. The author Daniel Goleman discuss on the research done with Executives who render real life examples. The leaders do need to nurture good feelings and develop human relations in those people whom they lead. Though the concept remains the same like in 'Emotional Intelligence', Daniel Goleman implies to repeat the same rule. Most successful leaders are emotionally intelligent but yet remains problems to tackle with new ideas, diversed fields and more and over, Emotionally being stable to balance to lead the organization to par excellence. Communication is the key to success and that is also one factor that misleads many Leaders to stumble the blocks with the correlated managers and staff. Leaders get 'stalled' and hooked off emotionally knocking off the tolerance of the Executives who no longer stick to the rule of 'grudge & grumbles' - No way, flying them off to check out for better prospects elsewhere as we see these days. Daniel's book is an insight to be Emotionally sound and so if you haven't read his earlier book, sure this is the pick! Go ahead, adopt the Leadership styles!
Rating: 
Summary: No need for warm and fuzzies for needed leadership
Review: The premise of Primal Leadership, based on Goleman's popular "Emotional Intelligence", is that people need to be made to feel good to be lead. Actually, this is not true: often times leadership is getting what needs to be done when people feel awful. Those being lead need just to believe in their contribution to the endeavor, and they can act accordingly. For a superior, much briefer description of leadership, see the Harvard Business Review's recent article "The Work of Leadership", or the work of ISVORDilts. Whereas Goleman was quite good in Emotional Intelligence, "Primal Leadership" misses the mark.
Rating:
Summary: Easily digestable, high re-readability and worth keeping
Review: There are many books on leadership and this book stands out with its light and non-technical writing style. The first part of the book provides a good introduction to the science behind leadership and describes some common leadership styles. I particularly enjoyed the discussion on how moods 'resonate' among people in a group. It certainly gave me a new perspective on my relationship with my teammates.
In the middle portion of the book, the author describes the process by which one may learn to be a better leader. "My ideal self", "My real self", "My learning agenda", "experimenting and practicing", "developing and sustaining". The reader who is looking for specific instructions in how to become a better leader will probably be disappointed. Nonetheless, this book is a good start and the proposed guidelines are light and easy enough for those with lesser motivations (me!) to actually get started on these processes. The last part of the book describes emotional intelligence when applied to teams and organization, a topic that can easily expand to another book. This book does provide a good overview, for more detailed information, I believe that there are many other books on these topics. An interesting point bought up was how difficult it is to change our default neural path and do something different from what we are used to. But our brains can be 'rewired' with sufficient practice and repetition, thus making the new paths more dominant. Simply: "habits are hard to change but if you do, they stick". I find that pretty true! All views expressed here are from a 26yr old software engineer in Singapore. The book is also published under the title of "The New Leaders", ISBN 0316857661.
Rating:
Summary: A Favorite Paradox
Review: There is so much of benefit here. The trouble is getting the ideas out into the field where they can do the most good.
If one reads Dr. G's books in sequence - Emotional Intelligence, Working With Emotional Intelligence, and then Primal Leadership - you derive the greatest benefit. As only summarized in Primal Leadership, the concepts are too subtle to lend themselves easily to shaping a leadership development process around them. And then trying to convey them to training participants...a tall order.
That said, there are concepts in here you just won't find elsewhere. My personal favorite: the relevance of the "amygdala highjack" in crucial moments in leadership, and how to assure that months or years of leadership work won;t be put to risk by your own brain chemistry.
A great work, with a lot to say for people interested in bringing their leadership to the next level. Just help me figure out how to get busy people to read and deeply understand three complex books...
Rating:
Summary: IQ or EQ? New thoughts on measuring a leader.
Review: Think of the leaders you admire. Think of the leaders you hold in disdain. What are the comparisons and contrasts? What MAKES a good leader? Integrity, commitment, intelligence, flexibility, sensitivity and a variety of other attributes? History has manifested the stereotypical successful leader as highly intelligent with a backbone of steel. In addition, they are calm in the face of diversity, consistent with praise and criticism (a/k/a One Minute Manager), rational relative to decisionmaking, dispassionate toward inefficiences and, perhaps above all, outstanding listeners. They don't play office politics or change their personal management style to build the necessary relationships with their management team. Hold the presses! According to Daniel Goleman, intelligence, experience and being blessed with a strong skill set are no longer considered THE poignant indicators of a successful leader. Emotional intelligence or "EQ" is the ability to understand and manage oneself as well as a variety of interpersonal relationships. Mr. Goleman espouses that EQ is considered a better leadership differentiator than raw talent, a soaring IQ, or technical mastery. With his arguably breakthrough book EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Goleman has solidly established his place in history as the authority on EQ. He makes the case that sensitivity to emotions in the workplace and mastering interpersonal communication skills are the essential competencies for a leader's success. However, Mr. Goleman warns that EQ doesn't mean that one acts or becomes more emotional. Rather, he describes it as the ability to combine rational and subjective factors to perceptions and actions. In PRIMAL LEADERSHIP, Mr. Goleman teams with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, acknowledged experts in the EI (or EQ) research field, to investigate and report upon the positive and negative attributes of EQ relative to today's leaders. PRIMAL LEADERSHIP establishes the premise that a leader's emotions are a primary factor to the motivational generation of energy and enthusiasm in any organization. Further, the authors warn the reader that this type of "emotion gushing" is a must for any organization to thrive, much less, survive. While this basic concept flys in the face of conventional wisdom regarding most learned students of leadership, it will get your attention and send you into immediate introspection (at least, that was my reaction). Goleman et al contend that a leader's emotional makeup (read: "mood") have a direct correlation to the health of a company's finances. Quite a new concept indeed. PRIMAL LEADERSHIP is framed around the concepts and discussions relative to the "dimensions" of EI, the different types of leadership styles, the steps toward becoming a positive (well-rounded EQ) leader, and, of course, a "how-to" on establishing EQ as the mantra to building a better business. Be prepared to think in the abstract, a concept many leaders may struggle with. Entrepreneurs deal with this type of "outside-the box" thinking every day. Most managers do not. This book will challenge the entrepreneur to strive for a humanistic touch within their vision. On the other hand, PRIMAL LEADERSHIP will assist the manager/executive in reaching new levels of introspection and thought-provocation. The concepts presented here should not be dismissed. RECOMMENDED.
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Summary: emotional leadership
Review: third in a series
good examples provided
solid advice about working in the office and maintianing leadership
Rating:
Summary: Opens up another dimension for leadership
Review: This book has taught me the humbleness of being a leader. Seems like an oxymoran, doesn't it? However, being a leader means to serve and to be sensitive to those you see you. Seeing the world's from another's eyes is the key to leadership. Unfortunately, many leaders lack this important compentency. A good leader must be able to see the big picture and incorporate the competencies w/eloquence and skill. More importantly, at the appropriate time. I've been humbled and re-built by not only the ECI survey but the book as well. As leaders, we must learn to follow before we can learn to lead and Primal Leadership is the foundation to learning how to "serve." I have several people I informally mentor @ Roadway Express and we are studying this book right now and it has does wonders for us all. This is my second time through it and it should be part of all college curriculums regardless of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Learning to follow before learning to lead.
Review: This book has taught me the humbleness of being a leader. Seems like an oxymoran, doesn't it? However, being a leader means to serve and to be sensitive to those you see you. Seeing the world's from another's eyes is the key to leadership. Unfortunately, many leaders lack this important compentency. A good leader must be able to see the big picture and incorporate the competencies w/eloquence and skill. More importantly, at the appropriate time. I've been humbled and re-built by not only the ECI survey but the book as well. As leaders, we must learn to follow before we can learn to lead and Primal Leadership is the foundation to learning how to "serve." I have several people I informally mentor @ Roadway Express and we are studying this book right now and it has does wonders for us all. This is my second time through it and it should be part of all college curriculums regardless of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Good book on leadership
Review: This book is excellent for anyone who is in or wants to be in a leadership role. 2 others are Guerrilla PR: Wired and The Leader in You.
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