Rating: 
Summary: Intellectual Cherries Jubilee
Review: "Primal Leadership" is the latest best-seller in the "emotional intelligence" business book series that has become a franchise for psychologist and former New York Times writer Daniel Goleman. It might be accurately subtitled: "Three Ph.D.s Cite Tons of Research to Convince Business Executives (Yet Again) that Feelings Matter to People at Work." The research underlying the authors' assertions about the importance of improving one's emotional control and quality of interpersonal relationships is chronicled in end notes that run 34 pages in relatively small point type. If you aren't an end note reader, you may not notice that the otherwise credible trio of Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee often give no credit whatsoever in the book's very readable main narrative to the scientists whose work they unabashedly appropriate or reference only in passing. This is especially surprising and disappointing given Dr. Boyatzis's own substantial and distinguished history of contributions to the academic and practical literature. The "Primal Leadership" authors' well-documented case boils down to this: 1) People respond to their leaders either positively or negatively. And therefore, 2) Leaders need to work on developing an effective leadership style by A. Knowing themselves, B. Controlling their emotional impulses, C. Relating better to others, D. Influencing others to further the organization's work. Hard to argue with that, even without a truckload of citations. Now the critical question: Will reading this book give you the tools to improve your own "emotional intelligence"? In a word, an emphatic and disappointing, no. You may find yourself jumping up and down screaming, "Yes! Yes! Yes!," to the book's persuasive demand for better leaders, but you're inevitably left whimpering, "Now what?" For example, the authors tell us we need to "reconfigure" our brains but offer scant help in defining a useful process for accomplishing that. In fact, that is the recurring fatal flaw for this occasionally impressive work--calling for action but specifying little but tired, overly-familiar generalities. Its recommendations should be familiar to anyone who has ever taken the most basic leadership course (or heard even a mediocre professional speaker at a conference in the past 30 years):
1. Picture your ideal self.
2. Assess your current self.
3. Develop a learning agenda.
4. Experiment with new practices. 5. Develop supportive relationships. To flesh out these familiar themes, "Primal Leadership" offers vague approaches such as "stealth learning"--code, apparently, for accidental learning by, uh, living. And it points to old standbys such as using mental rehearsal and actual practice to break old habits. On what should you focus your mental and physical rehearsals? Well, the authors advise paying attention to your 360-degree feedback, and perhaps finding a mentor or hiring a coach to find out. Hardly the stuff that one needs reams of doctorate-level research to conclude. The same is true of the advice offered for "building emotionally intelligent organizations." The authors suggest creating "process norms" and ground rules for teams, and holding honest conversations about the culture that people work in. Does any of that strike you as new or even particularly insightful? Okay, how about this one. The authors urge: Have a vision. A busy executive simply won't find much here for undertaking the self-improvement for which Dr. Goleman and his colleagues incessantly lobby. In fact, you could capture all the book's useful advice in a one-page outline. But it will take you many hours to tease it out of the lengthy prose. And once you have, it won't impress you as new or novel. In the final analysis, this sizeable and serious-sounding book is neither scholarly nor practical. It is a resounding success in making a compelling case for action but then fails just as miserably in offering nothing but the vaguest and most uninspired plan for action. Strip away the research citations and Daniel Goleman and his erstwhile colleagues have delivered the same old plea for better leaders with the same old solutions for creating them--all dressed up in a new best-seller. So, unfortunately, for the intended business manager reader this well-documented work amounts to intellectual cherries jubilee: tantalizing, sophisticated, carefully prepared, but devoid of useful nutrients.
Rating: 
Summary: got it for a class assignment kept it for future leadership
Review: Daniel Goleman's book, Primal leadership is one of the best I have ever read on the topic. I am a communications major and have done much research on leadership and communicatory roles. This book really helped me identify how a leader is built and what makes an effective leader. I purchased this book for a class assignment, but I am going to keep it for future leadership plans. Leaders are not the only ones who should read this book, everyone should. I learned so much from the book that can be applied in every day life. The first section was the best, but the rest of the book supplemented the first section very well.
Where other books have failed, Goleman has triumphantly achieved. This book if used correctly can shape a leadewr out of anyone who abides by it. With plenty of examples and easy to understand language, Primal Leadership should be recommended for all.
Primal Leadership is a must read for anyone about to enter the working world to peoplem who have been there for a while. The material is so interesting taht this 300 page book flies by in no time at all. While reading all I wanted to do was see what was on the next page. This book really impressed me and changed a bit of my thought procesess. Now I am about to graduate in 2 weeks time and I feel much more comfortable in entering the "real world".
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.
Rating:
Summary: Hits The Nail On The Head
Review: I think Daniel Goleman's "Primal Leadership" hits the nail on the head when it talks about Emotional Intelligence and making those you are leading feel good. It sounds like a modern way of saying what philosophers throughout the ages have said, as even I as a professor learned from Norman Thomas Remick in "West Point: Character Leadership...", about "good-leaders" giving followers the "will" to follow. Goleman goes on in his book to talk about the practical, how-to, ways of imparting the emotional "will" to follow, as did Remick talk about the practical philosophy behind this important subject. I recommend first reading Goleman's "Primal Leadership", then going on to read the Remick book to build your knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Must reading for all management people
Review: If you are in business or a management capacity, this bookis a must read. It will transform your results.
Rating:
Summary: Hits The Nail On The Head
Review: I think Daniel Goleman's "Primal Leadership" hits the nail on the head when it talks about Emotional Intelligence and making those you are leading feel good. It sounds like a modern way of saying what philosophers throughout the ages have said, as even I as a professor learned from Norman Thomas Remick in "West Point: Character Leadership...", about "good-leaders" giving followers the "will" to follow. Goleman goes on in his book to talk about the practical, how-to, ways of imparting the emotional "will" to follow, as did Remick talk about the practical philosophy behind this important subject. I recommend first reading Goleman's "Primal Leadership", then going on to read the Remick book to build your knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Opens up another dimension for leadership
Review: Emotionally intelligent leaders connect with their people. This leadership quality speaks for itself, unites employees behind the leader's mission, encouraging them to be more productive. This book is uniquely valuable in that it explains the value of different types of repertoire -- visionary, coaching, affiliative, and democratic -- and when to apply them. Daniel Goleman should be applauded for restoring humanity into the workplace with his concept of Emotional Intelligence. Personally, I achieved emotional intelligence with a practical how-to book called "Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self." Optimal Thinking explains the message behind each emotion and provides the best questions to ask ourselves and others to obtain emotional resolution and optimal results.
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: Great book about leadership, but on the dense side
Review: Primal Leadership is a great book about leadership, especially since it give credence to the "emotional priming" that happens with public figures. Too often, leaders forget about the impact they have on their people. My only complaint with the book is its length. I do a lot of leadership development work and find my clients have difficulty deriving a "take home" from the book and many won't take the time to read it because of its size. A friend just introduced me to a new EQ book, "The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook" by Bradberry and Greaves. It's short, covers the needed information, and comes with a free online copy of The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal. I recommend you try that if you've run into the same difficulty.
Rating:
Summary: Some good stuff, Some not so good stuff
Review: 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. While it doesn't have the emotional component, I'd recommend The Essence of Leadership by Edwin Locke to cover the other aspects of leadership that are neglected by this book.
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