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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
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Summary: Primal Leadership is a good read
Review: Primal Leadership is an excellent book for anyone in a leadership role. I also recommend Guerilla PR: Wired by Levine and Develping the Leader in You by Maxwell.
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Summary: A most for leaders at all levels
Review: An excellent book; as a textbook for the newbies or a reference for the experienced EI-aware leader.
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Summary: Cuts Right to the Heart
Review: Primal Leadership is a well-written book that makes an excellent case for its premise that emotional intelligence is as critical, if not more so, to the success of a leader and the organization. The more a leader can relate to his employees and clients, the better the organization can perform. The importance of this emotional connection is also emphasized in Michael Levine's Guerilla PR: Wired.
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Summary: Great Book, Title [Stinks]
Review: First off, I really hate the title "Primal Leadership." I picture a gorilla beating the ground with a branch to show he's dominant, which isn't quite what this book is about. The authors use 'primal' to mean primary, as in first and most basic. The basic underpinning of great leadership is emotional intelligence."Primal Leadership" is written to help leaders become better leaders by improving their emotional intelligence. The book gives insight into the collective feeling of an organization, or its emotional climate, and how this is influenced by the people at the top of the organization and the leadership methods adopted by the organization. The authors identify four key aspects of personal competency in emotional intelligence: * Self-Awareness
* Self-Management
* Social Awareness
* Relationship Management The stronger a person is in these, the better leader he or she will become. Unless we are aware of our own emotions, we won't know how to control them. For example, if you make a unintentional, snide remark to an employee, because you're frustrated with the employee, the employee will probably not benefit, nor will the work environment. But, to prevent such a remark means you first must accept that you're feeling frustrated and, secondly, control that emotion. Being socially aware means that you understand the power structure of the organization and it means you have empathy. As an extreme case of lack of empathy, suppose an employee's wife just dumped him and you enter his office and say, "Hey, Jack. Won't ask about the wife. Ha, ha. Just kidding. But, I need that report today, so focus. Don't worry about your personal, little life." Obviously, that wouldn't go over too well! A great film of unmotivating leadership is "Office Space." The CEO is too funny. He walks around talking in monotone and he doesn't hear what the employees are saying. Again, an extreme case. A leader must understand the emotional state of his/her employees and take it into consideration. That doesn't, of course, mean you must agree or tolerate unacceptable behavior. After discussing these core competencies, the authors discuss different leadership styles, including: * Visionary
* Coaching
* Pacesetting
* Democratic
* Commanding The authors argue that visionary, coaching, and democratic leadership styles are beneficial to an organization. But, many leaders rely upon the more tenuous pacesetting and commanding methods of leadership, which can backfire or be overdone. For example, a pacesetting, commanding leader often makes people feel irrelevant and stressed out. That makes them less effective and motivated. And, stress isn't good personally. Quoting the authors: "When stress is high and sustained, the brain reacts with sustained cortisol secretion, which actually hampers learning by killing off brain cells in the hippocampus that are essential for new learning." (Well that [stinks]!) However, there is hope for stressed-out leaders or followers. Quoting the authors again: "Human brains can create new neural tissue as well as new neural connections and pathways throughout adulthood." The authors argue that most leadership training fails because it teaches the neocortex brain or the learning brain. But, leadership skills require more limbic learning. The limbic part of the brain is the more emotional part that learns via repetition and personal experience. The authors compare learning leadership to learning to play the slide guitar. You must practice good habits. To motivate oneself to improve as a leader, the authors suggest forming an image of your ideal self, acquiring a realistic image of your present self, and then practicing behaviors (until they become automatic) that have you act more like your ideal self. The authors argue that this is the best way to improve, because it's a positive way of seeing yourself in the future and seeing a positive goal. Plus, as you improve your EI skills, not only will your leadership skills be enhanced, but so too will your personal relationships. Don't look at your weaknesses as 'gaps' that need to be improved. The authors write: "Emphasis on gaps often arouses the right prefrontal cortex--that is, feelings of anxiety and defensiveness. Once defensiveness sets in, it typically demotivates rather than motivates, thereby interrupting, even stopping, self-directed learning and the likelihood of change." Focusing upon how good you can become versus fixing gaps seems akin to looking at the glass half full versus half empty, but apparently that makes all the difference. Peter Hupalo, Author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur."
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Summary: Manage By Touching People
Review: This book is great... If you believe in managing by touching people and caring them... This book is great...
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Summary: Leadership toolkit
Review: If there is a way to understand the ingredients of successful leadership, assimilate these ingredients and make your own recipe, this book has it all. Human capabilities can be grouped under three broad categories-Technical Skills, Cognitive abilities and Emotional Intelligence. While all the three are essential for performance, better and sustainable results emanate from EI based leadership more so at higher levels of management responsibilities. EI capabilities are classified into four main domains- Self Awareness, Self Control, Social Awareness and Relationship Management which are further broken down into eighteen competencies. The leadership styles that emerge are either Resonant or Dissonant. Visionary, Coaching, Affiliative and Democratic styles are Resonant while Pace Setting and Commanding are Dissonant. Primal leadership relies on the understanding of these distinct styles and the ability to identify and build those styles that are in lacking and consciously eliminating the dysfunctional. The authors, in addition to listing and describing all the above factors in detail, constantly touch upon the anatomy of the human brain and link its functioning to explain the results. By understanding the pattern of information flows and its processing, it is argued that it one can identify and practice favorable patterns that are responsible for resonance. These concepts are then extended to maximizing emotional intelligence of teams. As clearly brought out in the book, acquiring primal leadership skills needs lots of practice and it may take even months. Reading the book is just the beginning to that wonderful resonant journey.
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Summary: ThereÕs More Here Than Cherries Jubilee
Review: I agree with most of what has been said by reviewers who have given very positive ratings to this work. There has been the occasional comment that the only flaw in the message was that a method of developing these skills was not clearly laid out in the book. This point was most strongly drawn in the review titled ÔIntellectual Cherries Jubilee.Õ I would like to address this point briefly, and suggest a solution. The ability to detect characteristics which are necessary for success in an organization does in no way imply that a technique for developing these characteristics is either suggested, available or even known by the authors. Looking at the list of skills associated with successful leadership, it is fairly apparent that what we are seeking as to self-enriching behavior will not be described in a business journal to any great extent. It is rather within the realm of the philosophical/religious/spiritual/psychological where one can profitably seek. The inner meaning within many of the worldÕs spiritual traditions are a useful place to seek this information. I have found Sufi teachings to be the most useful contemporary expression of these skills, which are the foundation not only of success in business but, not surprisingly, success in life. If you are the so-called practical type, hold your scepticism in abeyance for a bit and just read Idries ShahÕs Learning How to Learn. You will begin to get an inkling of how defining an accurate sense of Self is a serious effort quite apart from -and preceding- any organizational work. When you come back to Primal Leadership, you will be better equipped to utilize its valuable message. There is also the distinct possibility you will want to further your studies in Sufi psychology.
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Summary: EQ motivates
Review: I'm a personal coach and work a lot with people on energy, motivation and emotional intelligence. In Buckingham and Clifton's book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths," they list the things a manager should ask his or her employees, and one of them is, "Do you have a best friend at work?" This has mystified the people I've mentioned it to, or else they consider it trivial. And yet, when we've discussed it, they realize they've done their best work in the places where they did have a best friend. And what is a "best friend"? Someone who likes us, supports us, and makes us feel good about things. The authors build a good case for an emotionially intelligent leader, which has been a long time coming. Emotions are the key to motivation and yet they've been considered a "soft" skill. We look to our leaders to lead us, and teach us; however, the end result is that they teach us who they are and how they feel about things. It's not what a leader does or says, but who he or she is ... and we are our feelings. As the authors point out, if you wish to create change, and sustain it, you must build an emotionally intelligent organization. It's a great book, whether you're the boss or the employee. Most of us want to do our best, and to do so, we need the kind of primal leadership the authors talk about.
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Summary: Excelente !!! Very Insightful and Practical.
Review: It is direct book, straight to the point. It has much less neurocinetic theory and much more day-to-day concepts. Even if you haven't finished Daniel Goleman privious books, try this one !!!
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