Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

Primal leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence

Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) teams with Richard E. Boyatzis (Weatherhead Sch. of Management, Case Western Reserve) and Annie McKee (Management Development Services, North America, Hay Group) to ... Read full review

This book, from a macro perspective, concentrates on how emotional factors affect a person's thinking process, as well as, how a person's actions or words generate emotions in others. The authors of the book use scientific studies and information about the human brain and psychology to illustrate how and why our emotions affect our thoughts, and actions, and those of others around us.
From a more specific perspective, the authors of Primal Leadership describe how this information is useful in leading and managing others. They present many examples of situations, many from real-life businesses, where emotional intelligence was used, or would have made a positive difference if it were used, and detail how each situation involves the use of emotional intelligence to avoid problems or to correct problems.
The book is divided into three sections describing what emotional intelligence is, how it can be learned, and how it can be applied from within an organization at all levels. It gives an excellent case for applying emotional intelligence to all aspects of leadership, and the authors, throughout the book, reference how emotional intelligence fits into already well known management and leadership techniques. That is to say, the authors are not proposing a brand-new form of leadership or management, but rather, are linking information about the psychological aspects of human emotion and thought with existing, proven leadership and management strategies, as a method of vastly improving upon them.