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Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002, 306 pages, $26.95.
We were excited to get the opportunity to review this book, as the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has captured the imaginations of educational as well as business professionals in recent years. Neither of us had ever read an in-depth treatment of EI; we had seen only brief articles in the popular press and these were definitely intriguing. This book attempts to link El in a meaningful way to leadership.
The book is divided into three parts and contains 11 chapters. The parts are called: The Power of Emotional Intelligence (5 chapters), Making leaders (3 chapters), and Building Emotionally Intelligent Organizations (3 chapters). Essentially, the first part describes EI (although there is no simple definition) and how, in the authors' view, it relates to leadership. The second part illustrates how potential leaders can acquire EI, and Part III shows how EI can and should be spread more broadly throughout business organizations. Wo appendices contain brief discussions of the relationship between EI and intelligence quotient (IQ) and the various facets of EI. A rather hefty 35-page notes section and a fairly extensive index round out the book.
The fundamental idea of the book and the reason for its title is that the basic task of leaders is to create good feelings in those they lead. These good feelings or positive emotions bring out the best in people by causing them to become excited about the task or...