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PRIMAL LEADERSHIP: REALIZING THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE By Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee Boston: The Harvard Business Review Press (2002) 352 pages Reviewed by Stan Patterson
Daniel Goleman's 1995 best-seller, Emotional Intelligence (2006), gave life to a conversation that challenges the long-held idea that emotions are best kept out of the workplace. Intelligence (IQ) that supports attitudes of cold analysis and production above people's feelings has long held sway in the modern leadership environment. His work challenges the primacy of IQ by raising awareness of the value of emotional intelligence as an essential ingredient in effective leadership and in the success of our organizations. Managing relationships, therefore, plays a vital role in sustaining the human platform that supports productivity and profit. "When people feel good, they work at their best" (Goleman et al., 2002, p. 14).
Goleman partners with Richard Boyatzis (Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western University) and Annie McKee (University of Pennsylvania) to address the application of emotional intelligence principles to the behavior of leaders in our institutions and organizations. They coin the phrase "primal leadership" to identify the foundational principle of this application-" that the fundamental task of leaders . . . is to prime good feelings in those they lead. . . . At its root, then, the primal job of leadership is emotional" (p. ix). Passion and enthusiasm, long held to be essential elements in the leadership process, are products of attuned emotions emanating from people at every level of the organization (p. xiii) and not just a necessary element for those at the top levels of an organization. Primal leadership applies holistically to the organization as a body and reflects the emotional maturity and balance of the organization as a whole rather than that of the individual in isolation from the community.
The authors' intentional use of "attunement" as opposed to the more traditional organizational concept of alignment emphasizes the non-linear nature of applied emotional intelligence. Whereas alignment seeks clarity of common purpose, goals, and objectives as a means of keeping a team or organization focused, attunement aims at maintaining the quality of relational health among those who comprise the team or group.
Goleman et al. treat leadership as a function of the group...