Primal Leadership Book Review

So the purpose of this review is to

discuss some of the main topics of primal leadership

as well as related back to some of the topics that we've covered so far in class.

So I will be exploring the domains

of emotional intelligence as explained by the authors

will explain why emotional intelligence can actually provide a good

type of power as opposed to kind of the negative,

controlling type of power that we typically think of,

will also examine my personal changes um as far as the world view

of what a leader is in their um their role in an organization.

And we'll review

how

this book relates back to some of the

leadership styles that we've already discussed in class.

Um I also just wanted to make a note.

My personal purpose for choosing this book, as I mentioned before,

I've read Daniel Goldman's work before and I was really interested in

just the power of connection that we can create

not only in our personal lives with other people,

but also how we can really use those strong connections in our organizations

and how we don't necessarily have to have that title of being a leader

to create those positive connections and to make change.

So that was my um my reasoning and my purpose for choosing this book.

So now we'll talk a little bit about the topics

in the book this book has so much information,

there's no way that I could have crammed

everything that I wanted to into this presentation. So I kept it pretty brief.

There are a few points that I'll know later on in the presentation

that were kind of more important to me personally um and we

can kind of discuss those individually if you are interested in those.

But first I wanted to point out this was a really strong quote that I found in the book.

We rely on connections with other people for our own emotional stability

and I think that just really

speaks to, you know,

the level of emotional intelligence that we have or the

lack of emotional intelligence that we sometimes have and just

really how our day to day lives are affected

by these connections that we have with other people.

And I really think that we've seen that a lot more in the past

year and a half now that we're doing so much more virtual work.

Um I say that as I speak into my computer right now

um I just think that those connections that we have with

other people are just so vital to our everyday lives.

I'm sorry, I just wanted to point out that one,

that one quote that I found really important.

Um so a little bit about the book vocabulary.

So Primal obviously is in the title Primal Leadership.

So the authors describe primal meaning first um in two different ways,

So primal meaning the original but also meaning the most important.

So kind of that number one thing that we strive for

um emotions versus moods.

I thought that this was very interesting that the others pointed out.

So emotions are,

and this is a quote directly from the book, highly intense,

fleeting and sometimes disruptive to work,

whereas moods um and this is another direct quote tend to be less intense,

longer lasting feelings that typically don't interfere

with the job at hand end quote.

So they may have long term effects on our work and our environment,

but they're the effects are usually not immediate as far as our mood,

that's kind of more of our undertone.

Whereas emotions can really fuel

that

automatic reaction that we have to a situation that could be good or bad.

And then just to go over the definition of emotional intelligence,

this is how a leader is able to feel,

acknowledge and respond to their emotions as well

as the emotions of those around them.

So just really having that global awareness of not

only what's happening inside your body and your brain,

but also the minds of the people around you.

And obviously that's so important for a leader to have.

So now we'll go into the four domains of emotional intelligence.

So the first one is self awareness. So this is

our emotional self awareness.

So as so an understanding of, you know, like I said, what's going on inside of us,

um it also involved in an accurate self assessment.

So knowing our own personal strengths and weaknesses and being

able to admit those as well as self confidence.

So knowing

your self worth and knowing what you know and what you don't,

The second domain is self management. So

the first one, as I said was being aware of your emotions.

Self management is being able to control

those emotions um also involves transparency,

adaptability, achievement, initiative and optimism.

So this is how we take that awareness and how we use it.

So the third domain social awareness, this is how

we acknowledge

the people around us, so this is our empathy,

our organizational wellness and our service to others.

And the final domain relationship management.

This includes inspirational leadership,

influence how we help develop others in a positive way, how we can create change,

how we build bonds and really focuses on

our teamwork and collaboration in the workplace.

So that was just a very brief overview

of the four domains of emotional intelligence.

I don't want to take up too much time.

Like I said, this book is jam packed with so much information,

I'm just doing my best to do a quick review.

So I apologize if I'm going too quickly for anyone,

but I want to make sure that I get the really important

topics here.

So next we're looking at the six leadership

styles that are described in primal leadership,

so visionary is the first, this is kind of the big picture leader,

so someone that leads the group to their final goal but kind of allows

the employees to have the freedom to get there in their own way.

So this kind of bounces back to that

transfer of transformational leader that we talked about,

I apologize um

the one that kind of can say okay this is where we're going,

but now I'm going to take a step back and let you get there

second is coaching.

So this is more um it's almost like a counseling based leadership style,

it's more of that one on one work.

So where the leader really takes the time to focus

on each individual employee and what their needs and goals are

the affiliative focus. Um

I'm sorry the affiliative style focuses on the emotional needs of the

group and kind of creates this harmony within the big group.

Democratic style is really about, you know the collaboration between the group,

so definitely focusing on listening

but not really overstepping kind of the ideas of the whole group

pacesetting and commanding. These

have been noted by the authors as being

more of the negative styles.

So pay setting is kind of doing things in this better and faster, quick, quick,

quick, let's get things done.

Um kind of mentality. So this can work in

smaller situations, brief periods if you're trying to reach a deadline,

something like that, but people really

reach that burnout point a lot quicker and there's not really

a focus on each individual person's emotions in this setting.

So this is kind of like we just need to reach our goal at all costs type of thing.

The final one commanding this one is actually noted by

the authors as being the least effective leadership style.

This one focuses on order and rules and typically

results in threats and consequences.

So no real focus on again the the emotions of the group on this one.

Okay, so next we're going to look at the power of primal leadership.

So this is I want to focus on kind of all the aspects of

how emotional intelligence can give us power in various ways in our lives.

So first our emotions,

so obviously having emotional intelligence as I spoke before

is that self awareness of our own emotions.

So acknowledging and understanding our own our own emotions is kind of our building

block to eventually get to that state of emotional intelligence in the workplace.

So this really gives us the power to understand what's going on with ourselves.

So once we're able to develop a grasp of our emotions, both negative and positive,

we can control our outer mood and our actions that result from those emotions

as far as power over others or within others. I don't like using over others.

But um knowing our own emotions allows us

to become more aware of the emotions around us

so we can better understand when someone is

feeling off or needs support and this is obviously

Very important in leadership.

So the website center for creative leadership states

that only 29% of the people in their

study believed that their organizations teach their leaders

how to effectively leverage their full power.

So that means that our leaders are using their power

in a in a non productive way. They don't know how to use this power. So in leadership,

you know,

emotionally intelligent leaders are able to

create this resonance within their organization

by being open and empathetic to the emotions of everyone around them.

So for example,

if there's an issue within the group that everyone say is

on edge about maybe a presentation or a project coming up,

an emotionally intelligent leader acknowledges the frustration

of the group as well as empathizes with each person.

So now we'll look at the worldview assumption.

So this was actually I apologize for this kind of shabby clip art here.

But this is something that I was thinking about late one night and

this is my personal world views.

Um and I think that this actually plays into a lot

of kind of what our society sees as a leader.

So the traditional leader is here on the left,

I've kind of just use this pyramid as an example.

So the leader is the orange person at the top and they are seen as

you know, up on this podium, they are the leader of the group. They're on their own.

They, you know have this,

this is kind of like the social roles as mentioned in the world view,

the traditional worldview.

So the leader is just

on top of every everything and everybody

else just kind of trickles down underneath them

in my own personal view.

After especially after reading this book,

going over stuff that we've talked about in class, this integrative view.

So if you focus on this kind of web, on the right, the person I would say is the leader,

is this yellow person in the middle.

And then this just kind of shows how

um we can really get this entwined kind of web of connections. And

the leader is really at the center of that, you know, they are

they are really what the authors

described as the group's emotional guide.

So they are kind of like the heart of the group and everyone is entwined around them.

So it's not necessarily that the leader is sitting on top

of this group and everybody else is just underneath them.

This really shows how

we get that unified integration of people as described in the Integrative view.

Okay, so, to wrap up just some final thoughts, this resident leader,

this idea of a resident resident leader,

um it's really something that's spoken about in this book a lot.

So it's really being in touch with just the feelings of

everyone around you and just having your whole group being sink.

And I think that that is so vital to being

this full spectrum leader

leading from the inside out.

So this is kind of what Simon Sinek is idea of the y in the middle,

you know where the leader is the center,

the leader is the why and the real heart of the group and everyone

else around them is just kind of this web and they're all working together.

But towards this one why reason.

Um emotional intelligence and leadership styles.

I think that primal leadership here,

this book really highlights the trait leadership,

behavioral leadership and transformational leadership that

we've all gone over in class.

Um

but how how do we reach this

this level?

How do we move from this pyramid view that I showed you in the last

slide to the emotionally entwined web where

everyone thinks of each other as equals.

One last quote from the book,

the goal of organizations should be to systematically create

norms and a culture that support truth and transparency,

integrity, empathy and healthy relationships.

But how do we get organizations to do that?

How do we switch their view where organizations

really focus on the importance of emotional intelligence

Primal Leadership Book Review

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