Primal Leadership Summary

Primal Leadership

This article explains how a leader with good Emotional Intelligence (EI) will make their teams feel good and how they will bring out the best in others. This element is often overlooked when it comes to determining what makes a good leader and Primal Leadership states that EI needs to be brought forth and acknowledged in the leadership front.

There have been breakthroughs in brain research showing how people’s moods and actions are reflective from how they feel and perceive their leaders moods and actions to be. Those who had highly emotional intelligent leaders had motivated and committed attitudes. Alternatively, those who had leaders with low EI have the potential to have toxic workplaces.

There were five areas listed for leaders to consider when working on improving their EI to help them become better leaders.

1. In a crisis, all eyes turn to leaders for emotional guidance.

The way a leader interprets a situation weighs heavily on the group. How they react to a situation has a great impact on how the rest of the group will act. They basically need to put into words the emotions of a situation so that their followers understand what is going on and how it will impact them. It is a leader’s job to provide clarity to a situation and provide guidance to its peers.

2. Great leaders move us

Great leadership works through emotions. (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2009) They know how to motivate and encourage people. A leader’s success is based on how they execute a task, not so much as the outcome. This means how were they at motivating the employees and keeping their level of engagement and commitment high?

3. The difference between ineffective and effective leaders lay in the mood and tone with which they deliver their messages.

As mentioned earlier, it is the leaders’ delivery of news that warrants the reaction from a group, not so much the news itself. If news is delivered with negative connotations, then panic, fear or negativity from...