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“The fundamental task of leaders, we argue, is to prime good feeling in those they lead.”


A thought by Daniel Goleman; Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee, (2013-07-23) from their book, Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Kindle Locations 79-80). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

What a foreign thought.  Most would say that the fundamental task of leaders is to get a job done no matter the feeling of the ones they are leading. 
 
But they say, “At its root…the primal job of leadership is emotional.” And “That occurs when a leader creates resonance—a reservoir of positivity that frees the best in people.” 

They continue, “We believe this primal dimension of leadership, though often invisible or ignored entirely, determines whether everything else a leader does will work as well as it could. And this is why emotional intelligence —being intelligent about emotions— matters so much for leadership success: Primal leadership demands we bring emotional intelligence to bear. In this book we show not just why emotionally intelligent leadership drives resonance, and thus performance, but also how to realize its power— for the individual leader, in teams, and throughout entire organizations.”

What an important insight into leadership. 

My wife, Margaret is an exceptional leader.  She successfully oversees around ninety people.  One thing she does every day that goes a long way to showing the people she works with that they are important to her is at the beginning of every day she walks through her whole department and greets all ninety of them personally.   She shows them that they matter to her.  We each one need to know emotionally that we matter to those who are our leaders. 

An important task of each leader is to “create a resonance – a reservoir of positivity that frees the best in people.”

So what type of leader are you?

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