Primal Leadership: Contextual Framework

Primal Leadership – Contextual Framework

In the book Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, important elements of leadership and its emotional elements are presented and discussed. “Throughout history and in cultures everywhere, the leader in any human group has been the one to whom others look for assurance and clarity when facing uncertainty or threat, or when there's a job to be done. The leader acts as the group's emotional guide” (Goleman, 2013, p. 5).

Based on this submission, Goleman identifies that leadership is fundamentally an emotional process. Leadership is about emotions and calming the nerves of people when they are in anxiety and trying to lead people by appealing to their inner essence. This is consistent with the definition of

Therefore, if leadership is about setting targets and goals and inspiring and leading people, it is logical to state that it is important to provide the emotional environment that feeds the needs and desires of people to work towards the attainment of the goals of the group or organization. Therefore, leadership has to exist in an emotional framework, rather than a factual and rational framework where everything is based on rules and regulations which must be obeyed in all situations and

The leader’s good moods affects everyone and his/or her bad moods also affects everyone. Goleman even goes further to state that there are some emotional aspects of the brain that creates invisible channels that causes emotions to pass back and forth. Thus, as a leader that everyone looks up to, there is an emotional impact that is created in the normal and daily interaction that they undertake with subordinates and members of the organization. Therefore, the leader must understand and appreciate that s/he is in an elevated position and leadership runs through by way of emotional connection and emotional interaction which causes them to move from one point to another. This is a biological element of the human being and all peoples and this plays a role in defining the parameters of organizations and leadership practices that are undertaken in the normal organizational