dissonance – The Key Point

primal-leadership

Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee

Building on the lead author’s prior book, Emotional Intelligence, this book is about “leadership resonance.” The authors also warn about the opposite effect, dissonance, which destroys motivation and productivity. “Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision, or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through the emotions.” The authors cite a University of Maryland study showing that good morale has a positive effect on revenue and customer satisfaction. Continue reading “Primal Leadership” →

management-rewired

Management Rewired: Why feedback doesn’t work and other surprising lessons from the latest brain science

by Charles S. Jacobs

This book is applies neuroscience research to the field of management.

The trend in business has been toward making data-driven decisions, but Charles Jacobs explains why using only the logical side of our brain would lead to myopic decisions. Fortunately, the prefrontal cortex is connected to the amygdala, the portion of the brain which deals with emotion and memory, and this helps us make judgments based on previous experience. This reminded me of what Jack Welch has written about managing from the gut, which Welch says is basically pattern recognition. Continue reading “Management Rewired” →