Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.34
EAN: 9781591395638
Edition: 1
ISBN: 1591395631
Label: Harvard Business School Press
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2005-10-27
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Studio: Harvard Business School Press

The blockbuster bestseller Primal Leadership introduced us to "resonant" leaders, individuals who manage their own and others' emotions in ways that drive success. Leaders everywhere recognized the validity of resonant leadership, but struggled with how to achieve and sustain resonance amid the relentless demands of work and life.

Now, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee provide an indispensable guide to overcoming the vicious cycle of stress, sacrifice, and dissonance that afflicts many leaders. Drawing from extensive multidisciplinary research and real-life stories, Resonant Leadership offers a field-tested framework for creating the resonance that fuels great leadership.

Rather than constantly sacrificing themselves to workplace demands, leaders can manage the cycle using specific techniques to combat stress, avoid burnout, and renew themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. The book reveals that the path to resonance is through mindfulness, hope, and compassion, and shows how intentionally employing these qualities creates effective and enduring leadership.

Great leaders are resonant leaders. Resonant Leadership offers inspiration-and tools-to spark and sustain resonance in ourselves and in those we lead.
Unlike most other books, Resonant Leadership undersells itself. With easy justification, the authors or their editors at Harvard Business School Press could have applied a more expansive moniker like "Secrets of Enduring Leaders", or "How to Deal with Burnout," or perhaps even "Being Happy at Work." The work's modest title, though, takes nothing away from its grand ambition: to explain what makes leaders effective amid unrelentingly stressful situations.

The authors, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, will be familiar to many businesspeople and management theorists. They collaborated with Daniel Goleman on the bestselling Primal Leadership, which extended Goleman's seminal work on emotional intelligence, and explained how "EQ", not just IQ, underpins success in guiding and directing organizations. With this latest book, Boyatzis and McKee have continued developing their holistic view of management. It's an attractive one. Resonant Leadership begins with recognition of leaders' essential humanity and analyzes the physical, mental, and emotional triggers that make men and women strong or weak as leaders. As readers might expect from an HBS Press offering, Boyatzis and McKee's methodology is appropriately academic, with extensive footnotes and research citations, but it also uses a nice blend of anecdotes from their field work as consultants, and is expressed through decidedly touchy-feely language. What emerges is a highly engaging, readable work that takes business audiences into somewhat unusual psychological territory, far beyond the usual bar charts and spreadsheets.

The book's organization is simple. Boyatzis and McKee start by describing the highly stressful conditions in which leaders operate today, and explain sympathetically how many well-intentioned people fall into what they call "dissonance" due to burnout. Whereas the authors' earlier book focused on the initial ingredients for leadership effectiveness, their interest now is in ongoing, enduring resonance--leaders who can be effective today, but also maintain their edge into tomorrow, as well. Resonant Leadership thus moves from this initial exposition of problems--management ineffectiveness, and/or burnout--to solutions. The authors anchor their prescription around three core qualities which they believe resonant leaders must continually cultivate: mindfulness, hope, and compassion. These may sound like ephemeral concepts, but they form the touchstone of Resonant Leadership and are cited again and again. Readers of Boyatzis and McKee's latest--whether already-strong leaders looking to maintain their effectiveness, or burned-out ones aiming to get back in the proverbial saddle--will find this is a thought-provoking read. --Peter Han

Customer Rating:
Summary: EI Plus.
Comment: Really takes EI one step further by demonstrating the additional importance of Compassion and Hope, plus the need to step back and review; leadership can be lonely!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good choice for NYMC Org Theory class
Comment: Resonant Leadership provides a thoughtful and holistic analysis of how leaders can use the emotional intelligence competencies of mindfulness, hope and compassion to achieve business and personal success. The book approaches leaders as individuals and encourages them to base their development as professionals off their personal strengths and weaknesses, rather than advocating a one-size-fits-all formula approach. My only criticism is that parts of the book read as too simplistic; however, this flaw does not detract from the high quality of the book as a whole.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Really Resonates!
Comment: This is a must read for those interested in teaching and living leadership. It deepens the knowledge base of anyone who have already acquired knowledge of EQ from books like Primal Leadership, Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace, and similarly titled books.
Boyatzis and McKee does great credit to their background scientists/practitioners of the craft of applying EQ into the workplace. In fact, not just the workplace, but in daily living.
Their presentation is clear, and can be appreciated by anyone seeking to deepen their knowledge in EQ led leadership.
Higly recommended for those in positions of leadership.
Having taught leadership to both academic, corporate and NGO audiences, the lessons and presentation of content is highly appreciated.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Self-Help for Leaders
Comment: Recognizing the importance in leadership to first and foremost `know thyself', authors Boyatzis and McKee use real business leadership examples to demonstrate how a single-minded focus on performance goals or career objectives can ultimately lead to what they define as the Sacrifice Syndrome - over reliance on self and subsequent burnout. They then recommend the use of Mindfulness - listening carefully to our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits as we pay attention to what is happening around us; Hope - clear thoughts about what the future can be and how to get there; and Compassion - empathy and caring in action - as the renewal pathway away from this Sacrifice Syndrome.

The authors present a sound argument for the importance of maintaining balance between head, heart, hands (and spirit too) in dealing with the stresses of leadership. As I read the book, I found myself wanting more about applying the principles to managing others and had the feeling that the authors had the knowledge and abilities to address this missing - maybe in a past or future book? Recommended for those feeling worn-down by the stresses of leading in today's challenging environment.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Partial recipe for resonant leadership
Comment: A good framework for Servant Leadership style. Authors drive the point home by hammering three concepts into reader's mind: mindfulness, hope, and compassion. However the book fall short on emphasizing the power of "serving others," which I believe is a vital ingredient for resonant leaders. Many useful real life examples.

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