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Emotion and Leadership

Although traditional incentives such as bonuses or recognition can prod people to better performance, no external motivators can get people to perform at their absolute best.

—Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2003)

In the Beginning, There Was Emotion

As we saw in the previous chapter, leadership is a means for groups of humans to survive. But how does it work? To understand it we have to start by uncovering the mechanism of emotional response. Have you ever wondered why you have emotions? What good are they? Why haven’t humans evolved into perfect rational beings like Mr. Spock, the Vulcan from Star Trek? They probably tried that on you in school, explaining that reason was our most important quality.

The truth is that the ...

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