Leading With Emotion. (Book Reviews).

Nothing like the quick read of Leading With Emotion: Reaching Balance in Educational Decision-Making to discover what you failed to realize in your first, or even in your last, leadership position.

According to co-authors James O. McDowelle and Kermit G. Buckner, educational leaders are "fundamentally emotional, not rational creatures." This may come as a surprise to those of us in school administration who assumed we always have made our decisions based on logic.

McDowelle, director of the doctoral program in the school of education at Drexel University, and Buckner, an associate professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., believe emotional intelligence is a prerequisite to effective leadership, basing this contention on three principles--the importance of constituents and their emotional reaction to change; the potential of situations to evoke an emotional response; and the ability of an individual leader to know himself or herself emotionally as well as rationally.

The authors argue that history suggests ancient rulers who possessed powers far in excess of anything exhibited by modern leaders still failed because of the need to secure the "favor of the inhabitants." Failed leaders did not account for emotional intelligence skills, not a power factor. Consequently, even the strongest of them could be brought down.

Although McDowelle and Buckner point to the usual skills associated with effective leadership--listening, persuasion, team building and a willingness to fail when taking risks--they firmly believe that allis for naught if emotional intelligence is not understood and nurtured.

(Leading With Emotion: Reaching Balance in Educational Decision-Making by James O. McDowelle and Kermit G. Buckner, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md., 2002, 166 pp., $19.95 softcover)