University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Coherence
Book

Coherence

The Secret Science of Brilliant Leadership

Alan Watkins
Kogan Page, 2013
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Your happiness, health and career depend on your mind-set and emotional maturity. In fact, you may swing from one end of the spectrum to the other as you read this dense, repetitive, yet deeply illuminating, encompassing work. Neuroscientist Alan Watkins explains that your body can unlock a level of intelligence that is greater than your mind normally accesses. He details how having control of your emotions matters to your life and your career. To use his advice, focus on your breathing, the start point of everything related to health, success and happiness. Depending on your openness to counsel, getAbstract recommends Watkins’ wisdom, logic and advice as well as his techniques for emotional growth.

Summary

A Most Difficult Journey

Forget about pumping yourself up before an important meeting or entering a relaxed and calm state of mind. Neither matters. What matters is your hormones, specifically how much cortisol and DHEA you have in your system. Too much cortisol will make you morose, and you’ll underperform. Higher than normal levels of DHEA will make you feel great and perform accordingly. You can control these hormones, though learning how to do so takes time and effort. When you master your body and mind, you will achieve a state of “flow”: a harmony or coherence that produces better health, better relationships, better decisions and, in general, a better life.

Try to live in a state of renewal to heighten your consciousness. That means that you need to adapt and change constantly, and that you need to reach for a more complete understanding of yourself and your business. When you understand your organization’s systems in totality and see how one part affects another, you recognize what needs to be fixed or adjusted. Then you’ll be able to undertake critical actions to integrate your organization. Silos, specialties and subspecialties create experts in narrow categories...

About the Author

Alan Watkins left medical practice after a decade of specializing in oncology and heart disease. He now coaches executives on emotional awareness and control.

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