Coercive leadership style expects unquestioning obedience, and wants the others to do what the leader says. This style, the book says, might be effective in crisis management situations, or with difficult employees. But, it might not be so effective in other circumstances. The Authoritative style involves a follow me attitude. This sort of leadership works, the book says, when an organization is functioning without proper direction. This might not be as effective when the leader heads a team of peers, who are as knowledgeable as the leader in their own spheres. The Democratic style gives all team members a voice in the decision, but this might at times leave the employees confused and leaderless. The Affiliative style is built on empathy, and understanding. This might work when a team is in need of encouragement and a lift in its morale. But, it might allow the non-performer to get off without being held accountable for dragging down the team’s overall performance. The Coaching style is effective when the team members know their weaknesses and want to work on them to correct them. But, it might not work on those who are intent on resisting any form of change. The Pacesetting leader sets high standards, and they live up to these standards themselves. Thus they tend to lead by example. This might work with highly motivated team members, but will not work on others. The book then goes into the fundamental skills that make up emotional intelligence. These are self-awareness and self-management, social awareness and social skill. Combining all these, a leader then has to choose the skills and style that applies to the situation. HBR's 10 Must Reads On Managing People uses examples to illustrate how the different skills and the different management styles might be effective in different situations. It emphasizes the need for a leader to be skilled enough and flexible enough to switch styles based on the context. The book teaches how to use responsibility as a motivating factor, how to build trust and how to help novice managers. It also explains how to get smart people to learn from their failures, how to build highly effective teams, how to customize management styles to suit the person, and even how to manage the boss. It is a short book that provides precise, focused material that is aimed at making the readers better people managers and effective leaders