Emotionally Intelligent Leadership In Action (Must Watch)

President Obama's Eulogy for South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney will go down in history as one of his best speeches. 


Writing a speech before an event is tought. You have to consider the message you want to convey, the audience, the situation. When you are the President, you know that people are hanging on your every word and there is an army of people waiting to jump on any mistake you make.

Everything has to be perfect. Usually scripted to the finest detail. As President you have the luxury of a few speech writers and your own army of support staff to make sure everything goes perfectly. 

Watching this video, I can see that President Obama had thought about all the pro's and con's of actually singing Amazing Grace. 

It wasn't in the script. 

A President singing? Had that been done before? 

But in the moment, feeling the momentum of the entire speech, the energy of the crowd it is almost like the song poured out of him. 

At first, the preacher directly to his left laughed (along with the audience), thinking he wasn't going to really do it. After the 3rd word, another preacher to his left, in the back row takes off his sunglasses and stands up.

You can almost feel his sense of relief that following the President in song will set him free from his pain and sadness of the day.

That is what leaders do. They set an intention, but they do not get so attached to it they ignore the feelings in the moment. They bring together the emotional feeling of the moment with their intention.

Anyone can read a script. Few are brave enough to go off script, live and make it their own. 

Thank you President Obama for the sharing your grace and helping a nation in mourning find our grace to move forward. 

 Watch the whole event here: http://cs.pn/1GNNMzs