The Moment The President Cried

On 6^th December 2015, singer song writer Carole King was honoured by the Kennedy Center in the USA for her lifetime achievement in music.

Broadcast later in the month on American TV, we see King sitting with the President (POTUS) and First Lady (FLOTUS) of the United States. So far so wonderful.

Then Aretha Franklin appears on stage to perform King’s hit (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. King is mad with excitement. It has a huge emotional impact on POTUS and FLOTUS – different for each of them.

Emotional expression is powerful, contagious and different for each of us. No doubt much of what Barak Obama has to tackle each and every day could bring a tear to his eye, but not like this

You can see the bliss of emotional expression here: https://youtu.be/XHsnZT7Z2yQ – and also see Aretha Franklin do with a fur coat what nobody else on the planet could get away with.

Our Q Guide on Emotional Intelligence talks about Self Expression and the 3 three things to pay attention to; Here is an extract.

Nothing defines us as humans more than our drive and ability to communicate with one another. Giving voice to our thoughts, feelings and opinions and doing so honestly is a core element of EI.

Pay attention to three things:

Emotional Expression – how comfortable you are expressing emotions and the range of words you can use to do so
Assertiveness – being able to say what you think constructively, and being firm or direct when you need to
Independence – being decisive and free from emotional dependency on others (i.e. not being ‘needy