(Washington D.C. – April 12, 2024)
“Promise, Kept.”
This two word phrase was repeated several times by The President of the United States, in his remarks to the organization, the National Action Network (NAN), led by seasoned and accomplished advocate, the Rev. Al Sharpton. With each repetition of that key phrase — Promise, Kept — the President was the taking the time to remind America:
I’m not just Commander in Chief; I care.
You see, a key component of any type of leadership is the comfortable ability to connect with the people who are served.
And as the old adage goes, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
- This is true for the parent.
- This is true for the principal.
- This is true for the pastor.
This truism extends to America as a Nation, as well.
In our pivotal role as a leader of Global Change, of Multicultural Progress, and of International Impact, it is vital that the nations we serve perceive and believe this truth about us, as well.
Because when we bring in assistance, provisions and supplies into their countries in the form of American aid, history has shown us that our very helpful and well-intended offerings can be met with less receptivity than we may have previously conceived. — And this international indigestion may largely be due in part to their perceived level of truth in how we show up, through the lens of that adage mentioned above.
The question then for each of us individually and then moreover collectively is simply this: “How well are we progressing as an emotionally intelligent nation?
In order to properly assess this, it is important to understand what emotional intelligence is at its core. Essentially, it is the ability to adeptly interweave the following four components:
- How we (actually) Feel, in the moment…
- What are we going to then do about Our own feelings…
- How others connected to us may also feel, in that self-same moment…
- And what steps will we then take to help create the win-win-win…
This is emotional intelligence theory at its essence. And again, it can be summed up beautifully in the phrase,
“People don’t care how much we Know, until they KNOW how much we CARE.”
In this vein, on Friday, we saw the President aim to lay that foundation down first before he began to talk
about future plans to serve this group of Americans.
It was an adroit display of EQ (emotional IQ), because as cognitive science and modern psychology tells us, all people make decisions first based on how (we) feel…
…and then (we) justify our decisions with logic and rationale. — Thus, the oft-thrown admonishments to each other to ‘make emotionless decisions’ are not realistic nor sustainable.
Decision-making (and thus human-action) can no more exist in a silo
outside of human compassion, than can human-effort exist sustainably without
the presence of breathing…
Emotion & respiration are both such an essential part of existence that they are inextricable from the individual; from the leader; from the Nation.
— So while so many others may opt to pursue the fact-checking of those tenets referred to by the President’s in his remarks on Friday, we here will take the time to also notice the President’s wise application of Emotional Intelligence theory, and use what we observe here as a guidepost to mark where we are as a nation on our own trajectory into a more peaceful, just, verdant and prosperous world.
My name is Rodney C. Burris. I am the White House Correspondent for BMORENews, a media outlet in Baltimore where our slogan is, “the news before the news.” This column will look at the events impacting our nation and filter them through the lens of Emotional Intelligence theory. Our goal will be to inform, to make aware, to facilitate connectivity, and then to increase the overall understanding of ourselves as a collective as we take a deep dive into the topics affecting our Emotionally Intelligent Nation.
