Leaders Embrace Emotion: Comfort Before Courage

Leaders are comfortable with emotion, whenever and wherever it arises in themselves or others.

It’s not often that you get to see two modern spiritual gurus, both Nobel Peace Prize winners, dealing with precisely such a situation in real time.

But that’s exactly what happens in the excellent documentary, Mission: Joy, which showcases the friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.

In one scene, extracted in the video below, a student breaks down while relating her traumatic escape from Tibet, China to the Dalai Lama’s school in India.

Tutu offers comfort. The Dalai Lama offers courage. Both are right. But Tutu is correct in saying that the order matters.

A leader should first acknowledge the emotion, then empathise, then provide comfort – and only then, provide courage.