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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 158.4
EAN num: 9781596270428
ISBN number: 159627042X
Label: Seabury Books
Manufacturer: Seabury Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 260
Printing Date: 2007-02
Publishing house: Seabury Books
Sale Popularity Level: 8344
Studio: Seabury Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Brief Book Summary:
Ten years after his death, Edwin Friedman's insights into leadership are more urgently needed than ever. He was the very first to tell us that all organizations have personalities, like families, and to apply the insights of family therapy to churches and synagogues, rectors and rabbis, politicians and teachers.
Failure of Nerve is essential reading for all leaders, be they parents or presidents, corporate executives or educators, religious superiors or coaches, healers or generals, managers or clergy.
Friedman's insights about our regressed, 'seatbelt society,' oriented toward safety rather than adventure, help explain the sabotage that leaders constantly face today. Suspicious of the 'quick fixes' and instant solutions that sweep through our culture only to give way to the subsequent fad, he argues for strength and self-differentiation as the marks of true leadership. His formula for sucess is more maturity, not more data; stamina, not technique; and personal responsibility, not empathy.
This book was unfinished at the time of Friedman's death, and originally published in a limited edition. This new edition makes his life-changing insights and challenges to a new generation of readers.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Friedman is not rehashing old work here. This is a new application of the Bowen Family Systems work as applied to leadership within the culture. I think his insights on anxiety in the culture are right on, and as always there is more hope where there is more understanding.
I recommend this to book to preachers, teachers, writers and analysts because these insights are distinctive and helpful.
Rated by buyers -
After reading this book, I am now clear on why I am so frustrated with corporate and non-profit companies in the US. It's excellent and I plan to use it in my consulting practice - I've ordered copies for my clients!
Rated by buyers 
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I found Friedman's work very interesting and insightful. I am a parent and manager, so the concept of leadership is important to me. He puts his sometimes radical concepts into easy to digest sections, without watering in down at all. This is not your average management mumbo-jumbo, step-by-step, how to book.
At times it reads like a textbook, and some of his analogies with scientific discovery and history are long-winded, but all in all this was a book that made me think differently about how I act as a leader. It's very different from the standard stuff I have read before on leadership, managing and parenting. This is a book of well thought theory and examples. There is a lot of meat in this thing and it requires active reading skills.
Not for the weak of mind or self-help junkies.
Rated by buyers -
A Failure of Nerve presents a unique approach on leadership among the books I have read on the topic. Friedman concentrates on several themes throughout the book that combine lessons learned from decades of experience and research.
The themes include the necessity of a sense of adventure and the possession of courage in leaders, the importance of self-differentiation, focusing on strengths instead of catering to weaknesses, the destructive nature of relationship triangles and the challenges leaders face among followers.
He highlights some negative practices of leaders in our culture, mainly the over-dependence on data and information and the misplaced emphasis on emphathy over action.
In this book, readers will find practical, simple ways to improve leadership. This book will challenge some of the accepted practices of organizational leadership yesterday and should open readers' eyes to necessities of effective leadership.
All of Friedman's themes are applicable to families, congregations, businesses, government, etc. This is an especially useful book for parents and pastors/rabbis.
The downside of the book is that it was published posthomously, so the last three chapters were collected by colleagues who also edited the book. The effect is that it is not as cogent and concise as it might have been if Friedman had lived long enough to complete the writing himself.
This is a dense book on leadership that is definitely worth the effort of reading, as it will change the way you lead and relate to others.
Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays
Rated by buyers -
Other reviewers have described well about this book. I am just joining in with my vote to add that this is a must have systemic leadership book. I don't know when this paperback started available, but I paid mine last year for $65 plus shipping from the Amazon market place, but it was worth it. After I bought mine, the remaining copy was listed for nearly $200. I am glad that the family decided to reprint this book.
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