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A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix | 
 enlarge | Author: Edwin H. Friedman
Creators: Margaret M. Treadwell, Edward W. Beal
Publisher: Seabury Books
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
Buy New: $17.28
You Save: $10.72 (38%)
New (23) Used (5) from $17.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 2831
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 260
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 159627042X
Dewey Decimal Number: 158.4
EAN: 9781596270428
ASIN: 159627042X
Publication Date: February 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Book Description
Ten years after his death, Edwin Friedman's insights into leadership are more urgently needed than ever. He was the 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 next fad, he argues for strength and self-differentiation as the marks of true leadership. His formula for success 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Family Systems applied to the culture May 20, 2008
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.
Explains what's wrong quite well March 20, 2008
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!
 Insightful and Different March 11, 2008
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.
Adventuresome Leadership November 2, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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 today 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.
A must have book for all leaders October 17, 2007
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
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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