PIC No. 51:
• Title: A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks: A Yearlong Leadership Planner
• Author: based on the book by Edwin H. Friedman
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing (Sept. 5, 2023, 224 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 51 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
Leadership Stuck in a Rut!
Since I review books, friends and colleagues often pass along book recommendations. I usually add them to my Amazon wish list. Then—after several people recommend the same book—the book moves up higher on my priority list.
Thus is the case with the classic and bestselling book by Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (2017 revised edition). But please note: I have NOT read this yet (but I will!).
When my friend, David Curry, mentioned this book (probably for the nth time!), I finally went online and discovered that a unique “yearlong leadership planner” was just published this month. I bought it and my plan is to read one chapter every Monday for the next 52 Mondays. I love the format for:
A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks:
A Yearlong Leadership Planner
based on the bestselling book by Edwin H. Friedman
In the “How to Use This Book” introduction, the editors write, “Each week focuses on a core tenant from Edwin H. Friedman's A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. Brief excerpts of his wisdom are paired with either:
• True/False questions to test your comprehension or highlight an aspect of your leadership style
• Scales to gauge the severity of a situation or belief
• Word matrices to emphasize concepts and test memory
• Reflection questions to stimulate self-analysis and promote future planning."
“True leadership doesn’t develop overnight,” so the editors have crafted this very unique 52-week journey through the writings and mind of Edwin H. Friedman (1932-1996), who was an ordained rabbi and practicing family therapist.
Check out his books and you’ll find high praise, especially for A Failure of Nerve. The Anglican Theological Review wrote, “Placed on the scales with every other book on leadership in the last ten years…it would outweigh them all.” Some snippets from the leadership planner:
WEEK 1: “Whenever a ‘family’ (or system) is driven by anxiety, what will also always be present is a failure of nerve among its leaders.”
“Leadership in America is stuck in the rut of trying harder and harder without obtaining significantly new results.”
WEEK 2: “This book will encourage leaders to focus first on their own integrity and on the nature of their own presence rather than on techniques for manipulating or motivating others. Leadership is essentially an emotional process rather than a cognitive phenomenon.”
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: “Chronic criticism is often a sign that the leader is functioning better.”
WEEK 3: On the topic of “Imaginative Gridlock,” the weekly reflection question asks, “are there areas of your life or work that never seem to improve in proportion with the effort you put into them? Choose one, then take a step back. Beyond data and logic, what underlying emotions or emotional processes are at play?”
WEEK 4 THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: “Contemporary American civilization is as misoriented about the environment of relationships as the medieval world was misoriented about the Earth and the sky.”
LOL! I did a sneak peek at Week 13 and found this: “The number of books being written today on management far exceeds the number of managers.” Yikes! Friedman warns leaders about using the “pursuit of information” as a means of “an easy escape from having to deal with society's chronic anxiety as well as with their own personal being.”
David Curry has introduced me to numerous books over the years, including the historical works of Paul Johnson. I’m grateful. Ask me in a year (after my 52 Monday morning meditations) if this book turned out to be David’s best recommendation ever. I’m leaning to “yes.”
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies.
[ ] A Year With Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello (Read my review.)
[ ] BONUS! Read the 52 guest blogs for “Drucker Mondays,” from 2015, including David Curry's color commentary on “Make The Important Rather Than The Urgent Your Priority In Life.”
[ ] The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders, by Steve Moore (Read my review.)
[ ] Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (2005 Revised Edition) - (Read my review.)
[ ] (Note: The Original Book) A Failure of Nerve, Revised Edition: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (2017), by Edwin H. Friedman – Order from Amazon.
To order from Amazon, click on the title for A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks: A Yearlong Leadership Planner (Sept. 2023), based on the book by Edwin H. Friedman. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.
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