Failure of Nerve : Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix

An invitation and guide for leaders “to cast a courageous and imaginative vision, to lead resiliently, and to be present and steady in times of deep anxiety.”

Ed Friedman’s genius was to see the individual in the family in the larger group, bringing the wisdom of his experience as a therapist and rabbi to the field of organizational leadership.

A timeless bestseller, A Failure of Nerve still astonishes in this new edition with its relevance and continues to transform the lives of leaders everywhere―business, church, family, schools―as it has for more than 20 years:

• Offers prescient guide to leadership in the age of “quick fix.”
• Provides ways to recognize and address organizational dysfunction.
• Emphasizes “strength over pathology” in these anxious times.

“The age that is upon us requires differentiated leadership that is willing to rise above the anxiety of the masses. We need leaders who will have the ‘capacity to understand and deal effectively’ with the hive mind that is us. This is, in Friedman's words, ‘the key to the kingdom.’ I am grateful for this accessible new edition.”
―C. Andrew Doyle, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Texas

Edwin H. Friedman (1932–1996) was an ordained rabbi and practicing family therapist. An in-demand consultant and public speaker throughout the country, he led leadership training programs for government, business, religious, and psychotherapy professionals at his Center for Family Process. His groundbreaking volumes Generation to Generation and A Failure of Nerve, which exposed the connections between emotional processes at home and at work in religious, educational, therapeutic, and business systems, have become modern classics. He lived in Washington, DC.

The Rev. Dr. Peter L. Steinke was a noted author, congregational systems thinker, and teacher. He died in 2020.