Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix: A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman - Book Report/Review Example

 Topic: Leadership in the age of the quick fix: A failure of nerve by Edwin H Friedman Edwin Friedman’s insights emanate from his inner world and the foundation of his assertions is truth and as such they have stood the test of time. He has the perfect grasp of the importance of loving familial relationships and as such he sees the all other organizations as the extension of the family and advocates family therapy for the smooth functioning of the society. Strength and self-differentiation are the hallmarks of true leadership.

Instant solutions may be the source of constant irritations and frictions and they can never lead to permanent solutions. An individual may be stationed at any position and even at the highest level he is the human being first. The art of shirking responsibility and buttering people will make an individual, in the ultimate analysis, directionless and destination-less. Such people will be gradually on the downward spiral and will be destroyed by the inner conviction of uselessness. A leader, according to Friedman, is the one who builds.

He commands respect not fear. He is cool but behind his coolness there is firmness that sets a program and sees it through. He is ever ready and willing to take responsibility. He is clear about his goals and works for it without intermission. Friedman classifies two different kinds of crises leaders face. The first has little to do with the leader's own functioning and is brought on by an outside source (such as a health crisis). The second type of crisis is about self-differentiation. Friedman writes, “Leadership through self-differentiation is not easy; learning techniques and imbibing data are far easier.

Nor is striving or achieving success as a leader without pain: there is a pain in isolation, the pain of loneliness, the pain of personal attacks, and the pain of losing friends. That’s what leadership is all about (233). The work place is the boiling pot of emotions. It is also the testing ground to experiment with bold decisions. Friedman visualizes that the torch of leadership has been passed on to the new generation and the challenges ahead are so tough and complicated that this generation should have the steely backbone to lead.

Leaders in the forthcoming generations, being confronted with the outcomes of unpredictable technological advances and internet revolution, will have to face herculean challenges and they will have to develop the guts to ‘cross the moon and beat the stars’. He pleads for thorough overhaul of the thinking process and trying harder “driven by the assumption that failure is due to the fact that one did not try hard enough, use the right technique, or get enough information” (35). Fertile, creative imagination processes followed by action are needed.

Friedman presents some brilliant ideas addressing the modern generation of America but he could not polish them and provide them the finer finish due to his untimely death. He has defined the problems of America in the major part of the book but the solution part lacks the Friedman touch (as he is not the author of those ideas) The earlier reading suggests that Friedman was preparing for the final big leap, he would have provided some tangible solutions, but TIME willed otherwise and the NATURE said that his work was done and he ran an unfinished literary race as far as the book was concerned.

He died in 1996 and to an extent his unfinished book was orphaned. He is candid about his accomplishments through this book and he writes “I will be quite content if all I have succeeded in accomplishing is to supply this century's best candidate for book burning (28). There is no necessity for such a contingency. This book will continue to be an asset for leaders in all the segments of the society. He has strong reservations against the negative practices in the culture that dominates America by depending too much on data and information and placing reliance on empathy instead of action.

One has to be a rebel against procedures wherever they hold up the progress of humankind in the real sense of the term—that which contributes to the happiness of the society. He often knocks at the portals of spirituality while articulating his viewpoints and advocates that the moral principles embedded in spirituality are the ultimate solutions for all societal ills. He means the same when he writes that the organizations must be run by ‘the energetic, the visionary, the imaginative, and the motivated’ (12) who need to have the courage to implement the corrective procedures needed without fear or favor and with confidence.

Works CitedFriedman, Edwin H. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. SEABURY BOOKS; 2007; Print