By: Daren Jaime on November 20, 2025
Revisiting Friedman and Walker at this stage in my leadership studies has illuminated how deeply the work of transformation is intertwined with identity, presence, and the stewardship of power. Leadership is nestled between the margins, and in between these margins, things such as clarity, stability, vulnerability, and disruption occur. Leadership features the integration of emotional…
By: Elysse Burns on November 20, 2025
Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve and Simon Walker’s The Undefended Leader offer complementary frameworks that present leadership as an internally formed reality rather than an externally performed role. Although they write from different traditions, they share a conviction that leadership’s effectiveness is inseparable from the inner life of the leader. What makes this convergence…
By: Kari on November 20, 2025
Revisiting Edwin Friedman and Simon Walker this semester has clarified how deeply leadership begins in the inner life of the leader.[1] Friedman’s emphasis on self-differentiation and non-anxious presence stands out to me now more than ever. These qualities are rare, even among seasoned leaders, yet they are essential in environments shaped by reactivity, urgency, and…
By: Noel Liemam on November 20, 2025
Introduction In my earlier engagement with leadership literature, I tended to focus on methods: how to manage conflict, resolve resistance, and guide organizations toward change. Returning to Edwin Friedman and Simon Walker, however, has shifted my attention from technique to the inner life of the leader.[1] [2] What now stands out is their shared conviction…
By: Shela Sullivan on November 19, 2025
Friedman’s Call to Self‑Differentiation Edwin Friedman’s Failure of Nerve insists that self‑differentiation is the cornerstone of effective leadership. Leaders must maintain a clear sense of identity and purpose without being consumed by the anxiety of the systems they serve. His concept of the non‑anxious presence resonates deeply in today’s climate of organizational volatility (Friedman, 2017,…
By: Chad Warren on November 19, 2025
Revisiting Edwin Friedman and Simon Walker this semester reshaped my understanding of leadership at a structural and deeply personal level. Their frameworks—one systemic, one psychological—have become interpretive keys through which I now perceive congregational dynamics, cultural patterns, and my own pastoral identity. Friedman gave me language for the emotional processes that shape every community, and…
By: Christy on November 19, 2025
Revisiting Edwin Friedman and Simon Walker has felt less like returning to two leadership theorists and more like coming back to long-held questions about the kind of leader I want to be—and the kind of person I am becoming. Their work has traveled with me through seasons of burnout, identity formation, foster care, perfectionism, and…
By: Graham English on November 19, 2025
Introduction Revisiting Edwin Friedman and Simon Walker reveals two distinct yet converging pathways into the inner life of leadership. Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve (2007) and Walker’s The Undefended Leader (2007) both invite leaders to cultivate a deeper presence amid anxiety and complexity. Friedman frames leadership as the capacity for self-differentiation and non-anxious presence within…
By: Glyn Barrett on November 18, 2025
Revisiting the writings of Edwin Friedman and Simon Walker has provided me with a renewed understanding of the inner and systemic dynamics of leadership. Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve reframes leadership not as a set of management techniques but as an act of self-definition within anxious systems. What stands out most now is his description…
By: Adam Cheney on November 18, 2025
Week 1 Reflection Draft “Consilience Mapping: Revisiting Friedman and Walker” Revisiting Edwin Friedman’s work this semester has sharpened my awareness of how deeply I am shaped as a leader by the emotional systems around me. While I still feel a sense of fuzziness around the full scope of “self-differentiation,” his language of the non-anxious presence…
By: Diane Tuttle on November 17, 2025
Anxiety permeates our world. Whether it is unresolved hurts from the past causing leadership trauma (Rowe, Wise Rowe, 11) or a current crisis, leadership carries demands that could magnify the insecurities and emotional frailties that threaten the ability of a leader to be effective, unless, of course, she is well-grounded. More than technical competence, leadership…
By: Debbie Owen on November 17, 2025
We had met once before in the larger group of ten participants, but this week the small groups—three participants plus me as the facilitator—were meeting for the first time. These smaller gatherings require engagement. The intentional design behind them is simple: healing happens through vulnerability, and vulnerability requires both safety and presence. Curt Thompson writes,…
By: Jeff Styer on November 17, 2025
I took the time to have ChatGPT interview me, I dove deep into the questions spending hours on both Week 1 and Week 2 questions. I read over the nice essays that ChatGPT created for me based on my response, but in the end, it wasn’t my voice. maybe it’s a control issue or it…
By: Ryan Thorson on November 17, 2025
When I revisit Friedman now, I read him not as a distant theorist but as someone whose voice quietly accompanied me during a formative season of my pastoral life. When I arrived at Compassion Church in 2014, we began navigating significant cultural and leadership changes. Those first six years were marked by surprising grace: steady…
By: Jennifer Eckert on November 16, 2025
Introduction With so much attention paid to leadership frameworks and strategies, it’s easy to forget that leadership is ultimately not about tools or techniques, it’s about personal growth – who you are becoming. While I have studied leadership for many years, this post will revisit four leaders who have shaped my understanding of this truth:…
By: Noel Liemam on November 13, 2025
Introduction Those that are involved in leadership role that are not healed themselves, are more likely to lead their followers in a negative way. My father left our family to be with the Lord before I became a teenager. I was mostly raised by mother with the grace of God. I also have two uncles…
By: Chad Warren on November 13, 2025
In C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra[1], when Ransom arrives in the distant Edenic world of Perelandra, he is not healthy. Instead, he arrives wounded, disoriented, and immersed in tumult. His “splashdown” into the vast, living ocean of that unfallen world is chaotic: waves toss him, exhaustion overwhelms him, and he must struggle toward the safety of a…
By: Glyn Barrett on November 13, 2025
As I wrapped this up and read it back, noting the limited number of endnotes, I realised it leans more towards a devotional tone, quite different from my other blogs. Maybe that’s intentional. Perhaps this one was written especially for you. When Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe wrote Healing Leadership Trauma, [1] they weren’t…
By: Daren Jaime on November 13, 2025
This past month, I was notified that a prominent pastor in our region announced he was stepping down at the end of the year. This pastor, approaching his mid-40s, is well-loved and has garnered tremendous respect within his congregation and community. His announcement sparked a wave of speculation as to the reason for his departure.…
By: Shela Sullivan on November 13, 2025
Introduction Nicholas Rowe’s Healing Leadership Trauma: Finding Emotional Health and Helping Others Flourish,[1] is deeply rooted in the realities of leadership, especially the emotional and relational toll it can take. This book is especially relevant for leaders in ministry, education, nonprofits, and any setting where emotional labor and relational complexity are part of the role.…
