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.…
By: Elysse Burns on November 13, 2025
An Injury That Became a Teacher In 2023, I broke my fifth metatarsal after taking a sharp right turn a bit too quickly down the uneven staircase in my Nouakchott home. What followed was a season of enforced stillness—simply sitting and allowing this stubborn foot bone to heal. Yet the more revealing part of the…
By: Graham English on November 12, 2025
Leadership is often framed as a matter of strategy, skills, or charisma; a toolbox of techniques to inspire and achieve. But what if the heart of leadership lies deeper, in the unseen terrain of a leader’s identity? I recently facilitated a 48-hour leadership retreat for the project that addresses my NPO, where we gathered stakeholders…
By: Ryan Thorson on November 12, 2025
Christmas Eve 2021 sits in my memory as both holy and heavy. I remember seeking to celebrate the birth of Christ with my family—candles lit, dinner on the table, a fragile quiet in the house—only hours after sitting in a hospital room where I was with someone when they died from COVID-19. I had filmed…
By: Kari on November 12, 2025
It is time to face something I detest: deep, dark, painful emotions. I would rather run than sit in those emotions. The feelings that come from the injustice of a baby dying of malnutrition outside the door of the hospital. The heartbreak of another mom losing her baby because of incompetent health care providers. Internal…
By: Joel Zantingh on November 12, 2025
In Healing Leadership Trauma : Finding Emotional Health and Helping Others Flourish, Nicholas Rowe and Sheila Wise Rowe argue that leaders must confront their own past and wounds to actually lead others to places of flourishing and wholeness. [1] This book invites leaders away from predominating field of techniques and external competencies to engage with…
By: Debbie Owen on November 11, 2025
As I stood in front of the ideas and comments written on the poster-sized sticky notes on the wall, thinking carefully about the conversations of the last four hours, a reality began to dawn on me. I turned to check with the six people seated around the table who were watching me, thinking their own…
By: Jeff Styer on November 10, 2025
The Wounds December 31, 2022 was the last day of a six-year term as a ruling elder at my Presbyterian Church. About a month later, a friend, Steve, and I were at a meeting together and we had to introduce ourselves to the speaker including our position within the church. Steve, who had completed the…
