Leadership Lunacy

A friend of mine has an entire bookcase jammed full of tomes on the topic of leadership and you know - just thinking about those sagging shelves gives me a headache.  

I get a headache because popular leadership authors almost invariably propose "The 10 Steps to Laudable Leadership" or "The 7 Habits of the Workplace Wunderkind" or "The 92 Traits of . . . " and on and on and on.  

One book's title, "Leadership for Dummies", is perhaps the most telling example of leadership lunacy.  Dummies, indeed.  

I believe you'll get more than a headache if you try to internalize that plethora of often-conflicting techniques and traits and types and trainings.  I believe you'll become a chronically anxious pseudo-leader - starved for one more technique or one more magic leadership bullet, yet confused by how you still feel so out-of-control.

There's a better answer, my friends.

I've written on the fundamental elegance of Edwin Friedman's application of Family Systems Theory to the discipline of leadership elsewhere around here.  

I've recommended the excellent "Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue" and "A Failure of Nerve:  Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix" for those of us that can stomach a bit of academic reading, and I've recommended "Friedman's Fables" for those that would prefer something lighter.

And now, through the magic of YouTube, I give you the lightest of all introductions to our dear deceased Dr. Friedman's brilliant work. 


May you never again suffer aching of the head or heart due to Leadership Lunacy.  Enjoy!