A Failure of Nerve
There exists a connection between the stuckness that leaders experience and the stuckness in the thinking processes of those who would get them unstuck. Friedman discusses overfunctioning as a deterrent of good leadership. One must be willing to let others function on their own instead of functioning in their capacity for them. This is necessary even if the individual who is underfunctioning is unwilling to operate in his or her own capacity.
According to Freidman, leadership is essentially an emotional process rather than a cognitive phenomenon. America has become so chronically anxious that our society has gone into an emotional regression that is toxic to well-defined leadership.
Well-differentiated leader is someone who has clarity about his or her own life's goals and is less likely to become lost in the anxious emotional processes. It is stated that the key to positioning oneself in a capacity to facilitate the growth of others is the leader's own self-differentiation.
The bottom-line according to Freidman is that, in any institution, if the leader is self-differentiated, imaginative, energetic and is being frustrated rather than encouraged and supported he or she is a peace-monger. In other words, the leader is highly anxious, a risk-avoider, and someone who places more emphasis on good feelings than with progress. The functioning of leaders affects the institution they lead far more than do the traditional psychological concepts. Friedman developed a leadership model which can be viewed by clicking here.
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