Total Leadership - by Stewart D Friedman (Paperback)

About the Book

"Now in paperback, this national bestseller proves more than ever, your success as a leader isn't just about being great at business. You must be a great person, performing well in all domains of your life-including work, home, community, and your private self. The good news is that, contrary to conventional wisdom about "balance," you don't have to assume that these domains compete in a zero-sum game. Total Leadership is a game-changing blueprint for how to perform well as a leader not by trading off one domain for another, but by finding mutual value among all four. Stew Friedman shows you how to achieve these "four-way wins" as a leader who can be real, be whole, and be innovative. With engaging examples and clear instruction, Friedman provides more than thirty hands-on tools for using these proven principles to produce stronger business results, find clearer purpose in what you do, feel more connected to the people who matter most, and generate sustainable change. Total Leadership is a unique resource that shows how to win in all domains of life. "--

Book Synopsis

National Bestseller

"Students talk about Stewart D. Friedman, a management professor at the Wharton School, with a mixture of earnest admiration, gratitude and rock star adoration." --New York Times

In this national bestseller, Stew Friedman gives you the tools you need to achieve "four-way wins"--improved performance in all domains of life: work, home, community, and self. Friedman, celebrated professor and founding director of the Wharton School's Leadership Program and its Work/Life Integration Project, explains how three simple yet potent principles--be real, be whole, and be innovative--can help you, no matter what your age or what you do for work, become a better leader and have a richer life.

In this engaging adaptation of his hands-on Wharton course, he offers step-by-step instruction to help you create positive, sustainable change in your world. This proven, programmatic method teaches you how to produce stronger results at work, find clearer purpose, feel less stressed, strengthen connections with the people who matter most to you, contribute further to important causes, and gain greater support for your vision of your future. If you're ready to learn to lead in all parts of your life--this is the book for you.

For a full array of Total Leadership tips and tools, visit totalleadership.org. Also look for Stew Friedman's book, Leading the Life You Want, which builds on Total Leadership by profiling well-known leaders--from Bruce Springsteen to Michelle Obama--who exemplify its principles and demonstrate how success in your work is accomplished not at the expense of the rest of your life, but as the result of meaningful attachments to all its parts.

Review Quotes

"Whether you're thinking ambitiously about your start-up or more holistically about what kind of leader you want to be to those around you, please all your stakeholders. Go for the four-way win." -- David Gardner, Motley Fool

"Stewart Friedman in his book Total Leadership talks about this as 'four-way wins.' I think balance is almost impossible these days, but if you try to think of career, family, community, and self as four circles and try to overlap them, you will feel more productive." -- Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway

"Students talk about Stewart D. Friedman, a management professor at the Wharton School, with a mixture of earnest admiration, gratitude and rock star adoration." -- The New York Times

Dr. Stewart Friedman on "Time Bind" vs. Psychological Interference and More: "He is absolutely brilliant with micro-testing and fixing two largely unaddressed issues for type-A personalities: psychological interference and conflicting goals." -- The Blog of Tim Ferris

Winner of the 2008 Best in Category - Personal Development. -- CEO-Read

"In his 2008 book Total Leadership, author Stewart Friedman does a memorable job debunking the concept of "work-life balance." I'm a sucker for iconoclastic writing that replaces threadbare thinking with new language and new frameworks, and to me, "work-life balance" was cruising for a bruising. Friedman gives it a nice offing." -- The Motley Fool

"Highly innovative, pedagogical, and inspiring, the book combines the largely masculine field of leadership studies with the largely feminine field of work-life, rejuvenating both...Instead of taking the traditional work-life balance approach...Total Leadership taps the jazz metaphor...offering a concise and crystal clear history of the fields it builds upon, the book explains complex work-life concepts...Friedman gives useful tips. Suggesting a bold vision of leadership that encompasses all domains of life...it is highly energizing and liberating. The books scholarly ambition also is inspiring" -- Human Resources Management, reviewed by Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, PhD

"Total Leadership encourages readers to reflect on what matters in life and how they can achieve meaning in an increasingly busy world." -- Qantas The Australian Way

"Total Leadership isn't your traditional business book. It isn't about foolproof sales techniques, how to get your dream job, or squeezing the most out of employees. The book is different because of its compelling message that it is possible to lead a richer life simply by assuming leadership of one's own life." -- Personnel Psychology

"If you're looking to balance work and life, this easy-to-read, holistic guide to success in both areas is for you." -- Management Today

"One word is noticeable by its absence: balance...The customised approach of Friedman's programme, and its focus upon interconnectivity, dispels this traditional viewpoint." -- Chief Executive Officer, A Life In Harmony

"Friedman creates a simple and powerful "three-legged stool" structure in his book that would serve as a great road map for any leader or aspiring leader. The three legs are: authenticity, integrity and creativity...Friedman's view of total leadership is about an integrated and holistic systems view of the human leader. It's that simple, and that powerful. Friedman's book will be a valuable resource to anyone interested in initiating a self-dialogue about professional and personal values and, indeed, to anyone interested in becoming a better leader." --

About the Author

Since 1984 Stew Friedman has been teaching at Wharton, where he is the Practice Professor of Management. In 1991 he founded both the Wharton Leadership Program--initiating the required MBA and Undergraduate leadership courses--and the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project. Stew served in the mental health field before earning his PhD in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan. In 2001 he concluded a two-year assignment (while on leave from Wharton) at Ford, as the senior executive for leadership development. Stew is the author of Baby Bust: New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family (Wharton Digital, 2013) and Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014). The Total Leadership program is used worldwide, including by the 57,000+ students in Stew's recent Coursera MOOC. He advises many organizations, gives high-energy keynotes, and is an award-winning teacher. The New York Times cited the "rock star adoration" he inspires in students. He was chosen by Working Mother as one of America's twenty-five most influential men to have made things better for working parents, and by Thinkers50 as one of the "world's top fifty business thinkers." The Families and Work Institute honored him with a Work Life Legacy Award. Follow him on Twitter @StewFriedman and tune in to his show, Work and Life, on Sirius XM 111, Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School, Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. (EST).