Wharton, Total Leadership, leadership development, work/life

Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life

Based on decades of research and practice at Wharton and worldwide, Total Leadership is a proven method for creating sustainable change as a leader in all parts of life. It’s designed for people at any level or career stage. You explore what and who matter most and then innovate by pursuing real-world experiments to produce “four-way wins,” demonstrable results that are meaningful not only for your work, your family, your community, or your private self (mind, body, spirit), but for all these different domains. Forget “balance” and learn how to find harmony and better performance, throughout life.

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SHRM’s Fall 2018 cover story

Total Leadership is profiled in the lead article.

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Stew Friedman

Stew Friedman, an award-winning Wharton professor and bestselling author, founded Wharton’s Leadership Program and its Work/Life Integration Project in 1991. He launched Total Leadership in 2000 while on leave from Wharton, serving as the senior executive at Ford Motor in charge of leadership development globally. Thinkers50 named him the world’s #1 thinker in the field of talent and the Families and Work Institute gave him its coveted Work Life Legacy Award. He is a leading voice for change in social and corporate policy to bring greater harmony between work and the rest of life. Stew earns accolades internationally as an engaging speaker and hosts a popular weekly radio show on SiriusXM.

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What People are Saying

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

Stew Friedman brings a new definition of leadership to every sector, with “four-way wins” that will inspire leaders at every level. A rare and moving guidebook for your journey to leadership.

– Frances Hesselbein, former CEO, Girls Scouts of the USA

Friedman stands out. He understands better than anyone else how leadership, life, and business can fit together.

– Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America Foundation

This is a great manifesto for getting it done. Bravo!

– David Allen Author, Getting Things Done

Stew Friedman shows how to harness your passions to pursue four-way wins—in your work, home, community, and most importantly, for yourself.

– Billie Jean King, sports icon and social justice pioneer

Leading the Life You Want delivers a much-needed surge of inspiration.

– Tom Gardner, CEO, The Motley Fool

Terrific session with our leadership team! The buzz was palpable.

– Bill McNabb, CEO, Vanguard

We often hear about work/life balance, but Stew Friedman takes it two steps further. He breaks life into four parts – work, home, community, and the private realm of mind, body, and spirit – helping you lead a life that truly blends meaning and happiness.

– Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Destined to be a classic, Total Leadership is a remarkable book. I have studied leadership and led organizations for over twenty years. No other book has reshaped my thinking about leadership development as much as Total Leadership.

– David A. Thomas, President of Morehouse College

In a world of work-life trade-offs, Stew Friedman offers what most think impossible: a field-tested program that gives you not only what you want in business, but also what you want in life. Brilliant!

– Tim Ferriss, Author, The 4-Hour Workweek

Essential for developing sustainable leadership, Total Leadership concepts have extraordinary strength.

– Carlos Torres Vila, CEO, BBVA

Stew Friedman’s framework is the most comprehensive and meaningful distillation of how to lead yourself and others that I have encountered. I use the precepts of Total Leadership in my daily life, and I’m better off for it.

– Rich Smith, Finance Director, Amazon and former Infantry Officer, U.S. Army

Stew understands that pitting our passions and responsibilities against each other is a losing battle. Instead, he teaches a masterful strategy to integrate self, career, family, and community—an approach that has allowed me to grow as a CEO, mother, and community activist.

– Julie Smolyansky, CEO, Lifeway Foods

Stew Friedman makes the idea of finding harmony between work and life not only possible, but practicable.

– Neil Blumenthal, founder and CEO, Warby Parker

Stew's Bestselling Books

Net profits from book sales go to the
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

Total Leadership:
Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life.

Friedman’s award-winning bestseller provides the tools for improving performance at work, at home, in the community, and for yourself. Learn the practical, theory-driven principles that help you, no matter what your occupation, become a better leader and have a richer life. Available in many languages, it shows individuals how to find clearer purpose, strengthen key relationships, and gain support for achieving success and businesses how to develop leaders while enhancing productivity, engagement, and well-being. Learn More

Leading the Life You Want:
Skills for Integrating Work and Life

Friedman’s second bestseller hones in on the 18 critical skills for creating harmony among different parts of life and illustrates how they were learned by six admirable (though imperfect) people, who show that, contrary to common wisdom, significant public success is accomplished not at the expense of the rest of life, but as the result of meaningful engagement in all parts. Includes evidence-based exercises anyone can use. Learn More

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