Stewart D. Friedman

Stewart D. Friedman
Born Washington, D.C.
Alma mater University of Michigan
Occupation Professor at Wharton School of Business - University of Pennsylvania, Author, Public Speaker, Consultant, Blogger at Harvard Business Review, Work–Life Integration Expert, Leadership Development Expert

Stewart D. Friedman is a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and the founding director of the Wharton Leadership Program and Wharton's Work/Life Integration Project.[1] He has been on the Wharton faculty since 1984 and became the Management Department's first Practice Professor in recognition of his work within the fields of Leadership Development, Human Resources and Work–Life Integration on the application theory and research on the real challenges facing organizations. In 2001, Friedman completed a two-year assignment as the director of the Leadership Development Center at Ford Motor Company, where he ran a 50 person, $25 million operation.[2]

Friedman has published numerous books and articles on work/life integration, leadership, and the dynamics of change.[3] His most recent book, Leading The Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life, is a Wall Street Best Seller. His book, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, was published in June 2008 by Harvard Business Press.[4] The book has been on the USA Today bestseller book list and won several other book awards.[5] It has sold over 45,000 copies in the US and has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian. In 2013 he wrote, Baby Bust: New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family (Wharton Press). Friedman's book Work and Family—Allies or Enemies? (which he co-authored with Jeff Greenhaus) was recognized by The Wall Street Journal as one of the field's best books.[6] In April of 2011, Leadership Succession, which Friedman edited, was reissued in paperback by Transaction Publishers after being in print for 25 years.

Friedman has consulted a wide range of organizations, executives, and distinguished individuals, including Jack Welch, former Vice President Al Gore, two White House administrations, the United Nations, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Army. He serves on numerous advisory boards and conducts workshops globally on leadership and "the whole person," change creation, and strategic human resources issues. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, he appears regularly in business media, and The New York Times cited the "rock star adoration" he inspires in his students.[7] Friedman was awarded the Families and Work Institute's Legacy Award in 2013. He was chosen by Working Mother as one of "America's 25 most influential men for having made things better for working parents," was selected by HR Magazine as Most Influential Thinker 2014 and by Thinkers 50 as one of the "world's top 50 business thinkers."[8] Friedman writes about work-life integration, leadership, and other topics as a Harvard Business Review blogger.[9] He also regularly tweets about these topics on his Twitter account, @StewFriedman.[10] He hosts a weekly radio show, Work and Life, on Sirius XM 111, Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School.

Friedman holds a B.A. in Psychology from S.U.N.Y. Binghamton and an M.A. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Total Leadership

In Friedman's most recent book, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, Friedman argues that leadership in business cannot be merely about business anymore: it has to be about life as a whole.[11] Total Leadership is an approach to human resource management and leadership development created and tested at Ford and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that suggests that leadership must be embodied at all levels of an organizational culture to create sustainable change that’s beyond work-life balance that is good for work, family, community, and self (mind, body, and spirit).[12]

This approach, Friedman writes, is superior at integrating work and the rest of life, preferable to the pursuit of “balance,” which erroneously assumes the necessity of tradeoffs. With “four-way wins,” all parties benefit. From this perspective, individuals realize that their actions as leaders serve a larger purpose, making the world better. They feel part of something bigger than their own lives, and thereby find greater meaning in what they do. The approach has been used in non-profits as well as major for-profit corporations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America, and South America to increase organizational and individual productivity by decreasing stress, turnover, and absenteeism by capitalizing on one's personal life interests and priorities. Total Leadership is a primary intervention in a multi-year study funded by the National Institute of Health.

Friedman presents Total Leadership as a proven method to achieving four-way wins. It is based upon following these principles using stakeholder interviews for 360 degree feedback:[13]

1. Be Real: Act with authenticity by clarifying what’s important.

2. Be Whole: Act with integrity by respecting the whole person.

3. Be Innovative: Act with creativity by continually experimenting.

Honors and awards

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "Saint Stew of Wharton," by Larissa MacFarquhar. World Business, September-October 2005 PDF
  2. ↑ "Grassroots Leadership - Ford Motor Co.," by Keith Hammons. Fast Company, April, 2000
  3. ↑ Integrating Work and Life: The Wharton Resource Guide, published in 1998 (ISBN 0-78794-022-4).
  4. ↑ Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, published by Harvard Business School Press in 2008 (ISBN 1-42210-328-5)
  5. ↑ Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, published by Harvard Business School Press in 2008 (ISBN 1-42210-328-5)
  6. ↑ "This Year's Picks on Work, Family, Advice and Self-Help," by Sue Shellenbarger. Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2000
  7. ↑ "Hot Ticket in B-School: Bringing Life Values to Corporate Ethics," by Marci Alboher. New York Times, May 29, 2008
  8. ↑ "Work-Family Expert on Balancing," by Leslie Morgan Steiner. Washington Post, May 8, 2006
  9. ↑ "Stew Friedman" on Harvard Business Review
  10. ↑ Stewart D. Friedman's Twitter account, @StewFriedman
  11. ↑ Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, published by Harvard Business School Press in 2008 (ISBN 1-42210-328-5)
  12. ↑ Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, published by Harvard Business School Press in 2008 (ISBN 1-42210-328-5)
  13. ↑ Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, published by Harvard Business School Press in 2008 (ISBN 1-42210-328-5)
  14. ↑ Friedman, S. D. and Lobel, S., 2003. The Happy Workaholic: a role model for employees. Academy of Management Executive, 17 (3): 87-98.
  15. ↑ Friedman, S. D., Christensen, P. and DeGroot, J., 1998. Work and life: the end of the zero-sum game. Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec, 119-129.
  16. ↑ "Between work and life there's balance," by Tatsha Robertson. Boston Globe, June 19, 2005
  17. ↑ "Grassroots Leadership - Ford Motor Co.," by Keith Hammons. Fast Company, April, 2000

External links