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

Stewart D. Friedman

Mar 2023 · Gildan Media · Narrated by Tom Pile

About this audiobook

You're busy trying to lead a "full" life. But does it really feel full-or are you stretched too thin? Enter Stew Friedman, Wharton professor, adviser to leaders across the globe, and passionate advocate of replacing the misguided metaphor of "work/life balance" with something more realistic and sustainable. If you're seeking "balance" you'll never achieve it, argues Friedman. The idea that "work" competes with "life" ignores the more nuanced reality of our humanity-the interaction of four domains: work, home, community, and the private self. The goal is to create harmony among them instead of thinking only in terms of trade-offs. It can be done. Building on his national bestseller, Total Leadership, Friedman identifies the critical skills for integrating work and the rest of life. He illustrates them through compelling original stories of these remarkable people: former Bain & Company CEO and Bridgespan cofounder Tom Tierney, Facebook COO and bestselling author Sheryl Sandberg, nonprofit leader and US Navy SEAL Eric Greitens, US First Lady Michelle Obama, soccer champion-turned-broadcaster Julie Foudy, and renowned artist Bruce Springsteen. Each of these admirable (though surely imperfect) people exemplifies a set of skills-for being real, being whole, and being innovative-that produce a sense of purpose, coherence, and optimism.

About the author

Stewart D. Friedman is an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School, where he has been since 1984 and is now Emeritus Practice Professor of Management. In 1991 he founded both the Wharton Leadership Program and the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project.