Stew Friedman

You might be skeptical, but you can create harmony between work and the rest of life, says Stew Friedman. Based on his best-selling “Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life” and on decades of research, teaching and practice as both consultant and senior executive, Friedman describes the skills needed to do so, and illustrates them with riveting original stories of exemplars of great achievement and impact, including Sheryl Sandberg, Michelle Obama and Bruce Springsteen.

Friedman’s stories paint vivid pictures of the ways these very different leaders act with authenticity, integrity, and creativity – and they prove that significant professional or public success is accomplished not at the expense of the rest of life, but as the result of meaningful attachments to all its disparate parts. The good news, says Friedman, is that anyone can practice and hone these skills. He provides evidence-based exercises for how cultivate them and offers practical insights that will inspire, inform, and instruct attendees on how to take realistic steps now toward leading the life you truly want, just as it has for employees at Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley, Warby Parker, Google and many other organizations.

Millennials see the world very differently from other generations. Stew Friedman shares why that is and what it means for our society, our organizations and our families. Since founding the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project in 1991, Friedman’s research, teaching, and advocacy for the evolution of social policy and business practices has influenced both the public sector (including projects with the White House and the U.S. Departments of Labor and State) and many private sector organizations. His ground-breaking research of two generations of Wharton students as they graduated – Gen Xers in 1992 and Millennials in 2012 – found that men and women are now more aligned in their attitudes about dual-career relationships. Drawing on this historic research, Friedman’s thought-provoking talk shows:

• How views about work and family have changed in the past 20 years
• Why men and women have different reasons for opting out of parenthood
• How family has been redefined
• Why we are all now part of a revolution in work and family
• What choices we face in our social and educational policy
• How organizations and individuals – especially men – can spur cultural change

Working parents have their work cut out for them, especially now during the COVID-19 crisis. It’s easy to get caught up in everyday demands and lose track of who you are and what really matters. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Stew Friedman. Building on decades of widely-renowned research and experience as a researcher, educator, consultant, and advocate, and also drawing from the principles of Total Leadership – his impactful, proven program taught in organizations worldwide – Friedman brings the science of leadership to the art of parenting, helping working mothers and fathers who are executives, managers, and front-line employees learn to thrive in all aspects of life. It can be done.

Everyone benefits from this interactive session: the business, employees, and their families. Based on his new book co-authored with Alyssa Westring, Parents Who Lead (March 2020), Friedman teaches his audiences to rethink assumptions about how to create harmony among work, family, and the rest of life. He provides practical and indispensable tools, as well as compelling examples from the lives of real working parents, to show you how to:

• Design a future based on your core values
• Engage with your children in fresh, meaningful ways
• Cultivate a community of caregiving and support, in all parts of your life
• Experiment to discover better ways to live and work

Life is a zero-sum game, right? The more we strive to win in one dimension (such as our work), the more we sacrifice performance and satisfaction in the other three: family, community, and private self. Not true, says Stew Friedman. Drawing on decades of research, teaching, and practice in many organizations around the world – detailed in his best-selling book “Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life” – Friedman persuasively shows us how we don’t have to make trade-offs between life’s most important domains, and certainly not as often as we think. A trade-off mindset makes people feel all manner of painful emotions; it hurts those we care about most, and it prevents us from leading and performing effectively in every part of life. Friedman provides a proven blueprint for becoming a more successful leader in all four domains of life: work, home, community and self (mind, body and spirit).