| Stewart D. Friedman | |
| Birth Place: | Washington, D.C. |
| 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 |
| Alma Mater: | University of Michigan |
Stewart D. Friedman is Emeritus Professor of Management Practice 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 has been recognized for his research, teaching, practice, and advocacy in the fields of Leadership Development, Human Resources and Work–Life Integration.[2] 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.[3]
Friedman has published books and articles on work/life integration, leadership, and the dynamics of change.[4]
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.[5]
Friedman has consulted for organizations, executives, and 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.[6] He is on numerous advisory boards and conducts workshops 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 referred to the "rock star adoration" he inspires in his students.[7]
Friedman hosts a weekly radio show, Work and Life, on Sirius XM 132, business radio from the Wharton School.[8]
His book Leading The Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life is a Wall Street Best Seller.[9] His book, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, was published in June 2008 by Harvard Business Press. The book has been on the USA Today bestseller book list and won several other book awards.It has sold over 70,000 copies in the US and has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. 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.[10] In April 2011, Leadership Succession, which Friedman edited, was reissued in paperback by Transaction Publishers after being in print for 25 years.[11]
Friedman writes about work-life integration, leadership, and other topics as a Harvard Business Review blogger.[12]
In Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, Friedman argues that leadership in business cannot be merely about business but has to be about life as a whole.[13] Total Leadership is an approach to human resource management and leadership development created and tested at Ford and The Wharton School 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).[13]
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. Total Leadership is based upon following the principles of being real, being whole and being innovative, using stakeholder interviews for 360 degree feedback.[13]
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 twice by HR Magazine as Most Influential Thinker and by Thinkers 50 as one of the "world's top 50 business thinkers" and in 2023 was inducted into their Hall of Fame.
In 2015 he won the Thinkers 50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Talent.[14]