Parents Who Lead: The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose, Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life

by Stewart D. Friedman, Alyssa F. Westring

How working parents can lead more purposeful lives, characterized by harmony, connection, and impact. Parents in today's fast-paced, disorienting world can easily lose track of who they are and what really matters most. But it doesn't have to be this way. As a parent, you can harness the powerful science of leadership in order to thrive in all aspects of your life. Drawing on the principles of his book Total Leadership --a bestseller and popular leadership development program used in organizations worldwide--and on their experience as researchers, educators, consultants, coaches, and parents, Stew Friedman and coauthor Alyssa Westring offer a robust, proven method that will help you gain a greater sense of purpose and control. It includes tools illustrated with compelling examples from the lives of real working parents that show you how to:

Genres: Parenting, Leadership, Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Audiobook, Personal Growth

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2020

About the author

Stew Friedman is an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been on the faculty since 1984. He founded Wharton’s Leadership Program and its Work/Life Integration Project. Friedman has been recognized by the biennial Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers every cycle since 2011 and was honored with its 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award as the foremost expert in the field of talent. He was listed among HR Magazine’s most influential thought leaders, chosen by Working Mother as one of America’s most influential men who have made life better for working parents, and presented with the Families and Work Institute’s Work Life Legacy Award.

While on leave from Wharton, Friedman was the senior executive responsible for leadership development at Ford, where he created Total Leadership. This program, now in use worldwide, measurably improves performance and well-being in all parts of life. His research is widely cited, including among Harvard Business Review’s “Ideas That Shaped Management,” and he has written two bestselling books, Total Leadership and Leading the Life You Want. His latest book is Parents Who Lead: The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose, Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life (March, 2020). Winner of many teaching awards, Friedman inspires students’ “rock star adoration,” according to the New York Times. He is an in-demand speaker, consultant, coach, workshop leader, and advocate for family-supportive policies. He hosts the SiriusXM Wharton Business Radio show and podcast, Work and Life.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of our leaders serve multiple roles in life. They are not different than most of the people you encounter. For these leaders, the struggle of maintaining good relationships with their organizations as well as their respective family and community members is critically important.

This book by Stew Friedman and Alyssa Westring provides us the practical guidance and insights on how to win at work while maintaining a good experience in our family, community, and ourselves. It’s total leadership.

Tha authors used questions and other forms of exercises on how to see our different roles in proper perspective. They provided useful insights that will help us prioritize things. They also provided great anecdotes of people they help in adopting the principles discussed in this book.

This book is for everyone. We want to be happy fulfilling each areas of our life. We want to feel that we are engaged in our work, family, community, and ourselves. The most important lesson I learned in this book is our life should not always be a zero-sum game. It is possible for us to lead the life we want. This book will help us out.

[Rajiv S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friedman has produced an exceptional addition to his collection, truly speaking to a professional's identity as a parent. While I'm not yet a parent, I'm about to be. And this was a valuable reminder on how to dissect the inner workings of our household culture, and assert behaviors that align with our values.
I consider myself a relatively home-focused person; a good husband to my wife. But the exercises in this book allow us to confirm what we think we know about ourselves and our home lives. I think, particularly for men, it's important not to take the appearance of a civil home life as evidence of sufficient family focus. Stew has a gift in unpacking difficult conversations, as if he were a psychiatrist. But yet, he does it in a way that aligns the professional to a "four way win" between her career, community, family, and self.
I highly recommend stew's LinkedIn Learning course if you have not taken it.

[Whitney Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who wants to be as effective at home as they are at work–––read this book. Yes, that's what I said. Many of us work harder at work than we do at home.

There's a lot in Stew's work about reciprocal dialogues. Of asking questions like, “Here’s what I think is important to you, do I have that right? Tell me more.” Questions that say “you are important”. In this book, he suggests we ask these questions at home.

I especially liked his story about a birthday conversation with his children. It's what led to his writing this book. He asked his children, "How would you like me to spend the rest of my productive life? What would you want me to be doing and how by my doing whatever it is that you are suggesting, would that make your life better?"

My children now know what I want for my birthday this year.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book, but don’t feel that I needed this book. My review is skewed because of that. I read it, I noted my favorite parts, took small activities to do with my wife and then moved on. I wouldn’t read it again unless I needed to pull more information out.

It was good, it can be useful and it would be necessary for families to move forward if they haven’t been doing this already.

Overall for me it was a “meh”.

Thank you for the review copy netgalley.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot of good information and concrete ideas to work on here. I also appreciated it was co-authored by a woman. I did not love the narrator, he was super upbeat, and that was just not for me for this type of book. Audiobooks do not lend themselves well, for me at least, to answering questions so I think I would benefit from going through the physical book as well if I'm actually going to have these principals stick.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book based on the recommendation through the WSJ and had hopes that it would be more focused on leading. As a parent of three this book has a lot of good advice, but it wasn't what i was looking for.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listen to Stew’s podcast and enjoy his insights. This isn’t a prescriptive book on how to do things it’s a guide and workbook filled with examples, worksheets and ideas on how to generate four way wins. Encouraging and practical and meant to be read with your co-parent.

[Wilson Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book. Plenty of actionable information.