Stewart Friedman

Since 1984 Stew Friedman has been at Wharton, where he is the Practice Professor of Management.  In 1991 he founded both the Wharton Leadership Program – initiating the required MBA and Undergraduate leadership courses – and the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project.  

Stew served for five years in the mental health field before earning his PhD in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.  In 2001, he concluded a two-year assignment (while on leave from Wharton) at Ford, as the senior executive for leadership development.  In partnership with the CEO, he launched a portfolio of initiatives to transform Ford’s culture; 2500+ managers per year participated.  Following these efforts, a research group (ICEDR) hailed Ford as a “global benchmark” in leadership development. 

Stew’s most recent book is Leading the Life You Want:  Skills for Integrating Work and Life (Harvard Business, 2014), a Wall Street Journal bestseller.  In 2013 he published Baby Bust: New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family (Wharton Digital Press).  He is also author of the award-winning bestseller, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life (Harvard Business, 2008).  It describes his challenging Wharton course (originally produced at Ford), in which participants do real-world exercises to increase their leadership performance in all parts of their lives by better integrating them, while working in peer-to-peer coaching relationships and using an innovative social learning site. The Total Leadership program – which marries the work/life and leadership development fields – is now used by individuals and organizations worldwide, including the 90K+ students in his recent Coursera course.  The Total Leadership Web site was chosen as one of Forbes’ best for women.  

Stew’s other publications include the widely-cited Harvard Business Review articles, “Work and life: the end of the zero-sum game” (1998) and “Be a better leader, have a richer life” (2008), and “The Happy Workaholic: a role model for employees” (Academy of Management Executive, 2003). His Work and Family – Allies or Enemies? (Oxford, 2000) was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the field’s best books.  In Integrating Work and Life: The Wharton Resource Guide (Jossey-Bass, 1998), Stew edited the first collection of learning tools for building skills for integrating work and life.  

He has advised many organizations, including the U.S. Departments of Labor and State, the U.N., and two White House administrations.  He gives high-energy keynotes, conducts interactive workshops, and is an award-winning teacher. The New York Times cited the “rock star adoration” he inspires in students. He was chosen by Working Mother as one of America’s 25 most influential men to have made things better for working parents, and by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s top 50 business thinkers.  The Families and Work Institute honored him with a Work Life Legacy Award in 2013.  In 2014 he was chosen as one of the 10 HR Most Influential International Thinkers. 

Follow on Twitter @StewFriedman.  Tune in to Stew’s show, Work and Life, on Sirius XM 111, Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School, Tuesdays at 7:00 PM EDT. 

To book Stewart Friedman call Executive Speakers Bureau at 901-754-9404.