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while people in the business Community
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hear a lot about the importance of work
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life balance it's often unclear exactly
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what that means or how one achieves it
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steuart fredman founding director of
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Wharton's leadership program and the
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work life integration project thinks he
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has an answer in his new book titled
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total leadership be a better leader have
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a richer life fredman describes the four
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domains of people lives work home
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community and self and what individuals
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can do to integrate these domains and
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improve their leadership skills at any
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stage in their careers we asked Stu to
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tell us more about the thinking that
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went into this book to start out can you
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give us a brief description of the theme
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of total leadership the theme of the
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book yes well the basic idea is that uh
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you can integrate the different parts of
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your life in ways that you probably
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didn't think about before you went
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through the steps that I kind of take
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you through in this book which is my
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course my Wharton course brought to life
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in the form of a book uh so the the big
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idea is that it's possible to create
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value for the different parts for work
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for home for community and for your
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private self the domain of mind body and
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spirit in ways that you probably didn't
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think about before um
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and it doesn't have to be a tradeoff so
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much as you think most people operate in
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a world of uh thinking about sacrifice
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as a necessity uh that you've got to
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give up something in one part of your
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life in order to achieve success in
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another part well now that's probably
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always going to be true to some extent
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what I've discovered in developing this
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course and refining it over time and
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doing research on the impact of it is
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that uh those those trade-offs are uh
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are not as necessary as we often think
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and and what it takes to get past that
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sort of trade-off balance
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mentality is
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leadership and so the book kind of takes
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you through the process of developing
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the leadership capacity you need to
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integrate the different parts of your
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life to perform better in all of them do
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you have a sense of of how many people
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aren't satisfied with their lives the
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way they're on now I mean is there a
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need for this huge you know new look at
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how to integrate these four aspects of
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your life well I you know I think the
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the idea uh the aspiration to to live a
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full and meaningful life and to be
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successful in in life has has been
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around since the dawn of time um what's
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interesting uh in what I've observed
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over the last two decades or so since
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I've been going after this issue in my
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in my work and my teaching my research
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my practice is that um certain things
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have changed that make this I think a
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more pressing issue today than than it
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was say 20 years ago like what well the
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digital Revolution is is certainly one
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uh the the uh the 247 365 opportunity to
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be engaged in work rated activity has
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made it
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um uh has made life a lot more stressful
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for many people and and the and the way
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you create and maintain useful
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meaningful boundaries between the
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different parts of your life the
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different roles that you play has become
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a really pressing issue uh because most
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of us grew up without the technologies
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that now are ubiquitous and so the the
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the the psychological and social skills
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required to use these
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tools uh are ones that we just never
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learned as kids so we were having to
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develop the these skills in order to
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keep up with the the
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technological uh advances that that have
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made that have promised Liberation but
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for too many people have resulted in
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slavery yeah so how you break out of
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that is is a part of what we have to
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learn what about the fact that companies
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are so Global these days and so much
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time is taken up distant travel which
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can be not just time consuming but
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exhausting well uh one of the ways in
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which people experiment and and we'll
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probably get into this later in the
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conversation uh in in terms of what
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people do to better integrate the
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different parts of their lives to
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perform better in all of them is uh is
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is to reduce travel and and use new
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technology to better able manage you
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know the demands of their time and
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location uh so uh while for many people
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living in a global uh economic
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Marketplace causes greater strain
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because of the assumption that you've
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got got to be in many different places
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on Earth to get work done uh the good
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news about the Advent of the digital
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Revolution is that well maybe you don't
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have to actually be there to get done
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most of what you need to get
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done uh so I think it's both it cuts
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both ways and I think you know part of
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the uh the opportunity here and the
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learning that's that's required is that
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we um use these tools the communication
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tools that are available to us now more
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intelligently
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um and that requires some
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experimentation and and learning how to
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use use them in a way that works for you
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and for the important people in your
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life including those people at work um
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and family there there have been a lot
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of Articles and and speeches and and
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probably even books on work life balance
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including the need to be involved not
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just in work and in your family life but
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in the community and in you know
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personal projects that give you a lot of
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satisfaction action so how is this book
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different from everything that's out
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there well there's a lot of talk about
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work life balance for some of the
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reasons we just described uh people are
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feeling stress they're they're not able
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to devote the time and attention that
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they need to the things that matter most
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to
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them uh there's a couple of ways in
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which I think this approach is is
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different um first it starts with the
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notion that you can find ways of
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creating value improving performance in
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all four
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domains what I call a four-way win work
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home community and self by making
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intelligent choices about how you um use
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your time and
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attention uh that don't necessarily
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require uh a tradeoff so most of the
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work life balance approaches um the
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conversation that that is current is um
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it comes from the point of view of uh
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the employee making
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uh demands on their employer for more
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freedom more uh available time to to do
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things outside of
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work and that's the wrong
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approach uh what leaders do when they
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try to create change when they aim to
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make sustainable change change that
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lasts uh they enlist the people around
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them in whatever it is that they're
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trying to get done that's new by having
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those people will see the benefits for
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them so in the total leadership approach
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uh what you do is you find out first you
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you spend some time on what I call being
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real what's most important to you you
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write about that you think about your
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core values your vision of the kind of
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leader you want to become and the world
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you want to create and the Legacy you
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want to leave talk about that with
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others to get clearer about what really
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matters to you then the second piece is
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what I call being whole and there you
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identify the performance expectations of
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the most important people in your life
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at work at home and in the community so
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you list who are the four or five most
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important people or groups what do they
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expect of you what do you expect of them
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and then you talk to those people you
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prepare for and engage in what I call
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stakeholder dialogues yes imagine having
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these conversations over a concentrated
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period of time with the most important
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people it's a that cause this is the the
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Peak anxiety point in the in this
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process because everyone is do I really
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have to talk to these people about this
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stuff and in nine out of 10 occasions
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what happens is that people come through
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that process with really new insights
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about how the different pieces fit
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together and what other people actually
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expect of them because most business
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professionals most of our
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listeners probably have the following
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problem what they believe others expect
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of them is actually greater than what
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those people really expect of them and
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you discover that Gap when you have a
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good conversation and well what's the
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implication of
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that of clo of of getting a a more clear
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and realistic picture of what other
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people expect of you and if it's true
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and and believe me it is true that
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people expect less of you than you think
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well you can then reallocate your time
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and attention more intelligently and
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that's what people do in the experiments
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which is the third phase be Innovative
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where people take on small steps
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intended to produce a four-way win now
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to finally answer your question about
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what's different here in in the the
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leadership
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piece when you engage in these
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stakeholder dialogues you find out a lot
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more about what other people are
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interested and what their real interests
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are in terms of what they need from you
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and what you need from them and it's on
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the the basis of knowing more about
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what's really important to you what's
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really important to them you can then
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design smart experiments that really do
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satisfy their
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interests and that makes it much more
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likely that when you create
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uh an experiment to produce value for
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them and for you that it actually does
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and it's entirely customized to you so
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the last point I'll make about the work
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life balance movement and its failure is
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the a problem of one size fits allism
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let's call it which is uh a not uncommon
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problem in many HR areas where for the
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sake of um
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equality there's a standard policy that
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is implemented in a way that is
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universally applicable when everyone's
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life is different and everyone needs
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different things in terms of how to
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integrate the different pieces so it
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it's got to be customized and so this
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approach is built on your assessment of
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what matters who the most important
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people are in your life and experiments
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that fit your situation so this this
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process clearly can't be done in a
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vacuum then there's a lot of interaction
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with others getting feedback giving
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feedback feedback Etc correct sure yes
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now as a business what's in this for for
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the business community in terms of you
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know increased productivity or increase
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profitability well it's it's all about
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improved performance in all domains and
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so we've measured uh and and done
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research on hundreds of people going
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through this process to look at what's
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the impact in terms of people's
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individuals performance at work as well
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as at home and in the community as well
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as for themselves in terms of their own
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Spiritual Development their emotional
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health their physical health and what we
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find is that um satisfaction in all four
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domains improves particularly in the
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self- domain and I can explain more
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about why that is
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but at the same time performance also
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goes up not as much as satisfaction goes
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up but performance also goes up in all
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four
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areas now this comes as a result of
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people doing these experiments and
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devoting actually a little bit less time
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in terms of hours per week to their work
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so let me repeat that people are
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spending less time working but they're
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performing better and they're more
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satisfied across the board now why is
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that again it's because they're they're
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using their time and attention more
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intelligently they're doing more the
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things that matter to them and to the
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people around them so the results are um
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positive from a business point of view
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you get better energy better focus uh
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and greater productivity we have some
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other numbers to report Financial
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outcomes cost
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savings um and productivity improvements
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as well how important is it or is it
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important to have U mentors or Heroes in
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your life in this process do you have
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people do you do you recommend or do you
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suggest that people can perform better
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if they actually identify people they
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admire and would like to be like or is
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that not part of this process well it is
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uh one of the first exercises that I ask
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people to do in the B real section the
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opening you know what's important
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there's a lot of different ways of of uh
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getting at that issue of what what do
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you really care about and one of the
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most effective ways is to write about
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somebody that you admire uh and and then
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say what it is that you admire about
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them uh many people write about family
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members but some will choose historical
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figures or just friends uh it's a useful
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foil for just contemplating you know
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again your own values um but you also
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identify the issue of
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mentorship um on my way over here I was
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reading an email on my BlackBerry from
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somebody who had come gone to a workshop
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that I did at the uh the US Olympic
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Committee at Olympic University back in
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the fall and she wrote to me and said
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you know as a result of doing your
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exercise I identified mentors in each
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different domain and I'd never actually
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done that before and I just wanted to
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tell you this is now like five or six
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months later that that changed my life
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to think about and to and to cultivate
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important relationships in each domain
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was really important to this to this
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person um and it is for many and becomes
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an important point of focus in their
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work in in this program
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what are some of the tools in the book
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that you offer to sort of to to apply
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these leadership principles and
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lessons well uh the some of the
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exercises that I've described here are
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part of the sort of toolkit I think the
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the most critical that people um report
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to me are as the sort of longest lasting
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uh skills that they uh both learn and
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continue to apply over time and I and I
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do stay in touch with alumni and many of
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them come back to class to serve as
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guest speakers or as alumni coaches for
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participants as they're going through
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the
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program I think the biggest one is they
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that people learn how to
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innovate in ways that make sense for
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their whole lives so this whole process
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really is one of being a smart
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experimentor a an intelligent innovator
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and so the the skill that seems to last
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most of all uh like some of these
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experiments fail you you design an
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experiment let's say it's to exercise
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four days a week and it turns out that
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you just can't get it done for whatever
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reason
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um you you collect data about what
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worked and what didn't and what the
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impact was uh of what you did um but
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typically when I have people do
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experiments there are three uh that I
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ask I ask students to do or program
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participants and usually one works
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really really well one is pretty good
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and one kind of blows up and all of them
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carry lessons in them you know why why
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was this a better experiment than the
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other one what people tell me uh months
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and years later is that they became
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better at implementing change about
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driving change and that's that's I think
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the key skill uh because they're
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designing experiments that are again
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well conceived and well crafted and
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they're also encouraged to again align
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their interest with the people around
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them them and and so they are they're
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more effective in leading change which
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is of course the the most important
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thing that that leaders do is is to
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create change what what's the main
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reason that people give for not wanting
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to undertake this process because it is
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as you've described that it's time
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consuming it's a little risky uh you you
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have to involve other people who may or
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may not be as interested in doing this
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as you are right so what what's the push
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back you get from people who say it's
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not for me well it isn't for everyone um
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and and there are shorter versions of it
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so I I'll be doing a talk at a at a
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company tomorrow where uh it'll be 300
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people in an hour and a half and uh it's
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a very different process than a
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four-month Enterprise of you know
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meeting regularly and doing all this
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work outside of the the sessions I think
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the big one is uh the big push back is
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that
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uh some people just don't want to look
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inside yeah you know and and and and
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spend the time thinking
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about their what really matters to them
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and how they're actually living because
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it's either they're just not ready
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because they're not mature enough they
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haven't thought about it enough although
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I find that
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undergrads many really do powerful work
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in this uh they're ripe for the
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questions um but some find it either too
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uncomfortable to explore the gap between
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what matters and and how they're
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actually right yeah so what's the main
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takeaway that you want people to get
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from your
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book I think the the main idea uh and
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the reason I'm I'm so enthusiastic about
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uh what I've observed as a result of
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people undertaking this um Enterprise
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this this practice if you will is uh is
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a greater sense of uh control and
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freedom in living in ways that are uh
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consistent with what you're passionate
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about what you really care about and and
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I find that when people do that when
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they take even a small step that's under
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their control that's that's intentional
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that's in a direction that they choose
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that they uh that they feel better about
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their lives and about the people that
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they're affecting with their with their
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actions on on a daily basis and that's
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just very gratifying to see and and I
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think the the reason that I'm uh excited
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about is that it's possible for just
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about any body to do that if you're
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willing to make the uh the small
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investment that's required great thanks
00:19:35
to it's been very interesting well thank
00:19:37
you Robbie sure I've enjoyed it thank
00:19:41
you for more information please visit
00:19:43
knowledge. won. up.edu
00:19:47
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