Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life (With New Preface)

I took two intercontinental flights recently and took the time to go through the "Total Leadership" program. And, before I begin my review, I want to say that over the past ten years or so I've seen an absolute avalanche of "leadership" books come out - most of them gimmicky and useless. This is not one of them and in fact I believe the title may deter people from purchasing this; do not be one of them."Total Leadership" is about finding your way when you have multiple responsibilities tugging you in different directions. Until now, I've often felt family pulling me one way, only to find the more time I spend with them the more I resent the time it takes away from work. Similarly, on business trips for example, I fight with feelings of guilt for being away from my family. And that's not to mention the the toll all of this takes on my health, when I'm too busy to exercise or just watch the game with friends. I'm here to say this book can help, like finding the long lost manual and finally figuring our how to do new things with a product, this book acts as a guide to finding a semblance of control in your life. It's not about sacrifice, and it's definitely not found in the idea of "balance", this book advocates a powerful third way: overlapping your domains and drawing boundaries.What makes this book especially effective are the exercises the author puts the reader through. The reader is asked to define the issue, starting with the multiple responsibilities and challenges s/he faces, then it moves on to defining your domains, where is it that you spend your time? Most of the readers (including myself) would find four areas: self, family, work and community. Then, with domains defined, you can identify stakeholders in each domain and begin the process of finding ways "to live your life in accord with what really matters to you." The reader is asked to discuss his/her vision for a future life (post-change) with trusted individuals s/he has previously identified. A particularly effective step is then speaking with others about living your life differently, such as: your boss, significant other and friends, and getting their opinion and feedback on your plan, and as difficult and challenging as this may be it ends up providing the most powerful incentive to change through accountability and stakeholder buy-in. In many cases, I found that as much as I was building bridges between domains in my life, I was also creating boundaries (for example, no longer do I check my blackberry or the Internet between the hours of 6pm - 9pm.) But some of the biggest changes are personal ones that are for me and my family, other readers will likely find similar decisions they make without necessarily sharing them.This book is not about easy decisions, or difficult ones, its about drilling down to what's most important in your life and building from there.Ultimately, this book is required reading once, in my opinion, you are put in a position of responsibility. It is effective in maintaining a mindset conducive to responsible living, it provides a non-cookie cutter approach and it creates change in your life through practical exercises.For these reasons, this reviewer highly recommends "Total Leadership."

Friedman has been engaged in the best of the global conversations about these issues for decades. Always ahead of his time, he's turned the lenses on old chatter and dimensionalized the real issues: high performing people tend to burn themselves out and up but paying attention ONLY to their careers. This creates toxic lives; toxic lives destroy everything and everyone in their path. As a consultant to CEOs and Boards, I watch this play out every day. Even better, this book is clear-headed, practical, experiential; elegantly connecting the dots at the intersection of the person and the organizational landscape so one can assess the degree to which one is wholly engaged in their lives and not just their work. While grounded in great theory (he spares us jargon and ponderous punditing) this is a highly enjoyable and useful manual for those ready to do the work necessary to recalibrate their own lives. As a devout preacher on the importance of Life Stories, I celebrate his call to each of us to assess our stories, take ownership of them, and work to make them more coherent and authentic.

This is a misleading title but the contents are great. Some great exercises to help you refine your leadership qualities but the main point of the book is the message that work/life balance isn't realistic BUT it's an art to make sure that the most important things in your life are the most important. I enjoyed that aspect and you don't see that in a leadership book often. I would recommend this book to any new or aspiring leader and also veteran leaders since you can always keep improving and innovating.

Came quickly and clean

Friedman offers the most human and real life version of concocting the right career and life in general. Unlike most leadership authors, he understands that success at work is totally connected to happiness at home, understanding your personal story, your motivations, etc.

The book was ok, the content is great but the main idea of knowing where you are to better perceive where to go is a bit outdated now.

Total leadership is an amazing book that shows us how to achieve four way wins - at work, home, community and self. It gives us simple exercises to help us understand our vision, our stakeholders and integrate all the four domains to lead a healthy richer life.

great book and informative

enjoy ur read

It is very new. Unused hardcover book. I am a fully satisfied buyer.

Very good book which shows that Leadership applied to all domains of your life makes you find your right balance between home, work, community and self - hence fulfilling an happier life.

I've always assumed great leadership is about learning and mastering a series of skill sets and being willing to make compromises to execute the plan. This book provides a completely different perspective which is quite inspiring.

Nice book, good methods to use for at least get a better understanding of what is important for you.If you take it more in consideration, you can actually apply the techniques described in this book to improve your life satisfaction.The methods are good to be used in therapies as well.