What is it about?Take the 5 to 10 people that are most important to you, in any domain of your life: your partner, your boss, your main client, your children: whoever they are. Consider them as stakeholders of your success in life. Have a conversation with each of them to talk about your future and your mutual expectations. This simple but very powerful experience is what Steward Friedman calls "stakeholders' dialogues", a part of the Total Leadership programme.
I know: "Total Leadership programme" sounds a bit guru-ish. But it is very serious, methodical and efficient.
The book is full of examples and self-development exercises. It makes you think, but also makes you act for the sake of your own successes.
It shows that the notion of work-life balance needs to be surpassed and explains how to do it, by taking initiatives that can have simultaneously a positive effect on the four domains of your life: Work, Home (i.e. family), Community (i.e. friends and the public interest) and Self (i.e. your mental, emotional and physical fitness).
How is it useful to an HR practitioner?
Firstly, it has the potential to change your life. Not every book does!
For example, it provides excellent tools to help you see what objectives you should define for yourself. It also helps you strengthen your relationships with those who have the greatest impact on your life.
Secondly, once you have tried the method on yourself, you will want to use it to help other people be better leaders. If some manager in your society seems overwhelmed, unhappy, misunderstood, inefficient, lacking passion, or badly evaluated, you will find in this book an excellent personal development method.
Who recommended this book to me?
I listened to an interview of Steward Friedman on Harvard Business Review's Ideacast.
References
- Total Leadership. Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life.
- By Steward D. Friedman
- Harvard Business Press
- 248 pages
- Available on Amazon: Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life
