For years I’ve been working on helping companies to see how work, home, community, and self (mind, body, and spirit) can be mutually reinforcing; this is the “four-way wins” approach I describe inTotal Leadership. I often encounter skepticism, but some companies get it. My experience with Target should bolster anyone’s case that you can be a committed Read More

In the few days since Marissa Mayer’s baby arrived, I’ve watched the resurgence — again — of the debate about working parenthood, maternity leaves, and even “baby bumps.” I have mixed feelings about this. Mayer’s situation is extremely unusual. A short maternity leave may be relatively easy for her, in part because she and her Read More

The resonance of Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Atlantic article is testimony to how far we’ve come since 1987, when I began talking about work and family in my Wharton School classes. Back then, many students — men and women — flat-out resented it. “We’re here to learn about business, not family,” they said. And when I started the Wharton Work/Life Integration Read More

“Your old road is rapidly aging,” Bob Dylan proclaimed to the powers that be in 1964. “Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand.” Recent experiences have left me thinking often of that now-iconic line over the past few days; in this post, I want to encourage you to think Read More

The one thing President Obama got wrong in his remarks at the close of yesterday’s buzz-filled White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility was when he started by saying that he would not be as good as his wife, who’d spoken earlier to open the half-day meeting. Perhaps he was just being kind, or coy. From Read More

When Stevie Wonder first sang “I just called to say I love you,” no one wondered whether he would have been better off tweeting his message instead of picking up the phone. Not so today. Recently, in my Wharton MBA course on leadership from the point of view of the whole person, we grappled with Read More

Okay, let’s say you and a few colleagues or friends have formed an informal peer coaching network dedicated to helping each other improve performance. What’s next? As I described in my last post, you can be either directive or nondirective in your coaching approach. Here, I’ll offer ideas for how you can increase your ability Read More

Who’s the better quarterback, Drew Brees or Peyton Manning? Perhaps a more compelling question for you, the developing leader, is this: How did these guys — and all the great performers you might admire — get to be so good at what they do? A healthy dose of natural talent, of course — but talent Read More

It’s hard to focus on your work when your child is hallucinating. One of the least discussed yet quite salient issues for American business in this year of health care reform is an important yet hidden cost associated with mental illness: the drain on productive work endured by family members struggling to support loved ones Read More

Bruce Springsteen — great leader? You might be skeptical, but bear with me as I describe a few practical ideas we can pull from Springsteen’s repertoire of the critical “soft skills” that set the memorably high-impact leaders apart from the rest of the pack. Bruce’s epic music is a source of inspiration for millions around Read More