Parents Who Lead

The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose,
Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life

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Parents in today’s disorienting world can too readily lose track of who they are and what really matters most, but it doesn’t have to be this way. As a parent, it’s possible to harness the power of leadership science to thrive in all aspects of your life.

Drawing on the principles of Total Leadership – a bestseller and popular leadership development program used in organizations worldwide – and on their experiences as researchers, educators, consultants, coaches, and parents, Stew Friedman and Alyssa Westring offer a robust and proven method that will help you gain a greater sense of purpose and control. It includes tools, illustrated with compelling examples from the lives of real working parents, for how to:

  • Design a future based on core values.
  • Engage with children in fresh, meaningful ways.
  • Cultivate a community of caregiving and support, in all parts of life.
  • Experiment to discover better ways to live and work.

Powerful, practical, and indispensable, Parents Who Lead is the guide you need to forge a better future, foster meaningful and mutually rewarding relationships, and design sustainable solutions for creating a richer life for yourself, your children, and your world.

Here is a study guide that has questions to ignite conversation with your friends, family, and colleagues about the book's key ideas and methods.

For your organization

Learn more about how Parents Who Lead can be a powerful new resource to support working parents in your group or organization. Invite Stew and/or Alyssa to deliver a workshop or keynote.

Parents Who Lead will stir you to rethink your assumptions about yourself, your partner, and your kids — and map a more fulfilling future for your lives together. If you feel overwhelmed by the demands of work, family, and the rest of life, take back control with this insightful and compassionate book.

Daniel H. Pink, Author of WHEN and DRIVE

Parents Who Lead is an engaging, science-based, essential guide to upgrading your life, financially supporting your family, and being a stellar parent. It’s an easy-to-follow, proven method to cut your stress, succeed at work, and inspire your children to live healthy, meaningful lives.

Dave Asprey, Founder, Bulletproof and New York Times bestselling author of Super Human

I can think of no better guide than Parents Who Lead to help overwhelmed parents find time for what matters most. It’s filled with compelling stories, evidence-based research, and advice gleaned from the best of leadership science.

Brigid Schulte, award-winning journalist; author, Overwhelmed; Director, Better Life Lab

Parents Who Lead is relentlessly engaging and useful for anyone who has children -- or is considering becoming a parent. You, dear reader, won’t think about either parenthood or leadership in quite the same way after your journey through Friedman and Westring’s compelling blend of stories, advice, and practical exercises.

Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of bestsellers Scaling Up Excellence, The No Asshole Rule, and Good Boss, Bad Boss

Friedman and Westring masterfully translate social science evidence into practical steps for building the leadership capacity to cultivate our relationships with our children and with all those important to their development.

Susan J. Lambert, President, Work and Family Researchers Network and Associate Professor, University of Chicago

Parents Who Lead is brilliantly done—a must-read guide that offers real solutions for working parents who strive to be values-driven leaders in today’s fast-paced world.

Dave Lissy, Executive Chairman, Bright Horizons

An inspiring guide for parents who want to succeed in their careers and make the world better for their children. It’s a crucial resource for organizations committed to attracting and retaining the best people, who also happen to be parents.

Anne Erni, Chief People Officer, Audible

Parents Who Lead does not disappoint! Read this book, put it to practice, and see the results.

Samuel Allen, Senior Vice President and COO of Marketing, Salesforce

If struggling to meet work, family, and social demands means you feel too busy to read this book, then you really need to read it! It will help you unlock creative steps to live a more grounded, spacious, and fulfilling life.

Grace Ho, Regional Lead, Women's Recruiting and Development (Asia), McKinsey & Company

Your children need you to read this profoundly useful book. It’s required reading for parents striving to earn an A+ in life.

Tom Tierney, Worldwide Managing Partner, Bain & Company and Chairman and Co-Founder, The Bridgespan Group

What a marvelous book! I wish I had had it when I was a young parent, but it’s equally valuable at the empty-nesting stage. The application of the Total Leadership approach to parenting is a wonderful reminder for how we can grow and lead in every area of our lives.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

Stew and Alyssa offer wonderful stories, wisdom, and actionable advice about applying leadership principles at home. An inspiring read for working parents.

Aron Ain, author of WorkInspired and CEO, Kronos

I love this book! It’s engaging, inspirational, and relatable. Parents Who Lead is a great, timely resource for working parents and a landmark contribution to organizations seeking to embrace the whole lives of employees.

Jennifer H. Mieres, MD, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Northwell Health

Every parent experiences the challenge of having so much to do and so precious and finite time. Parents Who Lead articulates a sustainable, manageable path forward through this often stress-inducing gauntlet to help us lead ourselves toward the realization of a well-lived and well-shared life.

Sam Calagione, Founder and Brewer, Dogfish Head

Parents Who Lead encourages working mothers and fathers to take a crucial step back from their challenging day-to-day responsibilities to home in on the values that can transform their families.

Meredith Bodgas, Editor-in-Chief, Working Mother

My main priority is to be present for – and create impact across – all of the important relationships in my life. Parents Who Lead makes that goal feel not only attainable, but realistic.

Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO, Warby Parker

Parents Who Lead provides data-driven direction to those of us choosing to be exceptional leaders, both inside and outside of our homes. It’s a must-read if you are a busy executive who wants to attain the highest possible ROI on the greatest investment of your life: your children.

Jenna Fisher, Managing Director, Russell Reynolds Associates

Parents Who Lead is a hallmark for defining success that sets the example for future generations.

Robert Glazer, CEO, Acceleration Partners and bestselling author of Elevate and Performance

Parents Who Lead is great! It is a must for every parent who seeks to transform not only their relationship with their children but their relationship with the world.

Julie Smolyansky, CEO, Lifeway Foods

This well-written, compelling book distills evidence-based wisdom into actionable, outcome-focused tasks destined to improve the lives, and not just the parenting, of all who read it.

Shaun Francis, Chair and CEO, Medcan and author, Eat, Move, Think

Working parents often feel doomed to do neither work nor parenting well. Friedman and Westring provide fresh insights for overcoming this common quandary. Read it and learn how to lead your way into a new, more fulfilling and successful way of parenting.

Herminia Ibarra, The Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior, London Business School

The skills that define great leaders at work are surprisingly relevant to becoming a great parent at home. This book won't just help you identify those skills -- it's a step-by-step guide for putting them into practice.

Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of ORIGINALS and GIVE AND TAKE

READ MORE PRAISE

 

From Parents Who Lead Program Participants

Designed for busy working parents in an 'always on' digital world, this book is an engaging read filled with proven strategies, actionable advice, enlightening research, and real-life examples – including ours, from the life-transforming workshop we did with Stew and Alyssa. A must-read for career-driven leaders who want to be winning Moms and Dads.

Daniel A. Chen, Head of Business Development at Quicken
Loretta Chen, Corporate Controller at Paine Schwartz Partners

The Parents Who Lead process has been truly transformational. We were skeptical that we'd be able to make changes that would stick. But the concepts and structure came to life and yielded quick results, encouraging us to keep going to make meaningful, sustainable changes in our lives, with our children and our community.

Dana Nae Garcia, Executive, Vynamic
Jamie Garcia, Director, FS Investments

We highly recommend Parents Who Lead! It helps you reflect on your core values and goals as a parent and it’s full of pragmatic ideas toward purposeful parenting. As we have practiced and incorporated these techniques into our lives together, we have become extremely close as a family.

Anjana Harve, Chief Information Officer, Hillrom
Rohit Harve, Life Sciences Operations Strategy Leader, Strategy& (part of PwC)

This workshop provided us with specific strategies and a new vocabulary to parent with purpose, and to do so in a way that simultaneously enhanced our marriage, careers, and community relationships. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we are living proof that Parents Who Lead can help you uncover solutions to some of parenting’s truly daunting challenges.

Lauren Tanzer, Cardiology Administrator, Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania
Matthew Tanzer, Managing Director, BAYADA Strategic Ventures

Parents Who Lead provides a mind-opening, novel, and refreshing approach to leadership by upending the traditional notion of “balance” and competing priorities. By following the steps, we learned how a single smart action can result in wins intertwining across all facets of our lives.

Wes Chou and Lisa Chung, Technology executives

We started the program during our busiest period as parents of two. It wasn’t easy to find the time, but the immediate positive changes we saw urged us on. Now, with three children, busier than ever, we have the tools and confidence to stay the course toward achieving our vision for ourselves and our children.

Laura D. Rivera, Global Finance Director, Johnson & Johnson
Hon. Marc A. Alfarano, Magisterial District Judge

Articles and Interviews

  • HBR -- How Working Parents Can Support One Another
  • Working Mother -- Successful Leaders' Mantra in Times of Crisis Is Just What Working Parents Need Right Now
  • Bloomberg -- Be the Coronavirus Boss Working Parents Need
  • HBR – How Working Parents Can Prepare for Coronavirus Closures
  • Forbes -- How Successful Leaders Manage Their Home Lives
  • Working Mother – How to Talk to Your Kids About Politics in a Time of Sharp Division
  • Business Insider – To raise children who are resilient and optimist, parents can use discussing coronavirus as an opportunity. Here’s how to get started.
  • World Economic Forum -- Coronavirus: 5 ways to work from home with your kids (and stay sane)
  • Forbes -- How Four-Way Wins Can Improve Your Parenting Leadership
  • Happier with Gretchen Rubin -- The Infinite Mystery of Children Is a Wondrous, Ever-Bountiful Source of Happiness.
  • Knowledge@Wharton – What Parents Can Learn about Leadership
  • Forbes -- On-The-Job Training for Parent/Leaders
  • Penn Today – Bring the science of leadership to the art of parenting.
  • HBR – How Working Parents Can Regain Control Over Their Lives.
  • Forbes -- Are You A Parent? Then (For Better Or Worse) You're A Leader
  • Business Insider -- How to convince your boss to let you work remotely on a regular basis
  • Thrive Global – Working Parents Should Stop Net-work-ing and Start Net-Life-ing
  • DePaul Business – A Q & A with Management Professor and New Author Alyssa Westring
  • TIME – Worrying About ‘Work-Life Balance’ Can Be a Trap. Here’s What to Try Instead.
  • Medium -- Now Is a Great Time to Check Your Gender Biases at Home
  • Christian Science Monitor – How to Talk to Your Kids about Politics
  • Council on Contemporary Families – Working Parents are Leaders
  • People Management -- Skills for working at home with children during lockdown
  • Advertising Week -- Parents Who Lead: Embrace the Four-Way View for a Richer Life
  • Fishbowl – Strategies for Working Parents with Alyssa Westring
  • Psychology Today -- The Leadership Challenge for Working Parents
  • VOX -- What are the rules of social distancing?
  • Yahoo News -- Now's the time to Talk to Your Boss About Work-Life Balance
  • Life Science Leader -- Helping Working Parents Face Their Leadership Challenge
  • Today's Kids -- The new reality...juggling work, kids, household stuff

Podcasts, Radio, TV

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