Category: Total Leadership

Whee! I’m moving along in this book quite nicely 🙂 The second part of this book talks about the important people in my life, what I expect from each and vice versa, and how to form healthy, consistent relationships based on these expectations. Since this is really personal, I think I’ll keep this section private…

One way of being real is to grasp the connection between the importance of each part of your life and what you actually pay attention to every day. The chart below is another window through which to see what’s important to you. In the first column, consider the relative importance of each major areas of…

Whether you pause and reflect on your own or supplement your thinking with coaching conversations, here are things to keep in mind as you synthesize what you’ve done in chapter 2 before moving on to chapter 3. Read through your responses to the previous exercises in this chapter. Consider the following questions. Write about them…

On one page, list the values (between 5 and 9 is ideal) that are most important to you. For each one, explain why it’s important to you in one or two sentences. These are the things that I hope will come to mind when people think of me. If they don’t think so now, then…

In this exercise, describe the kind of leader you want to become by writing a short story of your life between now and fifteen years in the future.  Take your time to think about it and start writing as soon as you’re ready.  Write vividly. Make it come alive and don’t hold back. The more…

Your Hero: Someone You Admire Describe someone you admire.  Think of this person as someone you see as heroic in an important way.  It might be someone whom you know personally or someone you only know about but have never met.  After you describe him or her, write a sentence or two about what makes…

Your Story: Critical Events in Your Life Think back over your personal history and identify the four or five most important events or episodes in your life, the moments that have defined who you are today.  Tell the story of these events, in chronological order, and for each one, briefly describe the impact the event…

Total Leadership by Stewart D. Friedman is a book that aims to teach people who see themselves as successful in certain aspects of their lives but not in others.  The author defines it as a “structured method that produces measurable change.”  Having been sent to a number of leadership conferences, I found the most effective…