The author introduces the concept of 'Total Leadership', an approach he developed that aims to improve a leader's performance in all aspects of life-work, home, community, and self-by finding mutual value among them. In this article, he focuses on Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who exemplifies Total Leadership by embracing three elements of the approach: building networks that provide support, using personal stories to teach, and continually resolving tensions between the different parts of life. By sharing her personal story, he shows that Sheryl Sandberg is a new breed of executive: for her, it's not about yielding to either/or; instead, it's about searching for both/and. Along the way, he shows how she has struggled, adapted, and felt intense guilt, but continues to actively pursue four-way wins over the long run. No matter where you are on the arc of your life, Total Leadership offers a model for shaping your life for the better.

Stressed out. Overcommitted. Distracted. This is how many people feel today. Everyone is struggling to have meaningful work, domestic bliss, community engagement, and a satisfying inner life. But committing to better work/life balance isn't the answer. It assumes you must make trade-offs among the four main aspects of your life: work, home, community, and self. A more realistic and gratifying goal is better integration through "four-way wins," which improve performance in all domains. Integration starts with embracing three principles: be real, be whole, and be innovative. This article outlines the skills that bring those principles to life and shows how to hone several critical skills with exercises such as: "Four circles," in which you assess the importance of each domain and then diagram the extent to which the values you pursue in them are compatible; "Talent transfer," in which you examine all your skills, from mentoring colleagues to organizing family activities, and how each might be used to achieve different ends; "Crowdsourcing," in which you gather solutions for problems from creative friends and test them out. Through these and other exercises, you can find the path to a more fulfilling and less hectic life.

"What best practice challenges the conventional wisdom about what to do in a downturn?" We put that question to our team of management bloggers at harvardbusiness.org. This article provides an edited selection of their provocative responses.

Work fills most executives' lives to the brim, leaving insufficient time for their families, their communities, and themselves. But Wharton professor Friedman suggests that, rather than view the problem as a set of trade-offs, executives use their leadership talents to benefit all four domains at once. The idea is to design experiments - small, short-term adjustments to their daily routines - that incorporate and mutually benefit the various aspects of their lives. If an experiment works out, everyone wins - employer, employee, family, and community; if it doesn't, it simply becomes a low-cost learning opportunity. Over time, the combination of small gains and lessons learned can lead to larger-scale transformation. The "Total Leadership" process involves identifying what's important to you, identifying what's important to everyone in your life, using those insights to creatively explore possibilities for experiments, and then selecting and implementing a few at a time. Drawing on decades of experience, Friedman has distilled nine categories of experiments that offer a manageable, systematic approach to the daunting task of conceiving projects with four-way benefits. In one such experiment, an executive might raise money for a charity her company sponsors by running a marathon with her son, thus simultaneously gaining greater visibility at work, spending more time with her family, giving back to the community, and improving her health. To move toward the goal of becoming a CEO, another executive might join the board of a nonprofit agency in his neighborhood together with his wife. Friedman suspects that there are far more opportunities for simultaneous benefits than people realize. They are there for the taking. You just have to know how to look for them and then find the support and courage to pursue them.

"Please don't tell me that I need to have a baby to have this time off." Those words were still ringing in the ears of Jessica Gonon an hour after a tense meeting with Jana Rowe, one of her key account managers. Jessica, the vice president of sales and customer support at ClarityBase, considered Jana's request for a four-day workweek, for which she was willing to take a corresponding 20% cut in pay. Although the facts seemed simple, the situation was anything but. Just last week, Davis Bennett, another account manager, had made a similar request. Both Jana and Davis were well aware that Megan Flood, another account manager, had been working a reduced schedule for nearly two years in order to spend more time with her children. The eight account managers were in charge of helping the company's largest clients install and maintain database applications, which often required hand-holding and coddling. Because Megan had an abbreviated schedule, the other account managers were assigned the more difficult clients. But if Jessica agreed to a shorter workweek for Jana and Davis, who would take on the toughest customers? And what would happen if the other account managers started asking for similar deals? How can Jessica maintain the productivity of her department and meet her staff's needs for flexible work schedules while striking an equitable solution for both parents and nonparents? In R0103A and R0103Z, Michele S. Darlin, Chris Dineen, Elinor Burkett, and Steward D. Friedman advise Jessica on her next move in this fictional case study.

"Please don't tell me that I need to have a baby to have this time off." Those words were still ringing in the ears of Jessica Gonon an hour after a tense meeting with Jana Rowe, one of her key account managers. Jessica, the vice president of sales and customer support at ClarityBase, considered Jana's request for a four-day workweek, for which she was willing to take a corresponding 20% cut in pay. Although the facts seemed simple, the situation was anything but. Just last week, Davis Bennett, another account manager, had made a similar request. Both Jana and Davis were well aware that Megan Flood, another account manager, had been working a reduced schedule for nearly two years in order to spend more time with her children. The eight account managers were in charge of helping the company's largest clients install and maintain database applications, which often required hand-holding and coddling. Because Megan had an abbreviated schedule, the other account managers were assigned the more difficult clients. But if Jessica agreed to a shorter workweek for Jana and Davis, who would take on the toughest customers? And what would happen if the other account managers started asking for similar deals? How can Jessica maintain the productivity of her department and meet her staff's needs for flexible work schedules while striking an equitable solution for both parents and nonparents? In R0103A and R0103Z, Michele S. Darlin, Chris Dineen, Elinor Burkett, and Stewart D. Friedman advise Jessica on her next move on this fictional case study.

Using actual examples from front-line managerial situations, this article explains and explores three work-life principles executives can adopt to create wins for their organizations and individual employees. Most companies view work and personal life as competing priorities in a zero-sum game, in which a gain in one area means a loss in the other. From this traditional perspective, managers decide how their employees' work and personal lives should intersect and often view work-life programs as just so much social welfare. A new breed of managers, however, is trying a new tack, one in which managers and employees collaborate to achieve work and personal objectives to everyone's benefit. These managers are guided by three principles. The first is to clearly inform their employees about business priorities and to encourage them to be just as clear about personal priorities. The second is to recognize and support their employees as whole people, not only acknowledging but also celebrating their roles outside the office. The third is to continually experiment with the way work gets done, looking for approaches that enhance the organization's performance and allow employees to pursue personal goals. The managers who are acting on these principles have discovered that conflicts between work and personal priorities can actually be catalysts for identifying inefficiencies at the workplace.