“. . . their ‘personhood’ was still preventing their talents and brains from accomplishing all that was in their potential.”

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, Integrity (p. 9). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

And we want to reach our full potential, don’t we?

Henry says, “In my own experience in over twenty years of working with CEOs, boards, managers, management teams, VPs, partners, supervisors, investors, and those who have a stake in their performance, I have seen many honest, ethical people of ‘integrity’ who were not making it in some way. While we would say that they all were people of good ‘character,’ the reality is that their ‘personhood’ was still preventing their talents and brains from accomplishing all that was in their potential. Some aspects to who they were as people that they had never seen as important to develop were keeping them from reaching the heights that all of the other investments they had made should have afforded them. While they met the criteria for having ‘integrity,’ they also left behind a trail of falling short in some key areas of performance that left them, as well as their stakeholders and the people who depend on them, wanting more. They were unable to successfully:

·      Gain the complete trust of the people they were leading, and capture their full hearts and following.

·      See all of the realities that were right in front of them. They had blind spots regarding themselves, others, or even the markets, customers, projects, opportunities, or other external realities that kept them from reaching their goals.

·      Work in a way that actually produced the outcomes that they should have produced, given their abilities and resources.

·      Deal with problem people, negative situations, obstacles, failures, setbacks, and losses.

·      Create growth in their organization, their people, themselves, their profits, or their industry.

·      Transcend their own interests and give themselves to larger purposes, thus becoming part of a larger mission.”

He goes on, “These kinds of issues, . . have little to do with IQ, talent, brains, education, training, or most of the other important components of success. Instead, they have to do with the other aspects of character functioning that we pay way too little attention to in training people to be leaders and to be successful.”

He later says, “My contention is that those kinds of character, or personal-makeup, issues have more to do with someone’s ultimate ability than we give credit to. But, we don’t get courses that teach us to develop those aspects of character. When we do, however, and begin to focus on them, then we see people begin to soar to the heights that their abilities should have been taking them all along.”

There is more, isn’t there, for us to develop in order to reach the heights that we have the potential to reach? 

Yes, yes!