Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, Integrity (p. 53). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Trust is such an important thing. He says, “In the end, trust is about the heart, and someone making an investment in you from his or her heart. And if you gain people’s trust, their heart, then you also have their desire and passion. Heart, desire, and passion all go together. Without one, you don’t have the other. That is why some leaders only get compliance , but can’t capture their people’s best efforts. It is why some parents get obedience in the short term, but not autonomous kids who desire to be the best for them that they can be. These leaders and parents just impose their will on the other people. “But the good ones capture the other people’s will, their true desire, through connecting with them first. It is the difference in the parent who tells the teenager to ‘get with it and stop hanging o...

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, Integrity (p. 34). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And results are what we want, aren’t they? Henry says, “What I have tried to do here is to take those aspects of character and put them into functions that tend to be different from each other, therefore discrete, and at the same time, related to each other, therefore integrated. If we have that combination, then we can focus on specific aspects of our makeup and, at the same time, be focusing on all of our makeup and getting it working together. That is what brings results and effectiveness, i.e., when we can focus enough on specific issues to grow and as a result, get it all working together. Let’s now look at what those aspects of character are: 1.     The ability to connect authentically (which leads to trust) 2.     The ability to be oriented toward the truth (which l...

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, Integrity (p. 33). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) This is so important to understand. Henry says, “Another way of saying this is that while you don’t need all the gifts that exist in the world, you do need all the aspects of character while you are putting your gifts to work.” He goes on, “For example, we will see that one aspect of character is almost purely ‘relational’ in nature. And we could say that there are people who are ‘gifted in relational ways,’ and that they should focus in an area that uses those gifts. Put them in human resources or psychology or customer service. . . But, even the ones in the ‘people-oriented jobs’ will fail if they do not have other character abilities, such as the ability to be in touch with the truth of a situation and to see it clearly (another character dimension we will look at). If they lack that ability that is n...

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,’ t...

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, Integrity (p. 6). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Henry says, “It has something to do with personhood as well.” He continues, “Then there is the more difficult question, and the one that gets to the point: ‘How many of you can also relate to there being some way in which you feel like if you were different in some way, that you could go further than you have or reach the full potential that your brains, talents, and competencies would allow?’. . . ‘Making it’ is more than just being competent and able to cut deals. It has a lot to do with who we are. But, exactly what does that mean? What is character? How does it affect performance? How important is it? “Most of the time, when we think of the word integrity , or character , we think of morals or ethics, not performance. We associate the topic with the catastrophes like Enron, Andersen, Worldcom, or the...

A thought by Matt Perman, from his book, How to Get Unstuck (p. 57). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Motivation is so important. Matt says, “Overcoming obstacles involves strategies for overcoming the challenges to your time management, but it is about more than that. It is about passion and motivation, for passion is a key part of God’s power that gets you through the obstacles. It is hard to press through challenges when you are not motivated! On the other hand, being motivated and passionate not only gives you energy to do more than you otherwise could but also yields fresh insight for overcoming future obstacles.” He goes on, “Overcoming obstacles also involves being equipped with the specific tools for addressing problems that get you stuck, such as             • overflowing email,           ...

A thought by Matt Perman, from his book, How to Get Unstuck (p. 56). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We really do need to know where we are going but we also need to know how to get there. Matt says, “You know where you want to go from personal leadership, and personal management is the skills, practices, and focus involved in making that happen. It addresses the problem of knowing where you want to go but not knowing how to get there. “Personal management involves             • determining your intermediate goals,             • choosing the activities to which you will give your time,             • defining and managing your projects,             • determining your next actions, ...