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Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality | 
 enlarge | Author: Henry Cloud
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 1357275
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 006084969X
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780060849696
ASIN: 006084969X
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
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Product Description
Integrity—more than simple honesty, it's the key to success. A person with integrity has the ability to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how challenging the circumstances. Drawing on experiences from his work, Dr. Henry Cloud, a clinical psychologist, leadership coach, corporate consultant and nationally syndicated radio host, shows how our character can keep us from achieving all we want to (or could) be. In Integrity, Dr. Cloud explores the six qualities of character that define integrity, and how people with integrity: - Are able to connect with others and build trust
- Are oriented toward reality
- Finish well
- Embrace the negative
- Are oriented toward increase
- Have an understanding of the transcendent
Integrity is not something that you either have or don't, but instead is an exciting growth path that all of us can engage in and enjoy.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Reaching Our Potential By Resolving The Gaps Which Strengthen "Character" To Avoid Life's Traps August 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Henry Cloud, PH.D, executive consultant to over 500 corporations, provides insights on the correlation of integrity to leadership and life success in "Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality." Cloud uses his experience from over twenty years of working with people from all walks of life to highlight key "personal issues that keep some of them stuck and cause others to be amazing performers."
Cloud initially outlines the three essentials for success - competency, alliance building, and character. He points out that the people who possess the first two qualities are a "dime-a-dozen." But to truly make it, one must have the third ingredient. "They have to have character to not screw it up."
The book's core message centers on character and what Cloud details as "the character" that:
1.Creates and Maintains Trust
2.Is able to see and face reality
3.Works in a way that brings results
4.Embraces negative realities and solves them
5.Achieves transcendence and meaning in life
Cloud shows us "how these character traits supercede gifts, talents, and ability, and how the ones who have them succeed, and the ones who don't, ultimately fail. Integrity, he maintains, is critical to meet the rigors of our journey. Three areas that character will impact along the way include:
1.Our ability to reach to reach full potential and not getting stuck below our abilities.
2.Our ability to hit an obstacle but not letting it derail us.
3.Our ability to reach great success but not to self-destruct and lose it all.
This is not your run-of-the-mill "leadership literature or success principles, or about casting a vision, or how to become a change agent." Rather, "Integrity" provides insight and a path for personal improvement. As we are all imperfect humans with chinks in our armor, the path includes:
*Identifying personal "gaps" to work on.
*Learning how to accept ourselves.
*And resolving the gaps to avoid the traps lying in wait.
Cloud's "Integrity" provides a proven way to connect the dots showing us how integrity of character works everyday, "and how it affects our real results in areas of life which matter to us most - a way to more profits (business) and/or more faithful relationships (life).
 impressive clarity on how integrity works and how to develop it August 4, 2008
in my quest for growth, i picked up this book and was rather impressed
i already read Dr Cloud and Dr Townsend's other books, Safe People and their series of Boundaries books - so this book on integrity piqued my attention while doing a search for them on audible.com.
so far, so good. like their other books, i appreciated their pragmatic view on developing emotional maturity, what integrity really means in varying scenarios, and relationship building ... the context has subtle ties to christian values (which i rather liked), but i don't think the secular reader will be either distracted or offended.
pros and cons
pros = gave me some insights into my own levels of integrity. i didn't realise i had integrity in many areas of my life, i also realised that it was lacking in some others, albeit mild forms. needless to say, i found it encouraging to have something to focus on as i continue weeding my mental and emotional garden. the good new about personal growth is learning "where your opportunities" are; the bad is `learning where your opportunities are' ...
cons = again, gave me some insights into my own levels of integrity. it's hard to look in the mirror and see what boundaries i don't consider in some scenarios. i was relieved to have my personal integrity validated but dismayed to learn how my lack boundaries in some areas of my integrity are vulnerable to people i become emotionally connected to ... that is, i learned that if i'm emotionally attached to someone who is unsafe, unscrupulous, or selfish/immature, i'm in big trouble.
the book was a pretty solid read albeit slow at some points - it acts more like a reference for ethical/moral behaviour than the traditional "self-help" book. i liked how it employed some of plato's early a priori premises on ethical behavior. it would have been good to see that called out as well as how it ties into the chrisitan value proposition.
what i appreciated the most are the suggestions that its in our experience that we build integrity - not a "if you do this, this will happen" formula that most self-help books employ. this book will not disappoint - either from a personal or professional perspective.
anyway, i was impressed
- TW
Integrity: the courage to meet the demands of reality June 8, 2008
In answer to the age old question, "Read any good books lately?" "Integrity" is at the top of my list. Three of us spent early Friday mornings for months to walk thru the book considering how it correlated to our lives and the implications to how we would live out the principles. I've recommended it to a wide range of people including a mom who asked what book she should buy for her son who was graduating with a degree in Sports Management. This is a must read for every leader.
Practical Wisdom! January 28, 2008
I read lots of business books. And this is perhaps the first time that someone else's book has helped me come to a deeper understanding of one of my own, a book first published in 1997 and entitled, "If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business." My concern in that project was that top business people for many years had been talking about product quality and process efficiency, but hardly anyone at the time was talking about the spirit of the people who do the work. And that's still a relatively neglected side of business, which is ironic, since the people involved are ultimately responsible for how well any business does.
My book was all about the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual dimensions of our experience every day, and how great business, as well as greatness in any part of life involving relationships, requires respecting and nurturing four foundations of excellence that are connected with those dimensions, respectively: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity. This new book by Henry Cloud, "Integrity," has helped me to understand in new ways the operation of that fourth foundation - the sort of unity or connectedness that is required for sustainable greatness in almost anything. This is an application of spirituality in the workplace that has nothing intrinsically to do with religious institutions, creeds, or dogmas - and so is utterly universal. And it's important.
Henry Cloud's book is full of sparkling insight and great stories. I can't imagine any of my executive friends, or front line workers, not benefitting from its lessons.
Please do yourself a favor, if you're reading these reviews to try to help you decide whether to get this book, and click on the purchase icon. The sooner you start reading Cloud's book, the better!
Tom Morris
A Favorite Business Book January 6, 2008
This is one of m new favorite business book & Have enjoyed giving it to several clients. Reading it challenged me in what kind of wake my leadership leaves behind. It also validated why I was frustrated in the past with certain leaders. Cloud takes the meaning of Integrity to a new level. Sadly, I can see many thinking that Integrity is not something that they need to be challenged on, yet his approach challenges men & women who practice integrity in business and in private.
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