Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reali
Written by Henry Cloud
Narrated by Henry Cloud
5/5
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About this audiobook
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 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
Success is not related to only talent or brains. The real factor, Cloud demonstrates, is the makeup of the person. All of us can grow in the kinds of real character that brings about fruitful relationships and achievement of purpose, mission, and goals. 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.
Henry Cloud
Dr. Henry Cloud is a clinical psychologist, pastor to pastors, and New York Times bestselling author. His 45 books, including the iconic Boundaries, have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Throughout his storied career as a clinician, he started treatment centers, created breakthrough new models rooted in research, and has been a leading voice on issues of mental health and leadership on a global scale. Dr. Cloud lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Tori, and their two daughters, Olivia and Lucy.
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Reviews for Integrity
97 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book defining the importance of integrity. A life it integrity is transforming and making a life changing experience allowing me to see integrity in a different light. Must read book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I picked up this book because two of my bosses at work were praising it. I thought I should have a look at what might be inspiring their business decisions these days. Trying to understand what attracted them to the book remained my primary motivation to keep reading, as I was annoyed with the author after just a few pages. I will explain below why I believe the book irritated me, but before that I will still say that I did reflect in a constructive and valuable way as I read. It triggered many a self-examination along the way, and inspired me in deciding how I will work to grow my own character. Unfortunately, to achieve these gains I had to make my way through a rough and even messy text that made me feel like the author was more preoccupied with quickly putting his book on the market instead of ripening the ideas and format until it was ready to be shared broadly. My academic bias contributed to my annoyance. At first glance, I was bothered by Cloud's use of the title "doctor" for himself, and by the fact that I needed to do my own research to finally find that his "Dr." comes from a Ph.D. at a religious university. Anyone who feels they need the authority of the title "Dr." to talk about non-medical matters sharpens my skeptical fiber. That the praise printed at the front of the book all came from business leaders - and none from peers or critics - including two who were thanked in the acknowledgment also raised my level of skepticism from the start. This might be good for sales, but not as much for credibility in my opinion.Then, as I read, I was annoyed with the lack of editing. As a second-language user of English, I occasionally blamed myself for failing to understand a sentence at first glance, but overall I am now convinced that careful editing for syntax and meaning was neglected. This sentence from page 257 illustrates my point: "I know a man who runs the western United States for one of the big telecommunications companies." How difficult was it to write instead that the man "runs the western U.S.A. division of a telecommunication company"? There are countless such sentences in the book, including many with missing words or dubious connectors, that cast a shadow on the professionalism of the author and editor. I also noticed many phases sandwiched between quotation marks, but without a source cited. What does this mean?Aside from these issues of form, I think there are deeper problems with the content of the book. There is no doubt to me that my perspective as a sociologist clashes with that of the author (a psychologist who earns a living working with business leaders), and I am willing to try to appreciate his work within his perspective. However, this does not explain that the book reads like an excellent... draft. Many of the concepts are good but insufficiently developed, overlapping so much with each other that the author constantly has to refer to what is said elsewhere in the book. Cloud also constantly has to remind us that by "integrity" he is not really referring to what most people think of as "integrity." Why not then simply use another concept that really represents what he means? While I do not expect every book to display flawless conceptual elegance, I do expect that authors (and editors) will publish ideas in book format only once those ideas are mature, so that I don't have to dedicate so many hours trying to decipher approximate thoughts. Nonetheless, I did gather some prized insights from the book, which may help me grow as a person. This being said, unfortunately, I am afraid it will do more harm than good in my workplace. I am sure that this is not what the author intends - and in fact he says the opposite many times - but he really leaves the reader with a feeling that there isn't much to do against character flaws. Cloud often says that character can grow, however he would need not to say it but to show it. Show, don't tell. To me, his approach is about as helpful as simply telling a smoker: "Smoking is bad for you and for the people around you, so you should quit." There is a sense of hopelessness in his stories, in which the individuals whose character flaws are exposed are seldom (if ever) shown to grow or evolve. Instead, they end up fired or they fail at their business, and Cloud moves on to talk about someone who has great character and succeeds. We don't find out how the flawed characters found (hopefully) a way to get better. Perhaps Cloud did intervene with some of his clients to make them better, but the mechanics of those interventions is not represented in the book. I am glad I read the book, but I am above all glad to move on to more useful works, which also are written with more care. I will return to the book Immunity to Change by Kegan & Lahey. Cloud shows in his book who we should be as persons to be successful, but Kegan & Lahey offer a step-by-step method to actually grow into the person we want and need to be. I am more comfortable with their approach.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love this book. Absolutely enjoyed listening to this book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As usual, Dr Cloud has written another great book. I recommend anything he writes if you're interested in personal growth. Be prepared to get to work because this scalpel cuts deep.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic read about the importance of character in success. Character ties everything together and it’s necessary to cultivate not just technical and social skills but our character as well. This tittle shows how and why.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While integrity is always only involved with honesty I have learned that integrity involves more than that. I am grateful to understand that integrity is so deep I need to learn more about it again. Let me keep this book close. I'll need to reread it again.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is quite a good and helpful book, in spite of some issues with the title. It's not really about “integrity” in the sense of the meaning you think of when you see it in isolation like this, but more in the sense of “structural integrity.” It's about completeness of character. Unfortunately, the introduction is mostly just about why “integrity” means what it doesn’t, like a bad word study in a sermon, but once you get past the introduction, it’s quite good. It’s focused on business (there’s sort of a second subtitle – “How Six Essential Qualities Determine Your Success in Business”), but all of the qualities it teaches are things that business schools generally don’t think about teaching, because they’re “personal” qualities. As such, they are definitely applicable to one’s personal life as well as to business. The premise of the book is that there are three things that determine success in business – a set of competencies, alliance building, and… the six qualities the book is about, the only one of the three that tends to be neglected in business training. I would summarize the six as establishing trust and connection; honesty to yourself about yourself and reality; getting results through focusing on your strengths, perseverance, making the hard calls, and cutting and learning from your losses; actively dealing with problems; active growth; and being a part of something bigger than yourself. Not the best summary ever, but it’ll do. The qualities are things I already knew were important (I wasn’t going, “Oh, I didn’t know it helped if you connect with people…”), but I still learned quite a bit, I think (“Oh, that’s why it bugs me so much when people do that!” Naw, I learned stuff about myself, not just other people). Overall, I highly recommend it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me encanta este autor, tiene el don de explicar conceptos complejos con una claridad y sencillez que lo hacen ameno sin perder la esencia. Le doy 4 estrellas porque repite ejemplos otros libros, pero aún así vale la pena.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5goood