Book Review
After skimming and then reading Integrity, our most difficult task was to classify the book so that we could explain it. We’ll try.
Dr. Cloud has written an excellent, “Yeah But” book. Integrity is a fun, easy book to read as well as a sobering, difficult book to read. It isn’t a business roadmap book. Instead it is more of a lifestyle enhancement guide that can help you achieve personal satisfaction different from great financial wealth -- and professional satisfaction/success.
When we first skimmed the book we said “yeah but” quite a bit because we couldn’t fault Dr. Cloud’s key points and discussion. You have a tendency to read and agree with the six essential qualities for success that he outlines and explains then experience or rationalization steps in and says…”yeah but if we had done that awhile back when were in this situation, we would have been nailed!”
That’s why we strongly encourage you to read Integrity in a different way than you might most books if you really want to get the author’s message (and we believe he has a message for everyone in the industry!).
Skim the book, put it down and leave it alone for a week or two. Then pick it up and read really read the book with the idea that you’re going to understand the key reality issues and can use them to enhance every aspect of your life.
Integrity really is a must-read!!!!
A clinical psychologist, Cloud has identified a set of key character traits ability to transcend, ability to focus on growth, ability to understand and deal with negatives, ability to focusing on results and finishing tasks, connecting in an authentic manner and orientation toward truth. The book helps you come to grips with adversity, learn from it and reshape/relearn behavioral patterns that will help you succeed.
Using real examples from business leaders across the spectrum P&G, Dell Computer, Toshiba, 7-Eleven and other organizations he makes it easy for you to understand how successful people enhance their competencies, build business and personal alliances and enrich their own character.
The ability to transcend according to Cloud means being able to lead programs and projects with a greater truth because people like to be around individuals who are committed to the greater mission and in making the project/program succeed.
Concerning the demands of reality, he notes that we have to constantly grow and increase our abilities, skills and capacities as a total person; not just on the job. We particularly liked his examination of what happens when individuals or their surroundings suppress the natural desire to grow by not taking calculated risks. Mistakes and “failures” can help you enhance your integrity.
Problems occur and “stuff” happens but Cloud points out that if people are able to address the negatives and work through them to a positive solution then they can regroup and recover. Often achieving even more than they had anticipated.
Successful people seem to have a unique ability to make the tough decisions that allow they to realize their goals. Granted they don’t always win but they know how to lose gracefully and learn from the shortcoming. If you ask 100 people if they work hard the majority will claim they do but Cloud asserts that they don’t achieve lofty goals. They don’t achieve what he calls real results because they don’t make the hard choices and if they achieve a partial win they are satisfied and don’t push for the ultimate goal.
Cloud focuses heavily on truth which in his opinion allows people to find and work in reality. He emphasizes that people who are constantly expanding their integrity actively pursue reality, grab it and make it work for them.
We found his explanation of successful people who had integrity were also authentic or real. We can all identify people who are nice because they understand and empathize with people’s needs. Adding to that he notes that leaders and successful people are simultaneously seem strong and vulnerable as well as trusting and committed. He emphasizes that people who can connect with you in a way that makes you understand that they value these key component increases their integrity in your mind and enables/encourages you to help them achieve goals.
Cloud has spelled out the traits that anyone can develop if they work at it hard enough so that they become second nature and as natural as breathing. Then you can look in the mirror and state emphatically that you have integrity. More importantly, it will encourage those around you to deal with their personal and business encounters with integrity.
If we were to fault Cloud’s work in any way it would be that the underlying premise of the book is that people who have integrity and face up to reality achieve financially. But maybe that’s the motivation you’re going to need deal with integrity and reality in your personal and professional life.
Whatever your goals, Integrity should be skimmed, read and reread until the six characteristics are natural to you.
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Book Review - To learn more about this author, visit Andy Marken's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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