Book: Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud

Since being married, I’ve picked up some good habits from my wife. Namely, reading every day. We usually go to bed a bit earlier (10:30 or 11PM) and spend 40 minutes to an hour reading. It’s a really great way to unwind compared to what I was used to doing, watching TV.

So far, I recently read through Predictably Irrational. This book really was eye opening to me on various marketing methods I was not implementing and needed to be. I highly recommend it for any internet marketer.

Now I am reading a book my Pastor gave me as a gift (but it’s not “Christian-related” FYI) called Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality

Basically this book is written by Dr. Henry Cloud who consults with many large businesses often when they are having troubles internally and provides six essential qualities that can help your business.

I highly recommend that any Boss, manager, CEO, etc buy this book. Your company and employees with seriously thank you for it.

As an example: In the chapter I am reading Dr. Cloud refers to numerous examples of companies who have disgruntled employees and the company is not doing too well because of it. A big cause of this is because management invalidate the input and critique of others working for them.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons I started hating working at my part time job (computer salesman) when I was first learning affiliate marketing.

One specific example is Dell computers in 2001. The company CEO and President both felt the company was recovering nicely from the huge computer market crash. However, after taking a survey company wide after the summer that they had a bunch of layoffs, almost 50% of the company would leave if they were presented with another job opportunity. Crazy!

Dell (being an extreme introvert), was disconnected and impersonal. He didn’t really even know some of the top 20 managers too well because he was so introvert.

Within a week of the survey, Dell faced his top 20 managers and offered a frank self-critique, acknowledging that he is hugely shy and that it sometimes makes him seem aloof and unapproachable. He vowed to forge tighter bonds within his team. They then began showing a video tape of this to all the managers in the company – several thousand people. Shortly after, Dell adopted desk props to remind them. A Bulldozer cautioned Dell not to ram through ideas without including others.

The results of doing this were unbelievable.

This is the kind of stuff that I love read and it’s just one of many examples used.

I heard once that when you learn from your mistakes it’s wisdom but when you learn from other’s mistakes, it’s smart wisdom. That’s why I really am enjoying this book. It’s helping me to become a better leader, boss, and hopefully will help me grow my business even further.