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Meeting the Demands of Reality

An Interview with Henry Cloud
Outcomes, Nov/Dec 2006

Dr. Henry Cloud believes integrity is often an overlooked or forgotten essential for leadership. In 2006, he wrote Integrity, to help managers and leaders develop the courage to meet the demands of reality. In this latest book, Dr. Cloud addresses six qualities that he believes determine an individual's success in business.

Dr. Cloud, a keynote speaker for CMA Palm Springs 2007, kindly took a break from his consulting and speaking schedule to talk to our readers about integrity and what that means, particularly to those working in Christian organizations.

CMR: Dr. Cloud, what's on the top of your mind these days as you think about the managers and leaders in Christian organizations?

Cloud: I'd begin by saying that truly great managers and leaders are the ones who, at a very deep level, are working on becoming whole, integrated people, more than honest, ethical and above board. There were a lot of ways in which the Pharisees were honest, ethical and above board. But they weren't very integrated in some of the deeper aspects of development that Jesus talked about.

Many times, management and leadership training focuses primarily on developing competencies within the industry, job skills, and becoming more knowledgeable about the business or even the niche of ministry you're in. In Christian settings, there's often a strong focus, broadly speaking, on character development and ethics. There's also an emphasis on a person's need to be faithful in growing spiritually.

But, my experience from 25 years of leadership consulting is that, oftentimes, the ways people think about character development and growth doesn't really get at all the dimensions that really need to be addressed, in order for a person to be an effective leader. That's what this book, Integrity, is really about. In fact, my working title was "The Forgotten Essential of Leadership." What I'm referring to is the character development of the leader in areas beyond what we normally think about as character.

CMR: What would be some of those aspects or areas you feel Christian managers and leaders tend to overlook?

Cloud: The first aspect would be the leader's ability to create and maintain trust with the people they lead. A lot of leaders can establish trust in the beginning, through their vision and persuasive abilities. That's what a leader does. He or she says: "We can do this … " That same strength of persuasion, however, all too often becomes a force that gets in the way of their listening to or really understanding the people they lead.

Along the way, persuasion cannot be your only tool. You have to have more mature relational and emotional intelligence and the ability to connect with people in order for that trust to thrive. That's one of the areas where leaders can and need to grow—to create and maintain trust, past the vision casting.