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What does it take to be successful? When Dr. Henry Cloud was asked by a friend, a mother with two almost-adult sons, to talk to her boys about that subject, he ticked off the first two: competency, even mastery, in their chosen field-you can only fake it for so long-and becoming an alliance builder. The third ingredient is closer to both Cloud's heart and his work with senior executives in all types of business. In the vernacular that young men understand, he told them that although those who possess the first two abilities are a dime a dozen, what the boys needed to be really successful was the character to not screw it up.
"Making it," says Cloud, involves more than talent or ability, is more than just being competent and able to make deals-it has as much to do with personhood and character. And although most people would agree that "character counts," what they often mean is that character and integrity are "safeguards" against bad things happening. (Plenty of people are seeking the real meaning of "integrity"-it was the most frequently looked-up word on the Merriam-Webster Web site in 2005, the year that brought us a national conversation about author James Prey's integrity, or lack of, in a nonfiction memoir.) What Cloud maintains, though, is that your personhood-character and integrity-will ultimately determine if your brain, talent, competency, energy, effort, and opportunities will succeed.
"In more than 20 years of working with CEOs, boards, management teams, partners, investors, and those with a stake in their performance, I've seen many people of integrity who were not making it in some way," says Cloud. "While they meet the general criteria for having integrity, they also leave a trail of falling short in some key areas of performance that left them, as well as their stakeholders and others who depend on them, wanting more."
Cloud recently shared his views on character from his new book, Integrity (HarperCollins Publishers), on gaining trust, and knowing when to give up and lose well.
1 This is your first book expressly for a business audience. What made you believe you had something important to say for this, group? What are they hungry for?
When I went into private practice in 1981 I...