Integrity

Dr. Henry Cloud’s book “Integrity” tackles the challenge of connecting character to the day to day activities many people face in the work, family, or personal environments.  He shows that being competent at a skill and knowing how to build mutually beneficial relationships is not enough.  Cloud argues that integrity and character (i.e. who a person is) hold people back from getting the results they believe they should achieve.  To make his point, he deconstructs the common personal defense mechanisms that people build over the years to uncover personal truth. Starting with the initial point of truth, Cloud provides a way of thinking about character that goes beyond the traditional definition of integrity and aligns with skill-competency and relationships.

A foundational metaphor that Cloud uses in his book is the wake of a boat.  The wake is a person’s character. The two sides of the wake represent the task to be accomplished and the relationships encountered.  Examining both sides of the wake (their smoothness) provides insight into someone’s personal issues.  How the wake ripples are handled is more telling about a person than the actual presence of the ripples.