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    Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward
    Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward
    Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward
    Ebook295 pages5 hours

    Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward

    By Henry Cloud

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    About this ebook

    “If you’re hesitant to pull the trigger when things obviously aren't working out, Henry Cloud’s Necessary Endings may be the most important book you read all year.” —Dave Ramsey, New York Times bestselling author of The Total Money Makeover

    “Cloud is a wise, experienced, and compassionate guide through [life’s] turbulent passages.” —Bob Buford, bestelling author of Halftime and Finishing Well; founder of the Leadership Network

    Henry Cloud, the bestselling author of Integrity and The One-Life Solution, offers this mindset-altering method for proactively correcting the bad and the broken in our businesses and our lives. Cloud challenges readers to achieve the personal and professional growth they both desire and deserve—and gives crucial insight on how to make those tough decisions that are standing in the way of a more successful business and, ultimately, a better life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 18, 2011
    ISBN9780062024985
    Author

    Henry Cloud

    El doctor Henry Cloud es un conferencista de gran popularidad. Junto al doctor John Townsend es anfitrión del programa de radio New Life Live!, además de ambos ser fundadores de la Clínica Cloud-Townsend y de la organización Cloud-Townsend Resources. Es autor de varios libros premiados con el reconocimiento Medalla de Oro, entre ellos Límites y El poder transformador de los grupos pequeños. El doctor Cloud, su esposa y sus dos hijas radican en el sur de California.

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    4/5

    64 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      When parts of our lives end, we often feel sadness, remorse, or approach the ending with a sense of foreboding or hesitation. Necessary Endings shows us a different way to look at endings in our lives. They are, not only necessary, but a step to something better and until we let go, we don't let ourselves be open to future possibilities. Great personal growth book.
    • 4/5
      The author shares his experiences related to the corporate world and explain how to deal with situations that seems will never end.
    • 4/5
      Book that was recommended to me and that I resisted reading. However, I found it to be very helpful and clarifying.
    • 5/5
      I listened to this book on Audible. It is very appropriate for the stage in my life, where I tried to restore my marriage with unfaithful husband and no matter what I did, wasn’t helpful.
      Recommend the book
    • 3/5
      While the audio has a few great ideas, overall it felt drawn out. I liked his emphasis on embracing endings as part of life and his analogy of endings to pruning a bush. A bush produces more buds than it can sustain so by removing ones that are not the best puts more energy into the ones that are. Removing dead ones is easy; the challenge is recognizing which ones are going to be the best and feeling OK about removing ones that are average. Unfortunately, once you get past the ideas the examples and advice were weak. I am on the fence about recommending it; however it is worth reading because it does explore endings and makes one think.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Test test test test test test test test test test test

    Book preview

    Necessary Endings - Henry Cloud

    Preface

    Today may be the enemy of your tomorrow.

    In your business and perhaps your life, the tomorrow that you desire and envision may never come to pass if you do not end some things you are doing today. For some people, that is clear and easy to execute. They end the things that are holding them back. For others, it is more difficult. This book is about that problem and how to get the results you desire by ending the things whose time has passed.

    In it you will see that endings are a natural part of the universe, and your life and business must face them, stagnate, or die. They are an inherent reality. You will also see that there are different kinds of endings and that learning how to tell one from the other will ensure some successes and prevent many failures and much misery, ending substantial pain and turmoil that you or your business may now be encountering.

    You will learn that there are reasons why you may not see the endings that are right in front of you, and reasons why you have been unable to execute the ones that you do see but feel paralyzed to deal with. But more than learning to see them, you will also find successful strategies for dealing with them.

    And you will find that there is hope for some people and some business problems that seem hopeless to you now, but the problem has been in misdiagnosing what there’s hope for and where there’s none, and in mistaking which tactics will not help realize that hope and which ones will.

    All in all, my hope is that you will be comfortable and confident in seeing, negotiating, and even celebrating some endings that may be the door to a future even brighter than you could have imagined.

    Chapter 1

    Endings: The Good Cannot Begin Until the Bad Ends

    There it was again, that sinking feeling in his gut. He was noticing it more and more, at the same time each morning. It was happening each time he pulled into his parking spot at corporate headquarters and turned the ignition off, in that moment of silence when the radio shut down and he hadn’t yet opened his car door to go into the building. He could no longer deny that it was real nor that it had become consistent: he didn’t want to go into the office.

    He felt a heaviness inside that was the opposite of his natural drive. Stephen was the type who was always pushing ahead. As a kid, he was the first one to run onto the field; in a group, the one to say, Let’s go do this; in a business crisis, the one to pick up the ball and move it forward, no matter what the obstacle. He was passionate by nature and had no problem engaging with life. But now, each morning in his car, he had to admit that he felt no strong drive to go into that building and gear up for another day of making it work. That drive had been replaced by this heaviness, which was anything but motivating. This was not a feeling that he was used to.

    So on this particular morning he didn’t do what he normally did, which was to reach into the well of his natural optimism and make himself dive in. Instead, he restarted his car and drove to a park he passed each day on the way to work. He spotted a bench that would do fine. He just wanted to think.

    As he sat down, he realized two things. First, he had not really let himself do much of this: thinking. He had been too busy and caught up in the events of the last few years since he took the helm of the company, and he had not taken enough time to reflect. He had just worked hard, because it was needed. The company that he loved and had felt would be his home forever was not going where he thought it would go. It had stalled out more than a year ago, and it still wasn’t turning around. Life seemed to be draining out of the business, and now it felt more like a task and a duty to run it than the love affair it had been in the beginning. The honeymoon was over, but he had treated that as just another challenge to immerse himself in. That was who he was.

    But what he realized at this moment was that the activity level had kept him from thinking too deeply, and when he did allow himself to pause, he realized the second thing: if he did think deeply, he would run into some thoughts that he did not want to have.

    But, on this morning, he allowed himself to go there. He asked himself questions: What is this heaviness inside really about? What is it that drains me?

    When he got out of his own way and allowed himself to be honest with himself, it did not take long for his gut to speak to him.

    First, there was the strategy of the whole thing. He had taken the CEO job because profits were good but not great. To him, that seemed like an opportunity. He was a performer, and throughout his career, he’d demonstrated that he truly could get more out of things than other people had gotten out of them before. He was smart, and he could execute. Using sheer horsepower and efficiency alone, he knew that there was growth in the existing numbers, not to mention in what new revenue he could realize through introducing new products and adding new sales territories.

    But in the last year, with all of his talents and efforts applied as diligently as he knew how, the growth was not happening. That had to mean something else, and the something else was scary. It meant that the world was changing, the market was changing, but the company had not really changed with it. His team had just tried to do what they were already doing but do it better. And when he let himself realize the truth, he had to admit that the bright future he had imagined wasn’t going to materialize until he made some big changes in direction.

    To do that, though, would mean a lot of things to him that he didn’t want to go through. It meant going to his board of directors and having a battle. It meant admitting that he had not been able to make the old way work, and to him that was admitting failure. Few things were worse.

    But even worse than that, it meant some very hard decisions about people. A new direction that involved more technology and trickier financing would not work with many of the people he had in key positions. How would he remove them? Where would he put them? And even worse, would he have to get rid of them?

    Related to that was one of the most difficult truths in this face-the-facts session. Although Stephen was the CEO, and in charge, there was a crack in the foundation of his role that he had never fully addressed, and that was one of the biggest causes for his heavy gut: Chris. Chris was the son of the founder, put into his position of VP of Marketing by Stephen’s predecessor, the founder’s brother and Chris’s uncle. Their hope at the time was that Chris would one day be the CEO, and they had placed him in this role as part of that succession plan.

    But the truth was that not only was Chris not CEO material, he was not even the right stuff for an executive team. Stephen felt that he was carrying extra weight around with Chris in the way, and everything would be better if Chris were gone. To go there, however, would mean that he would be asking the company to make a huge choice: family or business? Every time he thought of that, he did not like either outcome. If he forced the question of Chris’s future but lost, Stephen knew his plans for the future would be forever held back, and he would then be resented by the pro-Chris camp, not to mention by Chris himself. On the other hand, if the board allowed him to get rid of Chris, Stephen would be free of the obstacle but would live in the relational aftermath of it all. The cure might be worse than the disease.

    But another part of him said that that is what real leaders have to do—make the hard decisions. When he thought about that, he took inventory. Could he deal with a complete overhaul, going to the board, and retooling the whole thing? Could he let go of people whom he truly cared about? And the big questions: Could he force the board to decide whether or not they would allow him to pick his own team? And if they said no, was he ready to leave and do something else where he wouldn’t be shackled by an unsolvable problem?

    As Stephen went through each of these questions, he felt two opposing emotions. The first was exhilaration, the kind of energy that he knew related to building a future that had life in it. The second emotion was fear, related to what would happen if he actually went through those doors to the future. But he also noticed something else: the heaviness was gone. It had been replaced with another feeling, a new kind of determination to face reality, which was simultaneously motivating and scary.

    He knew that to cross that divide, to face the fear and jump over that canyon, would require doing some hard things, relationally and emotionally. And he also knew that crossing it was going to require him to learn some new skills, as he had never quite gone through a doorway as big as this one. But he also knew that in spite of all that, he could not keep going the way he was going. Stephen was ready to act, to give up on what wasn’t working and to start focusing his attention on the changes that needed to be made. He got back in the car, started the engine, and headed back to the office—this time a little faster. He was ready. Nothing had changed in the business yet, but something had changed in Stephen.

    What happened on that park bench and where he went from there is the subject of this book.

    Stephen was at a moment that we all come to, or should come to, more regularly than we think. How we deal with those moments will determine much about the direction of not only our work but also our lives. Whether or not Stephen would follow through, what that follow-through would look like, and what it would require from him to do it and get to the future that either the company needs or he himself desires—all that is the subject of this book.

    With few exceptions, I always try to write about topics that pass three requirements: First, they must be issues that I have worked with extensively in real settings. This ensures that I am not writing about an idea, or a theory but real experiences, methods, and results. I want readers to feel that this rings true and is based in the real world where they live and work. I know no other way to have that happen than to do the work first, before I write about it.

    Second, I prefer to write about topics that I see people connecting with in many settings as I work and speak. In other words, I may personally care about something but find that it is not a very big felt need for others. So the topics that qualify have to resonate with people where they are, in what they are going through, and for what they need. These topics, to me, have the most heat, because they help people identify and put into words things they are experiencing yet have never quite been able to understand and express. But when they see the issues made clear, something connects with them inside, and moments of insight and movement occur.

    Third, the topics have to matter. I want to talk about issues and practices that have substantial leverage and, when implemented, can create quantum change. There are topics that are real and that people connect with but that are not monumental in their effect. Then there are those topics that have enormous impact, and those are the ones that pass the this matters test.

    Which brings me to necessary endings. It is a subject that results in immediate phone calls or e-mails after I talk about it. People say, I got it . . . and I took a step that I now see I have been putting off for some time, or tell me they took some immediate actions as a result of the talk or the consultation. And the results can transform an individual or a company.

    Necessary endings by their very nature are real and relevant and, when implemented, can bring incredible results. When needed endings are done well, people succeed. When they’re done poorly or not at all, people don’t. Let’s take a look at why and how.

    The Universality of Endings

    Why endings? Whether we like it or not, endings are a part of life. They are woven into the fabric of life itself, both when it goes well, and also when it doesn’t. On the good side of life, for us to ever get to a new level, a new tomorrow, or the next step, something has to end. Life has seasons, stages, and phases. For there to be anything new, old things always have to end, and we have to let go of them. Infancy gives rise to toddlerhood, and must be forever shunned in order to get to the independence that allows a child to thrive. Later, childhood itself must be given up for people to become the adults that they were designed to be.

    Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on. Growth itself demands that we move on. Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talents and abilities should afford them.

    In business, endings often are absolute necessities for a turnaround or for growth to occur. Businesses must sometimes let go of old product lines or even entire areas of business whose day has passed. To get to the next level and often even to sustain their companies’ current levels of health, business leaders must shut down yesteryear’s good ideas, strategies, or involvements in order to have the resources and focus to take their organizations to tomorrow. Sometimes it means that employees have to be let go too.

    Endings are also an important factor in our personal lives. There are relationships that should go away, practices and phases that must be relinquished, and life stages that should come to an end to open up the space for the next one. A breakup, an ending of some friendships or activities, or an unplugging from some commitments often signals the beginning of a whole new life. It is a necessary step I refer to as pruning, a concept that we will examine in more depth in chapter 2.

    Some endings are not a next natural step but are just as necessary. We wish they weren’t, but they are. They come about not in pursuit of growth to the next level, but because something has gone wrong. It’s been said that some things die and some things need to be killed.

    Many times a business is stuck in something that is not working, and the leadership step required is to shut it down or pull out of it. It is failing and can’t be fixed. Or there are poor performers who have been allowed to remain too long and need to be fired. On the flip side, some people should quit jobs that are causing them harm.

    In the personal realm, we can get stuck in situations or relationships that are hurtful, problematic, or toxic and must be ended. Or sometimes it is not relationships we need to end but behaviors—destructive patterns and practices that hold us back. In many contexts, until we let go of what is not good, we will never find something that is good. The lesson: good cannot begin until bad ends.

    In both normal life and life gone wrong, endings are a necessity. As the Byrds reminded us in their Sixties song Turn, Turn, Turn, there is a season to everything. Taken from Ecclesiastes, the message is that there is a season for things to begin and a season for them to end, and that’s how life works. Perhaps you have heard or read this famous passage many times, but take another look and focus your attention on the prevalent role of endings throughout:

    There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

    Endings are not only part of life; they are a requirement for living and thriving, professionally and personally. Being alive requires that we sometimes kill off things in which we were once invested, uproot what we previously nurtured, and tear down what we built for an earlier time. Refraining, giving up, throwing away, tearing down, hating what we once cherished—all are necessary. Endings are the reason you are not married to your prom date nor still working in your first job. But without the ability to do endings well, we flounder, stay stuck, and fail to reach our goals and dreams. Or worse, we remain in painful and sometimes destructive situations. Endings are crucial, but we rarely like them. Hence the problem.

    Why We Avoid Endings

    Endings are necessary, but the truth is that we often do not do them well. Although we need them for good results to happen in life and for bad situations to be resolved, the reality is that most of us humans often avoid them or botch them.

    • We hang on too long when we should end something now.

    • We do not know if an ending is actually necessary, or if it or he is fixable.

    • We are afraid of the unknown.

    • We fear confrontation.

    • We are afraid of hurting someone.

    • We are afraid of letting go and the sadness associated with an ending.

    • We do not possess the skills to execute the ending.

    • We do not even know the right words to use.

    • We have had too many and too painful endings in our personal history, so we avoid another one.

    • When they are forced upon us, we do not know how to process them, and we sink or flounder.

    • We do not learn from them, so we repeat the same mistakes over and over.

    Question: As you reflect on these reasons, can you think of any situations where these reasons have interfered with an ending you needed to make?

    The aftermath of the global economic crisis of 2008 has required significant and largely unanticipated resets in major companies, forcing many to initiate painful and significant restructuring. At the same time, the crisis also brought to a head many problems that had long been apparent yet were never acted upon. There were endings waiting to be had, needing to be had, yet unexecuted. Why does that happen?

    The American auto industry, for example, was forced to finally discontinue brands that cost more to manufacture than they produced in profits.. Certainly some accountant had done the math, but the necessary endings still weren’t executed until the crisis or bankruptcy courts forced the issue. Why?

    Many other kinds of businesses stepped up and cut fat out of their bureaucracies, only to realize later that the cuts had been long overdue. The economic crisis gave them the push they needed to do what they should have done much sooner. In the months following the meltdown, many leaders told me things like this: Some of this crisis was good for us. These are changes we should have made years ago.

    The leadership growth question then became, Why didn’t you? Figure that out and you won’t wait next time. Likewise, more than a few leaders also told me that they were grateful the crisis gave them the excuse to remove staff members who stood in the way and kept the company from going where it needed to go. Again the question is, Why were those people still there?

    The Real Reason

    The answers to the why questions typically have little to do with the business itself. Often, there are no good business reasons for waiting to do something that should be done now. Of course, there are times when potential collateral damage to other aspects of the business or other strategic issues makes it prudent not to execute an ending, but that is the exception not the rule. The real reason is this:

    Something about the leaders’ personal makeup gets in their way.

    Leaders are people, and people have issues that get in the way of the best-made ideas, plans, and realities. And when it comes to endings, there is no shortage of issues that keep people stuck.

    Somewhere along the line, we have not been equipped with the discernment, courage, and skills needed to initiate, follow through, and complete these necessary endings. We are not prepared to go where we need to go. So we do not clearly see the need to end something, or we maintain false hope, or we just are not able to do it. As a result, we stay stuck in what should now be in our past. And these abilities are not only lacking in the world of business. They appear in the personal side of life as well.

    Think of the now ubiquitous failure to launch syndrome of those twenty- or thirty-somethings still living with their parents. They cannot end childhood and fully enter adulthood. But the bigger issue is often the parents’ inability to end the pattern and stop the toxic dependency by pushing the grown kid out of the nest. They refuse to end their helping role, which is not in fact helping. Another tragic example is the inability of many women to walk out the door when they are being abused. Fears and vulnerabilities keep them stuck in devastating patterns that ought to end. Likewise, in the world of work, because of security fears, some cannot leave jobs that are keeping them stuck and unfulfilled. In sum, we are not prepared or equipped to take the next step, the one we really need to take.

    And it is not only the endings that we must proactively execute that are problematic. There are also the endings that are forced upon us, endings we do not

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