I am currently reading Boundaries For Leaders – Results, Relationships and Being Ridiculously In Charge by Dr. Henry Cloud. Twenty years after he co-authored “Boundaries – When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life” Dr. Cloud brings a fresh look to how boundaries relate more specifically to leadership.
Dr. Cloud does an incredible job providing insight on why some people get results and others don’t. Simply stated, when we invest time beyond the boundaries “we should have” we reduce the results we achieve along the way.
Dr. Cloud has taken a complex issue and has broken it down into simple terms that every leader should be able to embrace and implement into their leadership and life style.
This will be the second of three posts exploring what it takes to lead teams, companies and cultures defined by high performance and healthy relationships.
POWER THROUGH CONNECTION
I find it interesting how often we think we are the “only ones” going through a certain challenge. Dr. Cloud brings some great ideas to the surface looking at how we can not only share our thoughts by connecting with others, but can actually change the way we think.
He states that; “improving performance didn’t hinge only on learning new technical skills or on working on the right plan; it depended on changing the team’s mood and improving relationships outside and inside work.“ Working together, connecting as a team, allows us to do this.
THE GATEKEEPER OF THINKING
If you are looking for clarity on the impact between positive and negative thinking, this is the chapter for you. Dr. Cloud makes the following statement: “The prevailing thinking patters of a team or of an organization – its norms and belief systems – will define what it is and what it does.”
A tremendous amount of content and information to process here but the reality is that “positive thinkers” significantly out perform “negative thinkers.” Again, back to what I think is his motto for the entire book “You get what you allow and what you create”, Dr. Cloud shows how the negative thinkers are allowing things to happen while the positive thinkers are creating and making things happen instead of allowing them happen.
CONTROL AND RESULTS
This chapter alone is worth reading this book. Simply put; “Focus your people on what they have control of that directly affects the desired outcomes of the organization.“ Dr. Cloud goes on to say that; “When people’s brains are working at their best, they are more creative, better problem solvers, less reactive, more proactive and goal oriented.”
He further adds that when our thoughts are focused on things that we have no control over, it actually brings our brain functioning down. Focusing on the things that we can control enables and empowers us to create the outcome. Our only actions on things that we don’t control are to allow them to impact us or not. This is typically a matter of choice and should not require a significant investment of time.
This book has really challenged me to take a look at “what I am creating and what I am allowing.” I have already begun to shift my mental efforts into that which I can control with the intent of creating the outcome that I desire.
I offer an exercise from the book that Dr. Cloud had used during training. Take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and on the left side, write down all the things you have no control over. On the right side, write down all the things you do have control over. Now evaluate how much effort you are putting into each side.
My challenge: Start moving towards “Right Side” thinking and watch things start to change.
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Barry Smith 10/16/13 photo courtesy of Amazon © Building What Matters 2013
