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Necessary Endings
Book

Necessary Endings

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

Henry Cloud
HarperBusiness, 2011
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Well Structured
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Clinical psychologist Henry Cloud shares his strategies for negotiating endings, in business and in life. No one likes endings, even for positive change. Ending something that isn’t working is a wise, courageous decision. Cloud shows how to handle endings with skill, clarity and proper intent. He illuminates how businesses can falter and relationships fester due to an inability to accept that a time has come when things aren’t working. The author also covers navigating endings in everyday life. Cloud’s engaging and thoughtful advice will benefit you when you face your own inevitable endings. 

Summary

Stop the Bad to Start the Good

In business and in life, people must decide whether to keep fixing something that isn’t working or to let it go. Growth demands change, and change means endings. To make room for the next good thing, often you must rid yourself of the last bad thing. Endings are difficult. People make excuses to stay with something familiar because they fear the unknown. Most people don’t know how to manage the endings that life forces on them, and that results in unnecessary pain. Failing to end things correctly dooms people to repeating their mistakes. But when good endings are done well, they bring hope.

“Pruning”

Gardeners prune rosebushes for three reasons: to foster the best buds because the plant can only sustain a certain number of blooms; to eliminate sick branches that won’t recover; and to clear out dead branches to make space for new growth. Pruning optimizes and sustains the viability of the plant. Failing to prune means accepting mediocrity or even failure. Still, people resist cutting things out of their lives...

About the Author

Dr. Henry Cloud is a clinical psychologist and leadership expert. His books on business leadership include Boundaries, Integrity and The Power of the Other. 

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