Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward. HarperBusiness, 2011.
Referenced in: Ministry Transitions, Ending Ministry, Leave-Taking
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Cloud is one of the authors of the famed Boundaries series, and this book is written in that vein, i.e. helping people know how to end relationships that are not productive, and move on to other areas that are important to one’s personal and professional growth. While ministers may want to balance his advice with material on “call” in the areas of Pastoral Theology and Strengthening and Renewing the Ministry Call, there is no doubt that ministers must at times break from situations where either they or those they serve would best benefit by moving on. In these cases, it is hard to find better advice than this book. Some chapters that may especially help ministers:
- When Stuck is the New Normal: The Difference Between Pain With a Purpose and Pain for No Good Reason.
- Hoping versus Wishing: The Difference Between What’s Worth Fixing and What Should End.
- Having the Conversation: Strategies for Ending Things Well.
From the Publisher
End Pain.
Foster Personal and Professional Growth.
Live Better.
While endings are a natural part of business and life, we often experience them with a sense of hesitation, sadness, resignation, or regret. But consultant, psychologist, and bestselling author Dr. Henry Cloud sees endings differently. He argues that our personal and professional lives can only improve to the degree that we can see endings as a necessary and strategic step to something better. If we cannot see endings in a positive light and execute them well, he asserts, the “better” will never come either in business growth or our personal lives.
In this insightful and deeply empathetic book, Dr. Cloud demonstrates that, when executed well, “necessary endings” allow us to proactively correct the bad and the broken in our lives in order to make room for the professional and personal growth we seek. However, when endings are avoided or handled poorly—as is too often the case—good opportunities may be lost, and misery repeated. Drawing on years of experience as an executive coach and a psychologist, Dr. Cloud offers a mixture of advice and case studies to help readers:
- Know when to have realistic hope and when to execute a necessary ending in a business, or with an individual;
- Identify which employees, projects, activities, and relationships are worth nurturing and which are not;
- Overcome people’s resistance to change and create change that works;
- create urgency and an action plan for what’s important;
- top wasting resources needed for the things that really matter.
Knowing when and how to let go when something, or someone, isn’t working—a personal relationship, a job, or a business venture—is essential for happiness and success. Necessary Endings gives readers the tools they need to say good-bye and move on.
About the Authors
Dr. Henry Cloud is a popular speaker, and co-host, with Dr. John Townsend, of the nationally broadcast New Life Live! Radio program, and cofounder of Cloud-Townsend Clinic and Cloud-Townsend Resources. His bestselling books include the Gold Medallion Award-winning Boundaries books and Making Small Groups Work. Dr. Cloud and his wife and two daughters live in Southern California.
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