Leaders make necessary endings.

"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."  ~Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings, pg. 7.

 

Necessary Endings.  I thought that was a great book title and since I was familiar with the author, Dr. Henry Cloud, I was even more intrigued.

In my work as a consultant, I work with clients who are attempting to grow their organizations.  But many times growth ends up being a process of piling on, more and more.  

The title of the second chapter of Necessary Endings is "Pruning: Growth Depends on Getting Rid of the Unwanted or the Superfluous."  Dr. Cloud uses the analogy of pruning to describe what he really means by necessary endings.  He says that a gardener will intentionally and purposefully cut off branches and buds that fall into three categories:

1. Healthy buds or branches that are not the best ones

The caretaker constantly examines the bush to see which buds are worthy of the plant's limited fuel and support and cuts the others away.  He prunes them.  Takes them away, never to return.  He ends their role in the life of the bush and puts an end to the bush's having to divert resources to them.  In doing so, the gardener frees those needed resources so the plant can redirect them to the buds with the greatest potential to become mature.  Those buds get the best that the bush has to offer, and they thrive and grow to fullness.

2. Sick branches that are not going to get well.

Some branches are sick or diseased and are not ever going to make it.  For a while, the gardener may monitor them, fertilize and nurture them, or otherwise try to make them healthy.  But at some point, he realizes that more water, more fertilizer, or more care is just not going to help.  For whatever reason, they are not going to recover and become what he needs them to be to create the final picture of beauty he wants for the bush and the garden.

3. Dead branches that are taking up space needed for the healthy ones to thrive.

Then there are the branches and buds that are dead and taking up space.  The healthy branches need that room to reach their full length and height, but they cannot spread when dead branches force them to bend and turn corners; they should be growing straight for the goal.  To give the healthy blooms and branches room and an unobstructed path to grow, the dead ones are cut away.

Cloud says that executing the three types of necessary endings, as described above, is what characterizes people who get results.

I'll write more about Necessary Endings in future weeks.  In the meantime, for my own business as well as working with clients on strategic planning, pruning will become a critical piece of  thinking strategically and creating growth initiatives.