This is a review of the book, Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge by Dr. Henry Cloud, a well-known clinical psychologist and leadership consultant and coauthor of Boundaries.

Who doesn’t want to be ridiculously in charge! I immediately began to dive into this book after reading that heading!

The principles in the book are universal. What ever you lead, you can make it thrive. This book is about what leaders need to do in order for people to accomplish a vision. It takes a great amount of time to get the people in your organization to be on the same page and working together in harmony.

Many of you reading this review are natural leaders and visionaries with an organization chart of followers or team players. Over time, you begin to realize the temperament and moods of each player on your team. You hear negative comments, grumbling, complaining…you need production and movement yet your team is stuck in a mire of negativism and lousy excuses for not producing. Soon you find yourself as a referee and “people manager” while the vision and goals you hoped the team would accomplish is sidelined.

If this is you, please read, Boundaries for Leaders. You will learn how to change your team’s moods and improve relationship outside and inside work. Dr. Cloud writes about a “working memory”…how are you establishing boundaries to include positive conditions and to rid the negative elements that stand in your way of production.  “Our brains need positive relationship to grow and function well.” [1] You want to establish a “working memory” with each person on your team.

You will learn what a “working memory” is after reading, Boundaries for Leaders.

As a leader, we don’t want people just to show up…we want them to soar! You want your team to attend  to the clearly defined vision and goals. Hopefully, you will inhibit the negative diatribes that diminish motivation and enthusiasm, and  cause them to remember .

Attend. Inhibit. Remember.

What do you want your team (employees, family, volunteers)  to remember?  Definitely not the negative comments and attitudes.

It’s all about “brain function”…find and focus on the things that you can control that affect outcomes. [2] In the end, as a leader, you are always going to get a combination of two things: what you create and what you allow. [3]  Through reading this book, I was motivated to set limits on the behaviors that sow the seeds of negative emotional climate and to realize how negative behavior infects others.

As a ministry team leader, I strive against silos, compartmentalization, personal agendas, isolation and division among people. [4] Weeks later, after reading this book, I continue to recall helpful tactics Dr. Cloud taught throughout the book. Here is one for you to save: ” …it is never about self-advancement but about seeking to meet their needs.” [5]

I highly recommend this book as instrumental with helping you align your organization (employees, family, volunteers) in order to create healthy boundaries for remarkable progress.

[1] page 83 │ [2] page 130 │ [3] page 15 │ [4] page 17  │ [5] page 219

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255