Zac Wood

Le 1220
3/31/19
Book Report
Book Report on “How Full is your Bucket?” by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton
In the book, it talks about the bucket and the dipper which is a metaphor for taking and
giving from people emotionally. The bucket is you or the person we are talking about, it goes
along with how much good emotion can fill it and how bad emotions can empty the bucket. Now
the dipper is the effect you have on people. You can take away from someone by beating them
up emotionally like yelling at them, hurt them, making them and or drag them down emotionally.
This refers to the term of dipping your dipper in someone else’s bucket, now to fill someone’s
bucket you must draw from your own bucket. To get you must give, to make some one feel
better you have to help them.
One major example of taking from someone else’s that are explained in the first that is
used was a story of an internment camp in Japan. In this camp they would never torcher them,
they never harassed them, and these soldiers would never try and to escape or kill their captors.
The prisoners would just lay down and go to sleep and die in their sleep. It was later figure out
that the captors were giving them there bad mail, the mail like there bills, the break up letters and
death news of a loved one. This what they did to them to break them in to almost a comatose
state where they had given up on life. By doing this they had emptied their buckets so that they
were bone dry and may have caused them to die.
Now on the other side one of the best ways to fill someone’s bucket is to do nice thing to
them like pay attention to them, understanding their needs and sometimes just listening to them.
Like in chapter 2 when it talks about customer service reperceives and how their attitude towards
customers and how it affected them coming back. Most of the time employees drove people
away, but the few that actually listen to the problem kept there customers around and had them
come back to them company, with that listening that also that also put some stuff back into those
people’s buckets. Just by simply listening to people can change their day and make them feel
better.
One of the statements in the book talks about customer service, “a study showed negative
employees can scare off customers they speak with -for good.” The new statement I came up
with was that statement to replace this is “Attitude is the first thing people notice about you, no
matter if you are talking to them or not” I changed this one because I thought it had the most to
give to not just work life but everyday life. This is something that is some people forget to
remember some days and by put that on there then maybe can remember it again. Hopefully try
to be better to everyone around them.
In chapter 4 it talks about Rath talks about his childhood and how it was affected the over
flowing bucket theory. He goes on to talk about how he was raised by his family always back
him in anything he did and was always watching for his natural talents to come out. When they
did show up his family would go on to nurture those talents, so he was always growing as a
person, like his drive to open a business his family would go out of there way to help him to
grow his business and show him how to do everything. Another thing Rath goes on to talk about
is the is the way his family treated him when it came to school they would focus more on the
things he was passing like Math, English or Science class, instead of criticizing him for not doing
well in music or art. His parents would ask about his favorite classes and any extracurricular
activities, unlike his friend’s parents that would criticize them for doing things like not doing
well on a test or bring a friend over with out warning them first. Rath found the connection that
his parents were always filling his bucket giving him this reserve of over flowing good emotions
that he could use later in life, like when he got diagnosed with a “genetic abnormality” or
Hippel-Lindau disease.
In chapter 5, Rath goes on to talk about the concept of “making it personal,” he goes on
to use a story about a supervisor and an employee. In this story the supervisor tries to give
recognition where it is due to the employee, where she uses one fits all recognition system where
it ends in the worse case for the supervisor. When she tried again but listened to him and made it
a more personal recognition then some generic one she got the results that she actually wanted.
Showing that a one size fits all policy is never the right way to go when it comes to recognition
and that if you are looking for that person to enjoy the recognition then you make it different for
every person.
In chapter 6, Rath gives five strategies to help to give back to other people instead of
taking from them.
Strategy 1 is called “preventing bucket dipping” and this strategy is a habit of kinds so
that you make it to where you don’t drip from some ones any more. This is a hard one from me
because I like to tease people and poke buttons sometimes, but I also know that there is a line
and open wounds sometimes. I try never hard not to step on those and or make those wounds any
bigger. At work a lot we tease and stuff and poke buttons but sometimes we go a little far, but we
always try and make each other feel good at the end of the day.
Strategy 2 is “shine on what is right,” this is a strategy for look at the right side of
everything instead of the bad side. In last few months I tried to do this without knowing it, I have
tried to look at everyday being a new day even though I am still doing the same thing every day
and I try to find the little things that I enjoy in life like sunset are a major thing I enjoy or going
really fast down an open road.
Strategy 3 is “making best friends” this is the strategy where you need to have some you
can talk to about stuff no matter what. I have failed in the last few years, I got in a huge fight
with my best friend so we haven’t spoken in a few years and my other one well she’s a girl so
her boyfriend doesn’t really like me so I don’t really have a best friend right now, even at work I
don’t really I have a best friend I just have a friend.
Strategy 4 is “Giving Unexpectedly” this not just about giving gifts its more like giving
compliments or small notes of encouragement, stuff that will make people feel all warm and
fuzzy inside. I use to do this a lot as a kid but I eventually had to stop because I was getting
bullied for it. After a while I gave up doing it and now I very rarely do it and when I do it comes
out really creepy too. I try and give my girlfriend them to my girlfriend, but I get way to nervous
about doing it.
Strategy 5 is “reverse the golden rule” this one talks about the new golden rule that is
“Do unto to others as they would have you do unto them.” Which is a way better look at that
phrase then the old one. One thing I have always tried to do is be 10x better than the worse
people you can ever meet. When I was in high school I always tried my absolute best to try and
make sure that everyone I ran into was a little bit better than what I found them, but now a days I
don’t get to do that it was a lot easier when I could always run into people but now I very rarely
make friends anymore, but to those few I do like last semester I meet some guy and they showed
me how great the world can be and I showed them that sometimes its not just the big things in
life but the small ones that can change your life.
I am not the worlds greatest employee but I’m also not the worst one ever. I have a
problem with being tardy when it comes to work I try my hardest to never be late more than 5
minutes, but there is those day I fail at that. Its really hard not to be late sometimes when I live
on the west side and work on the east side of the valley so if bad weather hits then I have the
responsibility to get early in the morning.
My attitude towards work is like my attitude for life everyday is a new day, don’t dwell
on the past it has already passed. I am what I would consider a conscientious worker because I
am trying to do it the “lazy” man’s way which mean that I will do it right for the sake that I don’t
want to do it twice and the easiest way and the fastest possible way. I’m not saying that I don’t
work hard I just want to be efficient.
Being loyal to a company means that you wont bad mouth the place you work for with
anyone outside of the company and will do your best to make that come from that company. This
is what I should say but how I feel is that as long as they are loyal to you then you should be
loyal to them. As long as you are happy working for them then I guess its ok. But went you can’t
bear working there anymore then you need to leave no point in wasting your life.
The rules I live by in the work place is a general respect for everyone, no matter who they
are or where they are from. I don’t care as long as they work and don’t bring down the team or
myself. At the end of the day as long as the work gets done then I don’t care who they are.