How Full Is Your Bucket?

Paul in Cannon Beach

I just heard about this book while attending my local SHRM chapter meeting. Our presenter described what a powerful impact this book has had on her life and the morale of her organization.

The Book is "How Full Is Your Bucket? - Positive Strategies For Work and Life" by Gallup Press.

It uses a simple analogy of a bucket and a dipper to express how our 20,000 different daily experiences contribute to our overall sense of well being, all backed up by Gallups decades of research with thousands of individuals and organizations.

What I like about it is that it makes each person responsible for their "bucket" rather than give busy supervisors one more thing to feel guilty about for not doing well enough. It also connects well-being with "engagement" and productivity. Engaged employees produce more, work harder, attract other positive people, get better customer reviews, and have less WC claims. Got your attention now?

Has anyone else read the book?

TN HR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-23-06 AT 08:44AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I read it in late summer of '04 when it first came out. OK book. Very short. I read it in one afternoon. I would not call it revolutionary.

If you've read Carnegie's How to Win Friends and influence People and/or any of Covey's books, then you will find that most of the material in this book is a regurgitated version of their concepts with a twist of Fish! thrown in.

Gene

HRinNH

Ah yes, "engagement". A foreign concept in our plant most of the time. I'll check out the book. Thanks Paul.

Cheryl C.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Here's an idea. The HR HERO "Book of the Month" Club. Someone nominates a good HR related book and we all read and discuss it.

LarryC

May I suggest "How To Make Love Like A Porn Star" by Jenna Jaimeson. Before y'all throw me out in the street, let me explain. It's a true survival story . One of the best I've read.....I don't know what it has to do with HR though.

JudyT929

You crack me up. I haven't read that book but did see her bio on Biography channel, is a good story.

System

FYI, here are books recommended by HR professionals in one of our surveys last year:
[url]www.HRhero.com/HRreading.shtml[/url]

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

TN HR

I suggest adding the book 'Brokeback Mountain'(now a motion picture) to Paul and James' Book Of The Month Club. I think it's fitting of the theme here.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Gene, are you implying James and I are gay cowboys torn apart by a society that won't accept our forbidden prairie love?

You crack me up. Are you this way all the time?

TN HR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-27-06 AT 09:09PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Heavens no! That comment is a testament to your typical asinine and speculative agenda! Had you actually read the book by Annie Proulx you would know that the whole gay cowboy focus is hollywood's spin to sell tickets at the box office.

The true focus lies in the message about human relationships and the trials and tribulations that some endure over periods of time under non-traditional conditions.

The comment about this being the theme here has all to do with the mass exodus of old-time regular contributors, and how new relationships were forged, old ones redefined, etc, etc. I'm sure you know the rest of the story.

Gene

Edit: OK, I got carried away with this one.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Ok, well, back to the topic.

So far "How Full Is Your Bucket" is pretty interesting. I like the research and studies they use to back up their assertions.

I am more than half way through the book and its already made me more aware of my interactions with people. If anything, its probably made me most aware of what I say to my nearly 10 year old daughter. I think I "dip" into her bucket too often like any other stressed out parent.

One of the studies that stands out is the effect of a positive outlook on lifespan. Positive people live on average about 10 years longer than negative people. Smoking will cut 7.5 years off your life on average. So, a negative attitude is actually more damaging to your overall health than smoking. If you are negative and you smoke, well, you are screwed.

More later when I finish the book.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Ok, finished the book. Like TN HR said, you can read it pretty quickly. Overall, I would recommend it. Its very simple and extremely focused on one area: having positive interactions.

Having read "How To Win Friends And Influence People", "Practicing the Presence of People", and numerous other books on interpersonal relationships and personality types, the information wasn't necessarily ground breaking but the overall package is good.

Anyone would benefit from reading the book. If you buy the book new, it comes with an ID Code that allows you to fill out the Clifton Strengths Finder assessment online at no charge. That's probably worth the price of the book as well.

If management as a group were to go through this book and implement some of its ideas, I don't doubt that the impact would be positive.

I have worked for "bucket fillers" and "bucket dippers" and I know what impact it had on me personally. Nothing makes a person start reading the help wanted ads faster than working with a boss or co-workers who drain your emotional energy through constant criticism or negativity.

I give this book 4 warm fuzzies out of five.