How Full Is Your Bucket?

The number-one reason most Americans leave their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated. That’s the message from Gallup’s Tom Rath and Donald Clifton, authors of How Full Is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life.

Their book’s title is based on a metaphor around the ‘dipper and the bucket’, which suggests that each person carries an invisible bucket of emotions, along with a dipper, which they can use to either add to other people’s buckets or to dip from them. Their research contends that filling someone else’s bucket benefits both parties – the person who gives the praise and the person who receives it.

The Gallup Organisation surveyed some 4 million workers on the topics of recognition and praise, and found that 65 per cent of people reported receiving no recognition on the job last year, and as such, were actively disengaged or extremely negative in their workplace. The flipside of this is that those companies who do offer recognition and praise report increased individual productivity, higher retention levels and more satisfied customers.

The book also outlines strategies for tackling negative organisational cultures. Overall, insightful food for thought for managers and HR practitioners alike.