Rachael Donnelly
MCPHS University Leadership Book Review: How Full is Your Bucket? In How Full Is Your Bucket? Tom Rath engages the reader in a discussion of how the quality of interactions between individuals affect work environments, as well as the lives and overall happiness of those individuals. This discussion centers around the theory of the dipper and the bucket, in which positive interactions serve to fill the buckets of both individuals and negative interactions serve to dip into the bucket of another person. Within interpersonal relationships, the positivity or negativity of interactions works to support positive or negative emotions. Rath and Clifton (2004) describe the many benefits …show more content…
I find that since reading this book I am more conscientious about what I say and how I say it, so that I avoid dipping from the buckets of others with my own negativity. I also now try to have more positive interactions with others by drawing attention to their strengths rather than their weaknesses. In a future leadership position I would utilize this new-found knowledge to make others feel appreciated and motivate them to do their best work. I would work to get to know my team members as well as what is meaningful to them, so that I could best provide praise and recognition to their individual preference. Applying the bucket and dipper theory to myself, I will try to focus on the positive in my own work while still keeping a realistic outlook on the need for improvement and the need to maintain a standard. In my everyday interactions I will also try to keep in mind that there are limitations on how constructive criticism can truly be, if the majority of my interactions with someone else provide criticism and hardly ever give praise, I will now recognize that this may be both counterproductive and