For the next several months the DES newsletter will contain leadership ideas developed in the book Monday Morning Leadership by David Cottrell. The book uses stories to illustrate leadership concepts. Although the book is designed to assist those in management positions improve and develop leadership skills, the concepts illustrated should be broadly interpreted and can be used by everyone. Please take time to consider how the ideas presented could be beneficial to you. 

Thank you, Greg Pulte for preparing these each month.

The Seventh Monday
Buckets and Dippers

The seventh Monday uses the analogy that every person has a bucket of motivation. The bucket can be overflowing or it can empty and desperately need to be filled.  Sometimes the buckets of motivation have leeks and people with leaky buckets can lose motivation as fast as their buckets are filled.

Every person also has a dipper, in fact some people have large dippers that enjoy dipping into peoples buckets. These big dippers represent cynicism, negativism, confusion, stress, doubt, fear, anxiety, and anything else that drains a person’s desire and motivation. 

A leader’s job is to keep everyone’s bucket filled. The leader is the chief bucket filler and the best way to fill buckets is with excellent communication. Many times managers get caught up in ‘management land’ and overlook important things on the team. Here are two facts that you should not forget, regardless of your title or position.

1. ‘Your scorecard as a leader is the result of your team. You are needed, you are important, but you get paid for what your subordinates do, not necessarily what you do.

2. You need your team more than your team needs you – you need each other but cumulatively the people on your team accomplish much more than you do.’

Do not forget that your job is to help each team member become better at the job they’ve chosen. They have entrusted a portion of their life to you, and it’s your job to help them grow, personally and professionally. ‘As a leader, your job is to keep everyone’s bucket filled. You are the Chief Bucket –Filler, and the best way to fill buckets is with excellent communication. There are four things you have to do if you’re going to keep your team members’ motivation buckets filled. ‘

First, your team must know what the main things are that are important to doing a good job. If people do not know what the main thing is, their motivation bucket will leak. A leader who creates confusion and inconsistency has a dipper that drains people’s buckets. 

Second, to keep buckets filled, you need to provide the bucket holders with feedback on how they are doing. ‘People need to know how they are doing all the time, not just at performance review time.’ Be sincere, keep feedback specific, make feedback timely, and try to align the feedback with the receiver’s value system.

The third thing needed to keep you team member’s buckets filled is to let them know that you care about them and the job they do. Find those bucket fillers that work best with your team, and use them to fill their buckets.

Several actions that a manager should take to fill their teams bucket are:

-          Involve people in major decisions. Listen, they often have the best ideas anyway.

-          Memorize facts about the bucket holder and their family. People enjoy sharing what’s happening in their families. Let them fill their own buckets while you listen.

-          Make coffee for your team. Making coffee is a simple act that people appreciate!

-          Ask your superstars – if they’re interested – to become mentors for rising, middle, or falling stars. This is a win/win situation for everyone.

-          Treat people the way they wish to be treated.

-          Spend time with your team members. Sometimes simply being around and showing that you care about them will automatically fill their buckets.

-          Send thank you notes to team members at home. People normally only get bills and junk mail at home. A positive note of recognition goes a long way to fill a bucket.

The fourth and final bucket-filling requirement is for the team to know how well it is doing as a team. Everyone wants to be on a winning team. Make sure team members consistently know whether the team is accomplishing its objectives.

‘If you will fulfill the four bucket-filling requirements – know the main things, give feedback on performance, provide recognition for doing a good job, and communicate the team score – your team members will be asking you what they can do to help fill your bucket. That’s the way it works. The more buckets you fill, the more your bucket is filled.’