A tip I learned about being a better human (from a 7 year old)

When I first became a supervisor I noticed that the morale of the people I managed was poor. I had come up through the ranks and understood that the former management had done little and less to promote good attitudes around the workplace. I quickly made the morale of our workforce the number 1 priority.

After a month of hard living, and trying every trick I had read about regarding trying to build a community or family among the workforce, I realized this was going to be a lot harder of a challenge than I had expected. Letting people leave early, bonuses, awards, time off, gave minor boosts to morale but the effects would fade quickly.

This is when I learned that a few bad attitudes could ruin a team.

Frustrated and disappointed I went home and tried to get some 💡 ideas.

After discussing this with my wife, and telling her how a few people were siphoning down team morale, my 7-year old chimed in, "Tell them to be bucket fillers instead of bucket tippers"

I had never heard this phrase before, so I asked him, "What do you mean bub?"

He replied, "We learned in class that when you say nice stuff to people, you are filling their bucket, and when you say mean things you are tipping it over... tell them to be bucket fillers".

After reading about this concept in depth, I knew what I had to do.

Day by day, inch by inch, and mile by mile I encouraged everyone, especially the people with the poorer attitudes. At first there was resistance, with phrases like "You really saved us there." And "We couldn't have done that without you." earning me confused looks in return.

Then the transition happened, and it was like the sun coming out of a dark sky. People started encouraging each other, and focused on the good things we did instead of the bad. I started to see guys wanting to stay late, finish the work, make sure the quality of their work was top notch. They had started to care!!!

Since then, I have used the bucket filling trick to improve my relationships with everyone, coworkers, managers, subordinates, family, friends, and people I have just met.

It is amazing what can be done when your desire to be positive and give encouragement overcomes the black cloud of negativity, (and you have a 7 year old to give you the tip to do it)

To summarize: a little encouragement goes a long way, especially if you mean