Your Manager and the Seagull - Any Relation?

Have you ever feel that your superior or boss is ridiculous, demand and think beyond what is out of the capability of the employees like you? They simply do not look into your shoes, consider and strategize just like you do, as if he or she is totally out of what is the real situation going on?

Nobody wants to be the manager that everyone complains about behind his or her back-the manager who, when confronted with a problem, contributes more noise than constructive opinion and adds to the stress levels of employees rather than relieve it.

Managerial level people have the tendency of having less support and understanding from their group of employees and colleagues. They usually follow what they were asked to do, but grumble behind their managers. The managers has little or no knowledge of what is happening among the colleagues. They have fewer feedbacks, mainly due to the unavailability of the feedbacks provided by their lower-level colleagues who have to secure themselves from troubles. Obviously, who is dare to criticize or advise their boss. Hence managers have literally low self-awareness and less insight on improving themselves, on top of how to improve their managing skills.

Through a light-hearted story of a seagull faced with disagreements over his management style with his flock, a journalist illustrates the three steps to take when working with a "seagull manager"-one that squawks uselessly-or to avoid becoming one ourselves.

"Squawk", a book by the author Travis Bradberry starts off with the table of Charlie, the seagull manager and the negative impact of his management style on the flock. Through his interactions with the flock as well as other creatures in the marina, he sees the effects of implementing three principles: making sure what is expected of people and that they are doing it the right way, having frequent and open communication understood by all, and paying attention to performance, with positive reinforcement for successful endeavors and reangling misdirected efforts.

Depending on how well one relates to a fictional tale, the book is fairly effective in laying out scenarios for readers to identify with. The structure of the book is logical, with summaries at appropriate points to give readers some direction.

The author also includes a chapter titled the cost of seagull management, which lays out data on the prevalence of this phenomenon. But more details on these "costs"-and perhaps real-life examples-would illustrate convincingly they need to address this issue.