HR Professional - February/March 2009 - (Page 74) L AST WOR D B Y T R AV I S B R A D B E R R Y THE COST OF SEAGULL MANAGEMENT IL L US T R AT ION: C . JA F F E P eople may join companies, but they leave bosses. Few organizations recognize the degree to which managers are the vesm sels of a company’s c culture, and even f fewer work diligently, through training and c coaching programs, to ensure managers h hold the knowledge a and skills that motivate e employees to perform, f feel satisfied and love their jobs. In an effort to diff ferentiate the habits of successful managers T TalentSmart analyzed m more than 150,000 m managers in every industry, at all levels of m management in a wide v variety of job functions. T The findings were conc clusive: inferior managers—or seagull managers— share three habits: swooping, squawking and dumping. only ones. In the vast majority of organizations, senior leadership is unschooled in the profoundly negative impact seagull managers have on their company’s bottom line. The very individuals with the authority to alter the course of an organization’s culture lack the facts that would impel them to do so. For the birds T The seagull manager creates the need to swoop i in and set his team straight, their rare visits result in a lot of squawking and they manage their team’s performance by dumping on everybody. The seagull manager is increasingly common i in today’s workplace. As companies flatten in response to new technology, industry regulation a and expanding global trade, they gut their mana agement layers. The remaining managers are left w with more autonomy, greater responsibility and m more direct reports. That means they have less time and less accountability for focusing on the p primary purpose of their job—managing people. It’s easy to spot a seagull manager when you’re o on the receiving end of their airborne dumps, b but the manager is often unaware of the negative impact of this behaviour. And they aren’t the 74 F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 0 9 Massive impact • Thirty-two per cent of employees spend at least 20 hours per month complaining about their boss • Employees whose manager uses seagull-type behaviours are 30 per cent more likely to develop coronary heart disease • More than two-thirds of North Americans are considering leaving their current job • Thirty-five per cent of employees have a tough time communicating with their boss • Sixty-four per cent of managers admit that they need to work on their management skills • Overwhelmingly, managers feel their focus should be “bringing in the numbers.” Yet, most are fired for poor people skills. Flying high It would be wonderfully simple—albeit frightening—if we could categorize everyone as either the right or wrong kind of manager. But we can’t just target “problem” managers, when the reality is that every single one of us is a seagull sometimes. The real challenge lies in understanding and educating managers where the seagull tendencies emerge, so they can eradicate the negative influences of their behaviours. Dr. Travis Bradberry is president of TalentSmart and author of Squawk! How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results. HR P ROF ES SI O N AL
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