I have been listening to a series of leadership CDs published by Willow Creek Resources. One of the CDs from his series, entitled The Leadership Summit on Developing Teams, features Ken Blanchard. His session was on “Developing People: Giving and Receiving Feedback.”
In the course of his presentation he made the following statement:
“The number one leadership style in the world is called seagull management, … most managers aren’t around until something is wrong, and then they fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everybody, and then fly out.”
The audience roared with laughter. I think there were a couple of reason why they, and I, found it to be humorous. (1) It was a great visual. There is no way to NOT see the metaphor. (2) It applies all too often.
To those of you who are manager I would ask the following question; “Have you been practicing seagull leadership?” Would we get the same answer if we asked your direct reports rather than you?
