Squawk!

Squawk! By Travis Bradberry, Ph.D., is a wonderful little book that, by telling a story, highlights the concept known as "Seagull Management", which is basically managers who swoop in, get a little bit of the story, spout off solutions to the wrong problems, then leaves the mess for someone else to figure out. Usually this person has a past track record of success which leads them to this type of behavior, but unfortunately hasn't kept up with what's going on and really need to change management styles.

As far as this book goes, this is the story of Charlie, the seagull manager who, once upon a time, came up with a great idea on how he and many other seagulls could get fed, led them to a food court, and they started "cleaning up". He was praised as a great leader, and he continued to lead in his way. However, at a certain point, things weren't so easy, and he was slow to recognize it, and thus missed the fact that a sure mutiny was coming his way.

He eventually meets up with a wise old turtle named Oscar, who wishes to offer Charlie some advice to try to overcome his problems. Charlie is skeptical for two reasons: one, his way has always worked before, so why change; two, Oscar is a turtle after all. But realizing the futility of his ways, he decides to take Oscar up on his offer. Instead of learning the lessons directly from Oscar, though, Oscar sends him to a variety of "experts", which includes an otter, a dolphin, and a dog. Along the way, Charlie not only learns lessons that will help him in business, he also learns to confront his own beliefs about others, based on how they look and how he perceives they think about him.

Charlie learns three specific lessons in the book, which he writes down (yup, a seagull who can read and write). One, "you have to reveal exactly what needs to be done before you can expect to see it happen." Two, "if you aren't staying in touch you aren't doing your job." And three, which I'm shortening here, "pay attention to each employee's performance and offer praise as frequently and emphatically as you do constructive feedback." Of course, the book goes a little bit deeper into it than just these phrases, but they basically give you the entirety of what this book talks about.

Overall, I was impressed that such a short book could offer such insightful beliefs. I guess I shouldn't have been, as it's written in a Ken Blanchard style (who also wrote one of the "advance praises" for the book). It's 123 pages of fun, and it's a very easy read, as I read it in under an hour. This is the type of writing that helps one remember what could be perceived as difficult concepts, and I trust that you'll recognize most of the personality types. Squawk! is an easy book to recommend.

© Reviews of Everything 2008