How to deal with a Seagull Manager

It’s Monday morning, you get to work early, make a coffee, switch your computer on and get ready for the day. Then it happens… You receive an email from your Manager, it’s about a project you are working on. Whilst it’s nearing completion, they decide to take an entirely new direction with it. Your jaw drops. You curse under your breath and start your project over from scratch. Weeks pass and you give your team regular updates on progress. You receive another email from your Manager, again — it’s about the same project. Their P.A. did some research and they decide the original plan is a better option. You get asked to start again. You have now wasted two months of resources and have excruciatingly tight timeframes to work to.

Boom! You’re ready to deck them.

What is a Seagull Manager?

• Somebody who asks you to do something, they forget that you’re doing it, then ask why you’re doing it.
• They tend to jump from task to task leaving a trail of defecation behind them for your team to clean up.
• They are the type of Manager to take staff feedback, run it through a waste treatment plant and spit it out smelling like roses to the board of directors.
• They don’t like to keep certain things on record in an email to ensure the preservation of their conduct, should it get questioned by the company.
• They undermine all the great work your dedicated team have done and will continue to do for you by deferring important decisions, interfering unnecessarily in your tasks, eavesdropping on conversations they have only heard bits and pieces and then adding their two cents.
• A novice Seagull Manager would do all of the above and dismiss a staff member who challenged them on it whereas a well-seasoned Seagull Manager is inclined to take on board what you have to say and will ask you questions like, “How can I change to help you?” or “What can I do to ease this situation for you?”, but with virtually no follow through.

One thing to note — A Seagull Manager usually encompasses “the lazy Manager”, “the micro Manager”, “the avoider”, “the petty Manager” and “the threatened Manager”. You can also read all about these types in this article by Stephanie Stern.

Why is a Seagull Manager like this?

They have too many things happening

Managers are hired to Manage, they are not hired to do the ground work. If they have too many things happening they aren’t delegating work properly.

They have too few things happening

They want to create conflict to keep themselves preoccupied or appear busy. A great Manager manages staff and trusts them to do the work. A not-so-great Manager intervenes frequently to assist or take over.

What can you do about it?

Unfortunately, your options are limited.

Chances are, your top-level big boss isn’t interested in dealing with trivial staff issues. They want to see bottom line results from a professional team, not TV Soap Drama — which is how it will be perceived.

If you happen to have an H.R. department it’s possibly going to get lost in translation. They are going to do what’s best for the company not what’s best for you. They may even “manage you out” at the bosses discretion.

The last two things you can do are either leave the company or learn to manipulate your Seagull Manager. Leaving is easy. Manipulation, however, is an artform undertaken by headstrong gutsy people. Usually people that care about something or someone enough to do whatever it takes, ethically, to protect it or them. It means seeing red but drawing blue. It means taking hostile criticism but calmly stating facts whilst providing a plan and resolution, covering all bases. It means not saying no but giving a valid reason not to do something.

Pick your battles. Sometimes it’s best to strategize by losing a few battles if it means winning the right battles will blow the fucker out of the water!

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