Squawk!: How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results

SQUAWK by Travis Bradberry Ph.D. I'm guilty of squawking, the most ineffective method of management imaginable. SQUAWK shows me why I need to change and how I can change. SQUAWK can benefit all of us, even those of us who do not consider ourselves managers. All of us play different roles, sometimes as managers and sometimes as those being managed. The natural way to react to people we need to manage is to go off and sulk and then to swoop down and squawk. The final step is to leave everyone else on the team to clean up the mess. By observing the behavior of a mother otter and her young, we learn that much more time is required to train people than we ever believe. As I read SQUAWK, I realize the ways I have failed as a manager. I find myself identifying with Charlie, the competent but ineffective seagull, who carries a stubby pencil and scraps of paper in his feathers. The concepts are simple adjustments of working methods. The manager is often the manager because he can do the job the best, but once he becomes the manager his job is no longer merely doing his job. It is managing to get others to do the job well. Communication is required to be an effective manager. Reading Charlie's notes, it's easy to identify with this competent seagull, who is an incompetent manager: --You have to reveal exactly what needs to be done before you can expect to see it happen!! --If you aren't staying in touch, you aren't doing your job!! --Pay attention to each employee's performance, and offer praise as frequently and emphatically as you do the constructive feedback. Bradberry makes it all sound simple with the use of an entertaining fable with a glorious finale; yet the concept is profound. The author stays around and offers an explanation at the end to make sure that all of us understand that the people are the most important asset of a successful business. He outlines and expands the three key principals: --Full-Fledged Expectations --Communication that Klicks --Paws on Performance In conclusion, Bradberry says something profound: "People may join companies, BUT they will leave bosses." SQUAWK has the message of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't couched in simple terms. If you work as an employee being managed or as a manager, if you play a role in any organization, if you, or if you are a student readying yourself for employment, read this book!

This entertaining and quick-read book gets right to the point with easy to understand examples of how a typical (and not the best) manager operates, to learning by example to become a much more productive, helpful, and great manager. So many managers are well-intentioned but need help, and some are downright sucky. This book will not help you with the sucky ones--there's just too much to address there! For those managers who need a little guidance in the right direction, this book is perfect. It's an analogy of how a leader of a flock of seagulls learns that the way he thought he was managing was not really helpful after all, and how implementing three simple factors benefits everyone. It seems so simple after reading, yet sometimes the simple gets lost in day-to-day politics, project shuffling, and staying afloat! In a nutshell, the three nuggets are expectations, communication, and guidance. Simple right? The book backgrounds how the flock works under the original well-intentioned management style and then how it becomes more effective as each of the three "virtues" are implemented. It's a fantastic learn-by-example, and it is easy to transfer the flock of seagulls to a department or group at your company--pretty funny how accurate all the descriptions are! I used to manage people (and now enjoy letting someone else be that flaming pinata) but now as just one of the flock, I think it's helpful knowing how get more out of your manager--knowing how to help him/her as one of the flock is very helpful! It was a fun book to read even ignoring the lessons involved!

Squawk! did a couple of great things for me. First, it was a really fun read. It was such a page turner that I got lost in it and forgot that I was learning. BUT I WAS! The three virtues it teaches are the most dead-on center description of what managers (anyone who manages people, from a corporate exec to a youth soccer coach) need to make their primary focus if they want to get results. All in all just a really outstanding book that I think a lot of people from all walks of life will enjoy and get something out of.

I love parables/fables, especially in the business/self improvement genres. SQUAWK! by Travis Bradberry is one of the best ever. This ranks right up there with "Who Moved My Cheese" and "Our Iceberg is Melting" and should become a classic. I don't know of anyone in business management that will not learn a great deal from this book. More than anything, Bradberry forces the reader to do a bit of self-examining, that really forces you take these lessons to heart. This is an entertaining read. At times, light-hearted, but the lessons here are very serious. Contained are some easy to understand and just as easy to apply lessons of leadership.

Squawk gives you three simple and easy to implement steps to becoming a more effective manager. The book presents these steps in a very engaging story form. But first let's review some of the reasons you need to take Squawk seriously. Thirty-two percent of employees spend at lest twenty hours per month complaining about their bosses. Probably a lot of those twenty hours are on company time. More than 66% of employees are actively considering leaving their current job. Employers suffer in excess of $360 billion in annual losses due to employee dissatisfaction. Most managers believe their focus should be in bringing in the numbers ... but most get fired because of poor people skills. Travis Bradberry uses the seagull as a symbol for today's manager. All too often today's manager swoops in, fails to get complete details of what is happening, squawks up a storm, deposits/dumps on the workers and leaves a mess for others to clean up. The seagull manager is showing up more and more in today's workplace. Bradberry gives three simple but effective techniques to shift the way you manage. 1. Set full fledged expectations - make sure the employee's efforts are spent doing the right things the right way. Let them know what is expected and how they will be evaluated in the future. Be sure to get agreement and commitment to work toward established goals. 2. Communication that clicks. Too often managers do not communicate enough and only communicate when things go wrong. Observe what employees say and do and speak openly with them about their work. Communication clicks when it is frequent and in a langauge everyone understands. 3. Paws on Performance - pay attention to each employee's performance - offer praise as often as constructive feedback. Keep your paws on performance. This is a delightful little book, it can be read in a couple of hours. But the lessons, if implemented, will last a lifetime. It is very simple and straightforward. Anyone can understand and implement the principles.