Seagull Management

Management author Ken Blanchard coined the term in his 1985 book Leadership and the One Minute Manager, co-written with Paul Hersey. Blanchard described a dysfunctional pattern he observed in organizations: managers absent during routine operations who periodically descended to make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, then fly out — offering no ongoing support or constructive follow-through. The seagull metaphor was vivid enough to escape management literature and pass into everyday office vocabulary.