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This week's assignment:
Excel
and Capital Edge were presented with a unique challenge this week—to teach
senior citizens how to use high-tech entertainment devices supplied by Best
Buy. At first, it seemed that the men of Excel might be at a disadvantage
compared to the female candidates working for Capital Edge. There were some
concerns expressed that the men might not be as patient or as sensitive to
the needs of seniors as the women of Capital Edge. The success criterion for
the task was the average satisfaction/quality score gleaned from surveys
distributed to the senior citizens after each team did its training session.
Both project managers were hurting in different ways going into the task.
Randal, fresh from attending his grandmother's funeral, stepped up to be
Excel's project manager. Rebecca, sporting a new cast on the ankle she broke
during her team's skating session with the New York Islanders, was Capital
Edge's project manager.
Excel's session with the senior citizens had a very festive atmosphere,
complete with great decorations, good food, and professional demonstrations.
Capital Edge, on the other hand, delivered a session that was bland,
unexciting, and plagued by technical glitches. Amazingly, the average scores
for the two teams were very close, with Excel averaging a winning score of
8.1 to Capital Edge's 7.9.
In the boardroom
In the boardroom, Randal received a unanimous vote of confidence from
his Excel teammates at the end of the task and is exempt from being
fired in week 4,
Rebecca brought Jennifer M. and Jennifer W. to the firing session.
Rebecca served up a very feisty defense of herself and of her decision
to leave her friend Toral out of the boardroom finale. Mr. Trump
concluded that the main contributor to Capital Edge's defeat was
Jennifer W., who failed miserably in setting up her team's session—even
though she had some previous experience in event planning. So, Jennifer
W. heard the famous words, "You're fired."
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Lessons Learned
Leaders must inspire:
One criticism of Rebecca's performance as project manager by some of her
teammates was that Rebecca did not get her team "jazzed up" for the
task. In other words, Rebecca managed her team, but didn't provide
inspirational leadership. Even people who are highly skilled, highly
motivated individual performers need a dose of inspiration every once in
a while.
The bottom line: The leader of a work group needs to
show enthusiasm for the tasks at hand, because the people being led are
looking for both direction and inspiration.
Make sure your loyalties are well placed:
Rebecca and Toral have struck up a close personal relationship, which is
fine, unless that personal relationship interferes with the broader
mission of the group. Clearly, in this task, Toral did not perform well,
in that she was not an effective demonstrator. Of the remaining
candidates, Jennifer W. needed to be brought into the firing session,
because she did much of the disastrous event planning. Unlike Toral,
Jennifer M. bore no responsibility for the team's loss and had no reason
to be there. Mr. Trump recognized this fact and focused his evaluation
on Rebecca and Jennifer W. He noted, however, that Toral should have
been on the firing line as well.
The bottom line: Rebecca has let her personal
relationship with Toral cloud her thinking. It will be interesting to
see if Toral eventually ends up in a situation that calls for her to
express some loyalty to Rebecca. Whether she will defend Rebecca as
ardently as Rebecca stood up for her is highly questionable.
Endangered
species list
The following people are on this week's endangered
species list, based upon the likelihood that they will incur Trump's
wrath in the near future:
Toral (Capital Edge):
She's smart and well-educated, and is a self-made multimillionaire at
age 29. But she has an edge of arrogance that has rubbed her teammates
the wrong way. Their knives are out; it will be interesting to see if
Toral can lead her team effectively. In addition, Mr. Trump said that if
she had been in the firing session this week, he would have sent her
home.
Kristi (Capital
Edge): She's still annoying, catty, and
super-critical of whoever happens to be project manager for Capital
Edge.
Clay (Excel):
He's proving to be an agitator who is more likely to be part of a
problem than part of a solution.
Markus (Excel):
With another good week, he'll come off the endangered species list. His
Excel colleagues gave him credit for being an enthusiastic, effective
trainer. Even Mr. Trump was impressed.
Gold Stars:
Randal gets a gold star for being able to compose himself
after his grandmother's funeral and lead his team effectively.
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The Report Card
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Excel:
- Effort --
- Performance --
- Creativity --
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"We lost because we didn't put on a good enough presentation" |
Capital Edge:
- Effort --
- Performance --
- Creativity --
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