Lessons Learned

• The Good:

  • Teamwork. The men worked together like a well-oiled machine. They bounced ideas off each other and had fun while remaining focused on a common goal: to win.
     

  • Listen and then deliver. Both teams began on the same path, talking to Embassy Suites executives. One point mentioned by one of the executives in their discussion with Sean and Lee was that the employees should be consulted about what they wanted, since they would be wearing the uniforms every day. One can assume that both teams received the same general information in their briefings. After all, it was in the best interests of Embassy Suites to provide information to each team that would yield the best possible designs for the new uniforms. And, as a result of the discussions with the executives, both teams interviewed various Embassy Suites employees, but then, the paths of the teams diverged.  It became clear that while Allie and Roxanne may have heard the employees, Sean and Lee did a better job of listening to them. Perhaps it was because Sean and Lee felt less confident in their skills as designers, while both Allie and Roxanne boasted on camera about their own personal fashion knowledge. Whatever the reason, Sean and Lee came away from their interviews convinced that the employees wanted uniforms that were not drastically different from what they were currently wearing, but that there was room for more comfort and functionality. Allie, starting out with similar information, at least from the executives, decided that she knew better, and that it was most important to make a fashion statement with the new uniforms.

    The bottom line: Trust the consumer. One of the key causes of business failures is a belief on the part of marketers that they know more about what consumers want than the consumers do. The men understood that what mattered in this task was delivering what the employees wanted -- a comfortable, functional uniform. Lee wisely pointed out, "these people have to wear them to work every day." This task was won on this point.
     

• The Bad:

  • Ask, don't tell! Allie and Roxanne spent their time with the staff trying to sell and impose their own ideas instead of listening to what their customers wanted. When data gathering, you should follow this old rule: You have two ears and one mouth; use them proportionally.
     

  • Being out of touch with your customer. We knew Synergy was in trouble in the beginning when Allie said it was "more important to be stylish than functional." She failed to connect to her customers with her fashion-speak language -- the staff didn't know the word "culottes." We can guess Allie has never worn an uncomfortable uniform all day. To be successful in business, it is critical that you speak the language and understand your customers' world.
     

  •  Denial. Allie began this episode bragging about her mediation efforts from the previous task. Talk about being out of touch with reality! This season, we saw Allie consistently a) tell and b) patronize. During difficult times, the best leaders stop and ask themselves, what am I contributing to this situation? They learn from their experiences and take responsibility for their own behavior.
     

  • No backbone.  In spite of the fact that she has two victories as a project manager. Roxanne is not a particularly good leader. Roxanne acquiesced and appeared to be intimidated by Allie throughout this task. Despite her concerns about the pants vs. skirts issue, she relinquished her authority to Allie, who was louder and pushier. Roxanne was unable to stand up for what she knew was right and contributed to her team's failure. Maybe Roxanne felt that she would have an easier path to the finals if she allowed Allie to bulldoze ahead, and Allie eventually failed--but here's where viewing past seasons of the series would come in handy for the candidates. At the start of every task, Trump has announced, "This is week X of your 15-week job interview." This week was week 13. If there are 15 weeks total, we know from past seasons that the last episode, week 15, would be a live finale. The next-to-last episode, week 14, would be taken up by the final task pitting the two survivors against each other. If there were four candidates left at the beginning of week 13, it's pretty obvious that two people would have to go at the end of week 13.

    The bottom line: Roxanne had nothing to lose and everything to gain from voicing her opinions strongly. If she objected to Allie's ideas, she might as well have made her opinions known, because if Synergy lost, it was likely that both of them would be fired anyway. Beyond that, Roxanne, in spite of her positive traits, has consistently come across as a follower and not as a leader. Leaders speak up. Allie may have made errors in judgment this week, but she has shown a lot more take-charge potential than Roxanne has.
     

  • Sweet Revenge. Sean was incredibly motivated to beat Synergy. In earlier tasks, Allie and Roxanne treated Sean poorly. Treating people with respect, honesty and integrity is the bottom line. The women didn't and paid the price.
     

• The Ugly: 

  • Being rude and condescending to the expert.  There was no excuse for how Allie treated their designer. She was bossy and discourteous. She called him by the wrong name and told him his work was a "waste of time." Alienating your most valuable resource is just plain dumb.
     

  • Friendship in business. There is a fine line between friendship and business. Trump maintains it rarely works out. Yet, most high-performing teams in the workplace include people who truly enjoy working together. Friendships in business can equate to powerful partnerships. When managed well, the results can be powerful, but attention must be paid to establishing clear boundaries, roles, responsibilities and decision-making authority.

    The women's failure to stand up for their positions while maintaining professionalism, self-respect and their relationship in the boardroom was disappointing. Their "friendship" was not the least bit evident in their childish boardroom display of accusations and talking over one another. True professionals can have differences of opinions and maintain their own views in a respectful way that doesn't endanger a relationship.

Sizing Up the Finalists

For weeks, Lee and Sean have been the two top-ranked candidates in these columns. It is fitting that they should be in the finals. Beyond that, though, the choice between them is very, very close.

Lee has three wins and one loss as a project manager. Even though he missed two tasks due to religious observances that took place during the filming of the episodes, he's the only candidate to score three wins, and he's the only candidate who served four times as project manager. In spite of his youth and relative inexperience, being a recent college graduate, he has no fear whatsoever, which should be attractive to Trump. He is not afraid to take on leadership roles and he has a good sense for intelligent risk-taking and deal-making.

Sean has two wins as a project manager, with no losses. His main strength is creativity, which he demonstrated in each of the last two tasks; both required design skills. Compared to Lee, Sean is older, more experienced, and comes off as being more emotional. He exudes a continental flair, due to his British accent, and has a way with the ladies - having flirted first with Roxanne and Allie, and then Tammy. He has been a good team player as well as a leader. He brings a lot of enthusiasm to every task.

So, there are two areas in which there is a major substantive difference between the two finalists. Lee has stepped up to the plate more often as project manager than has Sean; but Sean has more real-world experience. Realistically, though, Trump's choice may well come down to the final task. The finalist who does the best job with his task is the likely winner. When it comes to the final task, Sean and Lee must pick their teams from the fired candidates. If past seasons are a guide, each of them will get to pick three people.

Sean and Lee need to avoid the "lightning rod" candidates, Brent and Lenny. Brent was a target from week 1. Though he had some good ideas at times, he had too many annoying tendencies that were divisive. It will be especially tough for Lee to skip picking Lenny, because he and Lenny had established a friendship earlier in the season. As weeks wore on, it became harder and harder to figure out what attributes Lenny brought to the table. At the same time, he can be pretty tough to deal with, and it's not a good idea to select any loose cannons with so much riding on the final task.

Next, steer clear of the attorneys in the group, who seem to have little, if any, business savvy. Aside from Brent, these people are Roxanne, Pepi, and Stacy. Enough has been said about Roxanne. Pepi and Stacy didn't show much capability and both made early exits from the competition.

Eleven candidates remain. Of these eleven, the most talented, and the ones Sean and Lee should consider, are Allie, Andrea, Tammy, Michael and Tarek. On paper, the remaining slot should go to Charmaine, but recall her decision a couple of weeks ago that it was more important to get her hair done in the middle of a task than to drum up business. Instead, let's pick Dan, a relatively obscure candidate who could gain a lot from being a solid contributor in the final task.

Of course, Trump could change everything depending upon any ground rules he establishes for the selection process, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Commentary

In the boardroom, Trump made a big issue out of the fact that Allie and Roxanne had been friends through the entire competition and then went after each other viciously in the boardroom.

Trump's self-described "disappointment" at this turn of events rings a bit hollow. He knows that the viewers saw exactly what they expected to see - and what they wanted to see - in the boardroom squabbling between Allie and Roxanne.

The bigger issue is the constant challenge of how to balance personal friendships and management responsibilities in the business world. Any manager who gets too close to his/her employees runs the risk of having friendships cloud management thinking when making decisions that affect the good of the entire organization.

Managers have to be able to maintain a bit of space between themselves and the people who work for them. They can, and should, care about their people. However, becoming too friendly on a personal level makes it hard for someone in a leadership position to honestly evaluate performance, deliver constructive criticism, or apply company policies fairly to all employees. On the other side of the coin, when employees start thinking of the people they work for as friends first and employers second, decisions made that do not favor the employees will be seen as personal betrayals and not as business decisions.

There was nothing at all surprising in how Roxanne and Allie dealt with each other in the boardroom. They were each trying to survive to the next round, and the survival instinct trumped whatever friendship they might have had. Instead of the hug-fest that preceded the boardroom scene, if would have been more honest, and refreshing, if both Allie and Roxanne had acknowledged to each other that their friendship would be placed on the back burner once they took their seats in the boardroom.

The lesson for managers is to maintain some distance, and some objectivity, in dealing with colleagues and employees. Smart leaders don't rely on the workplace to satisfy their need for personal friendships. They seek those in other venues.