Lessons Learned

• Positive attitude wins every time.

  •  Attitude made all the difference for Aaron's team on this task -- it led to more creative thinking, cohesiveness, energy and results. James' enthusiasm was infectious. In the boardroom the attitude difference was startling. Michelle's team came in looking like whipped dogs while Aaron's was confident with heads and hearts held high.

• Commitment is critical.
  • Dysfunctional teams allow individual egos, fears and turf to matter more than team results. This is how politics plagues many teams in many organizations. Michelle was more interested in self-preservation (albeit a natural human tendency) than leading her team. However, when she began protecting herself, her team members reacted by trying to protect themselves. This is the classic way it happens. When a leader values his or her needs over results, the team thinks it has permission to do the same.  In sharp contrast, when James was tanking as the tour guide (overzealous, loud and not funny), Stefani stepped in with her gift for guiding to help her struggling teammate. She gracefully stepped in, in a way that didn't make her teammate feel like a failure.
• Talk to your customers!
  • They will tell you what they want. But first, you have to ask. When James boarded a Starline tour bus and asked tourists what they liked, and didn't like, about the tour they were taking, he engaged in some brilliant, grass-roots market research and learned how to win. Because Michelle and her team never talked to a single customer, they dished up a ho-hum experience to their customers.
• Be inspired and inspiring.
  • When you have a compelling idea that your gut tells you is right, have the courage to sell it. When James suggested having the Laker Girls sign up tourists for his team's tour, he hit on a strategy that gave his team an early lead. Meanwhile, Michelle and her teammates were still brainstorming and bickering.
• Find your calm center in times of stress.
  • When James and Tim acted as tour leaders, they both messed up big time. Tim told a bus full of school kids and their parents a lurid tale about John Belushi's death from a drug overdose. And James's over-the-top delivery had people wincing in pain. Sure, James and Tim needed sleep. Sure, they were hyper and scared of losing. But professional people - like you - know that high-stress situations demand inner calm and thoughtfulness.
• Stay in the game.

  • At crunch time, Aaron's team members put their heads down and made it happen. No one said, "Not my job!"  In contrast, Michelle's team was largely absent, rebelling or sleeping through crunch time. Nicole got so fed up with Michelle that she decided to go to bed instead of staying up to help her team plan their tour. That was a risky move that could easily have gotten her fired later on in the boardroom.. If you have a boss like Michelle, there will be times when you just won't be able to stand her any more. But ducking out of work will only hurt you, not the supervisor who is causing you all the misery.

• Teams don't jell when there is a trust vacuum.

  •  The odds were against Michelle succeeding with a team that didn't trust her. How do you know when trust exists on your team? When team members give one another the benefit of the doubt and admit their mistakes. Trusting teams are open and vulnerable with one another. They respect one another, speak the truth and give credit where it is due. Leaders, take note: When it comes to trust, the requisite list is long.

• If you fall off a horse, how you get back on is important.
  • Michelle fell off the horse last week when her team turned against her.  This week, instead of buckling down and proving her leadership, she was a paralyzed manager who couldn't make decisions. Don't second-guess yourself when the going gets tough. This is the time to be decisive and clear with your team.
• When your team is in trouble -- reevaluate!

  • Michelle had many signs her team was in trouble; they were complaining about her lack of a plan and begging her to make a decision. She should have either brought them together to facilitate a better plan or been decisive with her own plan.

• You can't win if you quit.
  • Trump is right about quitters. A classier move might have been for Michelle to take her lumps and responsibility for her team's failure. Instead, she ditched her team. This competition isn't for everyone, and to be fair to Michelle, Trump did change the rules with his tent-city routine. And there really isn't a business professional who would camp out the night before an important business meeting. After all, Michelle signed up for "The Apprentice," not "Survivor."