Lessons Learned

• Leaders need to join their team.

  • Surya continues to fail at earning the respect of his team. It's a bad sign when the project hasn't even begun, and your team is planning a coup to replace you. Leaders must earn respect -- it doesn't just come with a title. One of the reasons team respect has eluded Surya has been his consistent "odd man out" behavior. While technically astute, he has failed to connect with his team on an interpersonal level with his continued condescending behavior and overattention to conceptual planning and theory. During his team's reward activity (to record a rap song with Snoop Dogg) he stood off silently, choosing not to engage with his team. The team identified this as incongruent and insincere. This is a common mistake that many leaders make. Celebrating success with your team is a good way for leaders to build team respect and confidence.

• It's all in the details.

  •  The individuals and teams this week either won or lost around the details. Those that won paid proper attention to the details (car product knowledge, serving petits fours, which imply luxury, etc.). Those who lost failed to pay attention (Jenn not preparing for her presentation or noticing how screen glare would affect it, Derek and Angela missing a critical graphic deadline and the sloppiness of Derek's language with Trump)

• Words matter.

  •  Derek really put his foot in his mouth describing himself as "white trash." Trump pounced on his comment, immediately firing him for his thoughtless and "stupid" choice of words. I credit Trump with drawing a line as a corporate leader around inappropriate, racial language and would challenge him to watch his own language (such as his constant use of the word "ass" to describe candidates). Leaders need to model what they ask for.

• Leave positively.

  •  Credit to both Derek and Jenn for how they left the show (in sharp contrast to the poor loser from the previous episode). Derek immediately owned up to his mistake of being a smart aleck in Trump's boardroom, demonstrating good self-awareness and acknowledging his poor decision. Jenn didn't leave blaming everyone else, either. She left giving credit to her teammates and wished them well. It's a long life, and a small world, especially within an industry. Be mature and leave positively.

• Don't be rushed into a bad decision.
  •  Just because you are pressed to make a decision doesn't mean you have to make an unwise decision. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that driving a Lexus doesn't equate to driving a go-cart. One-stroke Internet market research would have told this team what they needed to know about their demographic. While they were desperate for a demonstration idea, the stupid idea they chose (and they knew it was dumb) proved just how dysfunctional Kinetic was as a team. When Jenn didn’t override her team’s decision to use go-karts in their Lexus event, she took the lazy way out. The result? A critical loss for her team.
• Have your leader's back.
  • Derek tried to undermine Angela (as his marketing supervisor) by throwing up his hands during their graphic deadline challenge. He was willing to let his team fail as long as it didn't make him look bad or he could later claim he wasn't responsible. Self-serving behavior is highly destructive. It shouldn't be tolerated in a high-performing organization. Undermining someone else for your own benefit is highly unprofessional. How could you or your team ever again trust an individual who displays this behavior? Winners and true team members would ask: How can I help you succeed?
• Don’t play negative politics.
  • When members of the Kinetic team passively sat back and allowed Jenn to seize leadership of their team, they were really trying to let her mess up and get fired. That worked well enough – but in the end, didn’t they all lose? Your failure to try to save the day will only reflect badly on you.
• You can do strong things, even under a weak leader.
  • If you can move your team toward its goals, you will end up looking very good in the process. When Heidi and Muna decided to have a Lexus representative explain everything to them about the new car, they were taking positive steps to build a strong presentation.