Lessons Learned

• Don't shoot the person with an idea in a brainstorming session.
  • Don't emulate Trump's method of going after whoever had the idea in a failed task; the last thing you want to do is stop the collaborative creative energy of your team, which is what will happen if you target the idea person for blame when things go wrong or the execution fails. It sets up a dynamic in which others will be afraid to warn the team in the future.
•  Don't be a control freak.
  • As a leader, you have to direct your team's creativity, not kill it. When Arrow's team members started brainstorming enthusiastically about their event plans, Surya immediately shut them down. He told them to sit for minutes in total silence while they conceptualized their ideas.
• Speak up.
  • It has nothing to do with politics. If you believe your team is overlooking a critical mistake that could lead to a disaster, you have to speak up - even if no one listens. When James expressed fears that an audience of 18,000 people wouldn't be able to understand his team's boxing match, Surya shut him down and accused him of politicking. But when the final decision was made about the winner and the loser, wasn't James right?
• Don't let a lack of leadership be an excuse for poor team performance.
  • Arrow failed to step up to the challenge of overcoming Surya's poor leadership. In the real world, that spells doom for a team (and often the company). Before Surya came to this team, Arrow had great camaraderie. Yet this week, they almost seemed to forfeit this task for the sake of ousting Surya -- not a sign of a functional team or a mature approach to workplace success. They spent too much time mocking him and too little time strategizing about how to develop a branding message for GNC. By contrast, despite their interpersonal team challenges, Kinetic developed a sound strategy, created a plan, executed with purpose and won.
• Keep it simple.
  • When marketing to the masses, don't try anything too complex. Great marketing concepts are easy to understand. Surya should have listened to James.
• Talk to your customers in a language they understand.
  • When Muna took the microphone and addressed the soccer fans in Spanish - and when her team had their promotion's signs prepared in both English and Spanish - her team showed good marketing savvy. This appears to obvious. but as we saw in the mall promotion a few weeks ago, it is a marketing basic that is easy to forget.
• Show respect.
  • Surya wasn't a respectful leader and his team members weren't respectful followers. James said Surya treated them like children. Several Arrow members responded by mocking Surya as he tried to put structure to a brainstorming session. Advice to leaders -- be respectful to earn respect.
• Be authentic.
  • Don't look down on the people you lead; they can usually see through insincerity. Even Trump showed his more human side this week while playing golf with the winning team, and seemed more natural and supportive of the candidates. On the other hand, Surya began this week's task by trying way too hard to convince his team that he joined them because he recognized they were smart and strong. The problem: His team didn't buy what he was selling, a recipe for leadership failure.
• Don't act like an outsider.
  • Surya told Trump in the boardroom that he felt like an "outsider" on his team. No wonder; how do you think his disloyal move of sneaking off to the bushes to strategize with the other team went over? On the other hand, don't bother other people simply because you want to appear involved. If you are in a place where you have nothing to contribute, direct your efforts elsewhere. At the prop-building shop, Muna kept asking silly, micromanaging questions to the men who were building the props for her team's halftime show. Like James, she was speaking up about her team's plans. But unlike him, she didn't really have anything to say.
• Learn from your mistakes.
  • This time Kinetic practiced before their event (after the Lexus fiasco), and it paid off.
• Don't hold grudges.
  • Kinetic appears to be moving in the right direction. Kristine indicated she wants to rectify her interpersonal challenges with Muna by saying, "Hopefully we can correct any issues we have on our team and move forward." Differences are part of workplace reality; what separates mature professionals from those with a lack of emotional intelligence is in how they deal with the differences.
• Stay in touch with reality.
  • Surya was so caught up in the fantasy of his great leadership skills that he failed to recognize that neither his team nor the audience was with him. He was under the delusion that their event was a huge success, apparently not noticing that few people in the stadium were clapping or engaged. He let his ego take over his observation skills. Effective leaders pay attention and watch for signs of whether people are connected and engaged.