Lessons Learned

FIT

• Connect with your audience. Anyone who watched the third season of The Apprentice with Donald Trump remembers the formula for success: when in doubt, ask the customer. Stewart repeatedly emphasized the importance of this skill, saying "knowing how you connect with your customer is essential to the success of business." Primarius obviously heard her and got it.  To her credit, Dawna, the Primarius project manager, assigned members of her team to recruit children to listen to the team's prototype story. This bit of marketing research showed the team how important it was to select a good storyteller—in this case, Howie. The research also showed that the team had developed some good ideas that were attractive to children.
  
  The candidates on the Matchstick side appeared to be more interested in talking about their ideas among themselves instead of considering the needs of the target audience. When they finished their book project, the book contained ideas and themes that would have made either parents or children uneasy.
  
  The bottom line? It's OK for businesspeople to be excited about their own ideas for products and services, but in reality, the perceptions of consumers about those ideas are most important.
   

• Leverage your resources. Primarius figured out they had a natural "Jack" in team member Howie and selected him as their storyteller. His lively theatrical delivery enchanted the children. This is a great example of leveraging your resources and matching the right team member with the right task.
   

• Authentic acknowledgement. Primarius project manager Dawna genuinely conveyed her enthusiastic belief in her team. She praised Howie, "you turned into Jack." Good leaders demonstrate sincere appreciation and admiration of their team. Praise is contagious and is often the spark that enhances optimal team performance.
   

• Sticking to her brand. Stewart's firing style was consistent with her brand of etiquette and good taste. Her firing tagline, "you just don't fit in," fits her image. She softened the firing blow by handwriting a personal, cordial note to the fired candidate, wishing him future success.

  UNFIT

• Know the values of your customer. Parents don't want to read a gloom-and-doom story before sending children off to sleep. Matchstick's leader, Jeff, went against the advice of his team and stubbornly stuck to a theme of small children changing their names and leaving home. He missed the mark of Stewart's challenge to "connect with your audience."
   

• My-way-or-the-highway leadership style. Jeff demonstrated this season's first example of bad leadership with a bullying, dictatorial style and going as far as telling team member Dawn: "I'm not engaging you. I don't care." Sorry Jeff -- as a leader it's your job to engage your people! If you don't care about your people, it's not likely leadership is your forte. Jeff was condescending and not open to influence from his team.
  
  When a leader has intelligent, creative, and competent resources, he or she needs to trust and listen to them. In fact, the more creative a workgroup is, the more the people in that workgroup will resent autocratic leadership. Leaders who aren't open to influence can be dangerous and a liability to organizations. Jeff's unwillingness to listen to his team resulted in an out-of-touch story line that Stewart described as "disturbing." Ouch.
  
  The bottom line? Participative management tends to work better than autocracy. Asking colleagues for their ideas and opinions enriches the output of the work group. As the saying goes, "a one-man band doesn't get very big."
   

• Professional boundaries. Jeff said to Dawn: "If you'd like to join me in the bathroom you may, but I'm going to be naked." Ew. In most companies, this action would result in a march down to HR and an escort out of the building. Where do they find these people?
   

• Sour grapes. Show me a poor loser, and I'll show you a loser. Jeff, the first candidate to be sent packing from the conference room departed with a nasty verbal shot to a survivor, stating, "I'll look for your failing." A professional career is a process -- not an event. It's amazing how comments, actions and behaviors can come back to haunt (or help) you. I am highly doubtful that Jeff's parting comments displayed to millions of viewers will help out his career.
   

The Endangered Species List:

The following people are on this week's endangered species list, based upon the likelihood that they will "just not fit in" in the near future: