Lessons Learned

FIT

UNFIT

• Know when to hold your tongue. Shawn made three statements that eventually caused her downfall. First, she arrogantly guaranteed that her team would win the task and told Charles Koppelman that he could fire her if the team didn't come out on top. Second, her initial reaction to the team's cake—after Marcela had stayed up all night working on it—was that she didn't like it. Third, she explained her boasting in the conference room by pulling out a cliché used in the television industry from which she came: "Fake it 'til you make it."

  "Not in my business," retorted Stewart, who promptly fired her. Faking it is never a good business strategy. Successful leaders and business professionals know that results, trust and integrity equate to winning. Cockiness is simply something to avoid in business.
  
  The bottom line? Shawn is clearly someone who needs to learn to think before she speaks. Nothing is ever gained by boasting. It creates unrealistic expectations in the minds of others, who are the first to remind the braggart if he/she doesn't deliver on the big promises.
   

• Leaders who lose it. Howie completely lost control of his emotions in front of his teammates in a fight over cake stands. With veins bulging in his forehead, he called Sarah a liar and went ballistic. That left other team members questioning his leadership ability.

  When leaders lose control, followers no longer trust or respect them. More than anyone else, it is the team leader who has the most power to influence a team either positively or negatively. They are expected to lead in difficult times as well as good times. Leaders who can remain calm, confident and upbeat, even under intense pressure, create an environment of trust, comfort and safety. Those who don't trigger negativity and jeopardize a team's potential to do its best work.
   

• Market research. Matchstick initially made a good strategic move in contacting a wedding cake expert to garner wedding cake trends. Where they blew it was in contacting only one resource. Matchstick's one and only source -- who specializes in a very high-end, narrow niche market -- led them astray with advice to create an asymmetrical pink cake. Unfortunately, Matchstick took this advice and created a cake that one customer likened to a boot. Stewart noted that in her company's long wedding magazine history, they had featured only one asymmetrical cake.
  
  If the oval cake had been one option in an entire product line of cakes, having it available would not have been a bad strategy for Matchstick. However, the situation demanded a single design that would be acceptable to a broad range of possible customers, and that's what Primarius had to offer.
  
  The bottom line? Business strategies are not made in a vacuum. The organization must maximize the opportunities available in the environment and minimize the identified threats. For Matchstick and Primarius, this week's task environment presented a mass-marketing opportunity. The winning firm recognized this fact, the losing team did not.
   

• Give it up for the team. Shawn's verbalized negative reaction to the finished cake was insensitive. After all, Marcela had been working on the cake all night long. If Shawn didn't like the cake, she should have respected Marcela's product, kept her opinions to herself, and gotten behind the sales effort for the good of the team. Instead, Shawn talked herself into a bad attitude that was reflected in her lackluster selling tactics.
  
  The bottom line? Not everyone on a team will agree with the strategy or tactics, but once a decision is made, it's up to the team members to pull together and execute to the best of their abilities. A football team's quarterback may not agree with the play called by the coach, but once the play is called, everyone on the team—including the quarterback--has to run the play and give 100 percent effort.
   

• Not being flexible. Matchstick refused to change its icing color for customers. What kind of a rigid marketing/sales strategy was this? One bride wanted her ribbons in blue, only to be told no, it only came in pink and "you either love it or you hate it."
   

• Weak leadership. Matchstick's leader, David, was clearly out of his league. His inexperience was painfully evident. He wasn't even able to clearly identify which candidates contributed to his loss. He seemed to be flying by the seat of his pants, admitting all he really knows about cakes is they "taste good with milk."

  Stewart wasn't impressed with David's failure to identify the candidates responsible for their failure, and she correctly identified the team's failure as a "sales" problem.

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: