Commentary

• Don't let distraction or conflict sideline your team.
  • Team dynamics are fluid; distractions and conflicts are common. Managing a team that is working well is far different from managing one in conflict. Desperate times require decisive leadership. As the team leader, you have responsibility to deal with distractions because conflict and lack of trust can spread through your team like a disease.
• What do you do as a leader if your team has conflict?
  • Leaders need to step in with focus and structure to deal with the conflict openly, fairly and compassionately and help the team move on by setting clear boundaries and expectations. Arrow wallowed in its distraction. James, as the leader, did little to help his team move past it. He said he was "disgusted" but failed to help the team heal or come back together with focus.
• Trust and loyalty are critical to team performance.
  • Without trust, teams will flounder and fail to get past the normal "storming" phase of team development. Leaders need to spend time and energy helping their teams develop trust or mending it if trust is broken. This requires courage and time spent working out personality differences and issues. The goal is to help team members be open and vulnerable with each other. The bottom line for Tim was that his team didn't trust his agenda. They assumed he was on Nicole's side vs. their side.
• Know where your loyalties lie.
  • There is an old saying that we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behaviors. Our perception of others' intent is directly related to how much we trust them. Get clear about your own intent. Ask yourself if you are truly focused on a win for your team vs. other motives (like trying to position yourself to get the glory or, in this case, get the girl). Declare your intentions to help others and get clear about your true motives to lessen the likelihood of misperceptions. Stefani showed her loyalties clearly when she saved Tim from a major presentation wardrobe malfunction, anticipating that he needed his suit (he was stuck in his pjs from the photo shoot with no time to run back for the suit). She could have thrown him under the bus (after all, he is her competitor), but instead she did the right thing for her team and brought him his suit. Almost always, a win-win for your team will translate into a win-win for you, too.
• Don't let your team get bottlenecked. 
  • Again, we see an Apprentice team fail to do an adequate job of creative brainstorming, and going with the first idea presented with enthusiasm.. Arrow should have spent more time on the creative process. The team failed to generate alternative ideas to consider and failed to evaluate the idea against criteria for success. Arrow's outcome might have been different had it considered other possibilities.
• The ability to stay in touch is essential today, not optional.  
  • Keep your cell phone charged! Stefani's phone battery died just when she needed it the most - in the minutes before her team was to present. Tim, who couldn't get back to the mansion to get into his suit, was trying to reach her. He got lucky when Stefani brought his presentation clothes to him and saved the day, but it was a close call for him and his team.
• Execution counts.
  • A weaker concept won this week because it was executed more professionally. Arrow's plan to show people from all walks of life in their insert was smarter than Kinetic's decision to depict just three young women - themselves! Yet Kinetic's insert won because of its superior production.
• Have a backup plan.
  • Arrow paid no attention to contingencies. Frank tried to persuade the team to try another angle (realizing that the shot was questionable) but his team turned against him for suggesting a change at the last minute. Too bad; they might have won had they tried an alternative.
• Tell people what you think, even if it seems too late.
  • In the end, doing so gave Frank an advantage edge over Tim in the boardroom firing. After the photo shoot, Frank expressed doubts about the wisdom of his team's "man in the street" promotional concept. He was speaking up too late in the process - but didn't he turn out to be right?
• Don't let your heart get ahead of your head.
  • There may be a time when an office romance will tempt you. But if your career really matters to you - and your romantic interest's career too - think carefully ahead of time. Tim's romance had him painted into a career corner. He had to push his ideas aggressively to prove his loyalty to his team - but that also made him likely to be fired if his team lost. And that is just what happened. After Tim was fired, he turned to the camera and said he was "a fool" to let a romance kill his chances of being the next Apprentice. He was right - but it was far too late to save himself.

© 1998-2007 Maureen Moriarty/Seattle Post-Intelligencer