Apprentice 101: David's note-taking is a bad fit

Ten candidates remained last week when Martha Stewart visited the candidates' loft for an unannounced visit to give the suite the "white glove" test. The next day, Stewart, speaking via cell phone while trimming hedges, gave the two teams their instructions for the next task.


	David

This week's assignment: Create celebrity experiences to auction at the charity event, "Broadway Barks." The event was an "Oscar" night for dogs, featuring cute canines in tuxes. The winner would be the team that raised the most money.

Both teams, Primarius and Matchstick, created and negotiated imaginative, desirable celebrity experiences and raised considerable money. Primarius, however, raised more money, bringing in $44,100 versus Matchstick's $40,350.

Marcela, Matchstick's team leader, and David, neither of whom was effective during the task, were brought into the conference room to face firing by Stewart. In the end, Stewart felt David was too young and immature to be an executive with her company and dismissed him.

Here are some lessons learned during this task:

Fit

Giving back. The task for this episode demonstrated sound business strategy from Stewart and was squarely aligned with her target consumer's preferences. Stewart knows it is a winning formula to connect with her customers, and she uses pets to do this.

Aligning with charities and cause-related marketing is simply good business for any company. It creates good will and positions the business in a positive light with customers.

Stand by your team. In the beginning of the episode, Primarius waited anxiously to see whom Stewart had fired, nervous no doubt that they might still be saddled with Jim. Sarah, however, displayed professional maturity noting, "whoever walks through that door gets 100 percent of my support. They are still on my team." Good for her. True team players understand that though they don't always control the cards they are dealt, they have to make the best play with them.


		NBC
	Matchstick team members Dawna, from left, Amanda and Marcela discuss a charity auction experience with actress Fran Drescher, right. Dawna and Amanda dominated the negotiations while project manager Marcela just sat there. Despite Marcela's lack of leadership, David got sent home.

Establish rapport. Amanda began her negotiation meeting with celebrity Fran Drescher by first complimenting her inspirational cancer book. Smart negotiators find a point of connection with their customers. They acknowledge them and note something they have in common. The best salespeople will even mirror their prospects communication style and body posture. This puts people at ease and makes them feel more comfortable.
Do your homework before negotiations. Despite their project manager Jim's direction to get drunk and forget about work, Primarius members Carrie and Bethenny -- who seem to actually care about their careers -- smartly spent time preparing for their morning meeting by researching their celebrity, Todd Oldham. Their research paid off because this was the final auction item -- and it pushed the team's auction earnings ahead of Matchstick's.

Not Fit

Professional boundaries. Jim continues to display inappropriate behavior. Has it occurred to him that he is on national television and may be committing career suicide? This week, as project manager, he took his team to a bar to celebrate. Mind you, taking a work team out for drinks to celebrate isn't necessarily a bad idea, but workplace boundaries still apply. Apparently unconcerned with conventional rules of propriety among co-workers, Jim told a cocktail waitress "we're trying to get drunk here. We need a beer bong, a keg and three bottles of Cuervo." And astonishingly, Jim encouraged his team to "get drunk and have sex." This could easily be considered sexual harassment and result in legal liability.
Arrogance. Jim's arrogance and bravado is shameless, "I can get as drunk as I want because I'm the project manager. I'm invincible." There is a big difference between confidence -- a plus for winning in business -- and the arrogance of a pompous jerk.
Get in the game. David did little to contribute to his team. He was a sideline player. During negotiations with celebrities, the best he could bring to the table was his laptop to take notes. Experienced professionals ask if they can take notes during negotiations. More importantly, if you are part of a negotiations team, contribute something of value. The fly on the wall approach is not a good strategy.
Not everyone is cut out to be a leader. While leadership skills can be improved and fine tuned, some people simply aren't cut out to be leaders. Project manager Marcela was clearly out of her comfort zone in a leadership position. She brought little value to her team. She failed to guide, direct or be involved in any of the negotiations. Her team performed in spite of her, not because of her.

The challenge facing most organizations is leveraging the skills and strengths of their people into areas that bring the most value to the organization.

ABOUT THE SERIES

What can real-world business leaders learn from the NBC series "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart"? That's the question the Seattle Post-Intelligencer posed to Maureen Moriarty, who uses the show as a teaching and coaching tool. She'll try to answer the question each week on Mondays throughout the show's season.

See her previous columns.

Maureen Moriarty is a professional accredited executive coach, corporate leadership trainer, team facilitator and founder of Pathways to Change. She teaches leadership courses based on "The Apprentice" and gives speeches and offers corporate training based on the popular TV show. Her Web site is www.pathtochange.com, and she can be reached at 425-837-9297.

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