Business Lessons from Celebrity Apprentice (ep. 4)

Thursday’s Celebrity Apprentice was a pretty lackluster episode. I was excited to see Marilu Henner and Vincent Pastore square off. I like both of them, but Marilu seems to be a much stronger leader than Vincent. I wasn’t sure who I was rooting for. I mean, I love it when Omarosa’s team loses, but I don’t want to see Marilu go.

The women have severe cohesiveness issues, thanks largely due to Omorosa. On the other hand, the guys, who work very well together, had some pre-task fireworks themselves. Which brings me to…

Business Lesson One: Save the animosity for the opposing team, not your own

Some personalities just seem to have a hard time working together. But you can’t let personality clashes get in the way of team performance. Not everybody can be a leader, and sometimes you’ve got to know when to step off, step back, and put your personal opinions aside.

Piers Morgan and Stephen Baldwin are very different. They have different styles of leadership and their own way of doing things. These two clash.

But at the same time they have (so far) been able to put that behind them in order to get things done. It was actually funny to see them laughing at themselves later in the episode. They know they clash, but they don’t let that get in the way of victory.

Even opposing personalities can work together, and in business, you’ve got to make differences work for you rather than against you. If you’re going to have animosity, save it for the other team. Learn to put differences aside with your own teammates so that you can press on to achieve the goals laid out before you.

Business Lesson Two: If you can’t compete, get off the field

Some competitors are not meant for certain fields. Just because someone succeeds in one area doesn’t mean they’ll automatically succeed in another. This is especially important when bringing in new people to your team.

In the world of business, many people think that just because they are strong and have shown victory in one area that they can easily transfer that over into another. Some people can do that, but most of the time, people can’t. Ever see Trump dabble in technology? He doesn’t because that’s an area he doesn’t know. Trump tries to stick to doing things where he has a much higher chance of success.

Jennie Finch is a gold medal softball player. She’s tough on the field, and she is used to asserting herself to bring her team to victory. That’s her field. The Apprentice is not. All her wins on the softball field wasn’t enough to bring her victory in a different arena. And she seemed to recognize that a bit.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is essential to success. If you find yourself in an area of weakness and you realize you just don’t have what it takes, be smart and get off the field. Nobody likes losing and it doesn’t make sense to continue in an area where victory is unlikely, especially when you can get back to your own area and dominate.

Conclusion

I don’t think Vincent Pastore turned out to be a particularly effective leader. I’d hate to see good people get fired off the girls’ team just because the guys’ team has some particularly effective leaders.