What can we learn from BBC's The Apprentice?
The popular, reality-based television show BBC's The Apprentice makes its return to the nation's screens, with 16 apprentices vying for a chance to partner with Lord Sugar in a new business. In this weekly-updated article, we at Lane4 will be watching and reviewing the shows based on our current thoughts about the business world – such as peak performance, teamwork and leadership.
Episose 12: The Final
Pressure is an inherent and incessant part of the modern world; and no one knows more about performing under pressure right now than the four finalists in BBC's The Apprentice. As this year's series drew to a close, the final episode had us all on the edge of our seats as Lord Sugar finally chose his new business partner. This week's task saw the candidates' business plans scrutinised by four of Lord Sugar's closest business allies.
After 3 months of relentless tasks, it was no wonder that the apprentices looked like they had lost their sparkle a bit. Last episode Karen reminded Lord Sugar “It's tough going, the 11 weeks”. The relentless pressure then stepped up with the interview rounds, and the candidates needed great mental toughness to get through this final stage.
Research with some of the world's best athletes shows that mental toughness is the capacity to respond positively to multiple, and sometimes conflicting, pressures in order to deliver consistently high levels of performance.
It is underpinned by four core skills:
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Handling pressure
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Self-belief
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Motivation
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Focus
Handling pressure and keeping your head under stress
Finding ways of keeping any symptoms of stress under control
Stress can result in both behavioural and physical symptoms that are often difficult to manage. Relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing and visualising soothing imagery are extremely helpful in controlling these symptoms. Jim, for example, seemed to cope with his stress by making jokes, at one point coming out of an interview saying “It was a walk in the park…with people shooting at you as you're walking through the park! And throwing hand grenades at you!” Susan, on the other hand, responded to her stressful situation with unshakeable positivity and smiles “That was alright actually…I'm so pumped” (which annoyed the fellow candidates)
Staying strong in your self-belief
It was apparent that the apprentices had no trouble with this, with all four very confident in listing their successes, skills and abilities, showing true passion (if only using tired clichés, like Jim!) But for the rest of us, this can feel like quite a difficult task.
Identifying and believing in your skills and abilities
These are the reasons you have achieved what you have which often get overlooked in tough times. Listing tangible achievements can highlight evidence of professional and personal success. These can then provide the building blocks to self-belief. Jim was especially good at this, at one point saying “I am a very good salesman, and thank you for pointing that out, but that's certainly not the only thing – I can negotiate, I can pitch, I can be creative, I have so much potential. I'm scratching the surface of what I can actually do.”
Making your motivation work for you
Skills and abilities alone will not deliver high performance that is sustainable under the immense pressure regularly experienced in the modern workplace where even the tiniest error of judgement can have a long term effect. Mentally tough leaders will be able to bounce back and remain motivated despite sustained pressure.
Maintaining your focus on the things that matter
Focusing on the positives
If external distractions are not enough to disrupt focus, then internal ones lurk menacingly. Thoughts of past failures, consequences of failure or doubts about achieving goals are all negative thoughts that hinder performance. Mentally tough performers will focus on past achievements and personal strengths to realise their potential. Jim commented that he “came here with a singleminded focus, and that was to become Lord Sugar's business partner. I'm still on track, and let's hope it goes according to plan”
Unfortunately for Jim, it didn't go to plan for him as Lord Sugar chose Tom to become his business partner. Tom demonstrated strong aspects of mental toughness for this last task, focussing on his passion and talent for inventing products instead of being side-lined by his chequered history of being on the losing team for the majority of the tasks. He kept his self-belief, performed under the pressure of the interviews, was motivated by the opportunity to work with Lord Sugar and kept this as his focus throughout the process.
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Episode 11
Does a leader need to be the expert? How heavily should you rely on the expertise of your team? These are the questions that were raised during this week's Apprentice. For this episode, Lord Sugar asked the teams to create new fast food outlets – designing the brand and dishes that would be served.
Natasha set herself out as an 'expert' at the beginning of the task, telling the rest of Team Venture that her degree in Hospitality Management included the task of designing a restaurant and it's menu, and reassuring Project Manager Jim “I'll support you with my knowledge of my degree”. Despite this, Jim let her have her way and work not on the food design team, but on the branding side of the task.
Ever the silent observer, Karen points out “Jim has got in Natasha someone who has a hospitality degree but because she doesn't want to cook he's agreed for her to go on the branding team. That is not using the skills which she clearly has to the best advantage for the team's outcome”.
Later, Natasha and Susan struggled to come up with any creative ideas for the Mexican food outlet brand themselves, so turned to the perceived expertise of the Project Manager Jim (who brought the world 'EveryDog'!) Rather than coaching his team through this, to encourage them to think for themselves and brainstorm together, he immediately suggested 'Caraca's'; a word he thought he had made up (but every Geography teacher will tell you is the capital of Venezuela. Nothing to do with Mexico).
His team then turned to him again (“Can we just give Jim one more call?”), when trying to decide on the brand image, and he made himself the decision maker yet again. If he didn't want the team to rely on him so much (he later suggests in the board room that they failed the task because the girls fought so much that he was needed as peacekeeper) he should have worked to coach them to work together to make the key decisions.
Over on Team Logic, the balance of leadership was much better, and the expertise of both were used to great result. Tom put himself forward to work on the branding, which Helen also wanted to do. Tom fought back: “That's what I do, how all my inventions have come about. That's what I've been doing for the last 8 years.” Helen conceded that Tom had more expertise in that field then she did, so trusted Tom to deliver. This also meant she then played to her own natural strengths, having worked in the food industry, by being on the food design side.
It is key that a leader recognises and utilises the strengths of their team, empowering them to make key decisions and enabling them to work together successfully. They do not need to b the 'expert' themselves, but be able to see the expertise in others.
Natasha di she was fired in the boardroom this week, partly because she didn't play to her strengths, and now we have our final four.
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Episode 10
This week Lord Sugar gave the apprentices £250 of stock in this selling and reinvestment task. “I expect you to sell that stuff as quick as possible and smell which item is the best seller, come back and buy some more and just keep going.” The value of the stock left over plus the money made would be added together and the team with the greatest amount of assets would win. In essence he was asking them to sell well, bravely reinvest and ultimately get themselves 'on a roll'.
Being 'on a roll', 'in the zone' or on a 'winning streak' are neither concrete nor tangible activities, but scholars have described the process as Psychological Momentum. This is often seen in sport, and has been defined as 'the state of play reflected in the degree to which two teams are able to manage their perceptions, actions and reaction to the range of events that unfold throughout a match' (Momentum in Soccer; Higham, Harwood & Cale, 2005) To an outsider, it appears as if a team or player keeps winning and seems to have a magic touch. In a business scenario this could be a sales team beating ever-increasing targets, or performing successfully under increasing time pressures. The difficulty with Psychological Momentum is that it can be easily lost or even turn negative – turning points in a situation can make or break the momentum.
In The Apprentice this week, Jim's momentum was broken by Natasha's reluctance to let him reinvest and buy more stock. Jim was delivering high performance – selling being a strong talent of his and he was keen to build on this success – but his momentum was stifled by his Project Manager who wouldn't enable him to keep going.
On the other team, Helen was struggling with her change in fortune, having been on the winning team for 9 consecutive weeks she quickly realised that her winning streak may be over. This created a turning point – she could have rallied behind her team and the project manager Melody but instead she staged The Apprentices' first coup in which she attempted to take over control as the project manager. Often people can become frustrated when their psychological momentum stops or shifts, and this is evident in Helen here.
Melody was fired this week, leaving the final five contestants – Tom, Jim, Helen, Natasha and Susan – to continue the battle to become Lord Sugar's business partner.
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Episode 9
Poor team work and back-biting behaviour were the flavour of this week's episode. Lord Sugar asked the teams to create a new brand of biscuit, from product development through to the packaging and presentation, and it was Zoe who crumbled under the pressure.
As we have mentioned before, the nature of the show requires the apprentices to work as a team during the day in order to win the task, yet work as individuals as soon as they enter the boardroom. In high performing teams, individuals will put the goals of the team ahead of their own goals and so must be able to trust their team mates implicitly. As the weeks have gone on, tension has mounted and the teamwork needed in order to win the task is slowly being eroded.
The task began with Team Logic deciding on the project manager for the task. Both Susan and Zoe put themselves forward, except (in the words of Lord Sugar's aide Nick) “Zoe slapped down Susan a couple of times, [just] as one slaps down a yapping puppy”. Susan, in return, later describes Zoe as “one of the bitchiest and back-stabbing people I've ever met.” Even Lord Sugar notes the behaviour, stopping an argument between Zoe and Melody in the boardroom by saying “It's getting ridiculous – this is not to do with business, this is to do with personalities.”
This type of behaviour is far from conducive to high performance, and it is no surprise that Team Logic went on to fail the task. One aspect of Lane4's High Performing Teams model identifies Team Emotion. This is about how team members feel about each other, and their team as a whole, which determines how they will behave and how effectively the team will perform. High levels of mutual trust, team spirit and the ability to resolve conflict are critical for high performance.
It is evident that Team Logic were not able to work together to reach high performance, and project manager Zoe was fired.
The 5 aspects of a High Performing Team:
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Team Mind – the shared knowledge of the team members, knowing their own strengths and weaknesses
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Team Emotion – how team members feel about each other
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Team Process – the ability to consistently produce the most effective outcome with the greatest efficiency
- Team Leadership – the vision, support and challenge offered by an effective leader
- Team Psychological Edge – utilising psychological momentum to keep 'on a roll'
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Episode 8
Last night we saw the teams demonstrating their superior French language skills, most notably Jim for which 'petit pois' meant 'a little'.
The task saw the teams head to France to sell typically British products to French retailers. Those who sold the highest volume of products won. However from the outset an interesting dynamic was set. Although ultimately a team task, the candidates were each presented with an order book and told that they would also be judged on how well they did individually. Consequently, evident throughout the remainder of the programme was the conflict between what was best for the team vs. the individual.
Team Logic with Tom as the team leader had the formidable Melody to deal with, and it is within this team that we see a great example of the team/ individual conflict.
From the outset we see Melody with her own agenda. Disregarding Tom's hunch that the car seat backpack was the best option, she twists the market research so that the team chooses the teapot lamp. Furthermore, as she is fluent in French, (she owns a global business if you didn't know), and with Leon hiding behind the fact that he couldn't speak the language, we see Melody booking all the meetings for the next day.
It is here that we see Melody's disregard for the team. She refuses to give any of her meetings over to the other members, hogging them all for herself. This lack of collaboration can be seen as a major factor contributing to the loss of team Logic.
To work as a High Performing Team, engagement within the team, (the concept of Team Mind) is vital. Here, all members work together towards a common purpose and have a shared understanding of what they're doing and how they're doing it. In this case Melody was only thinking about herself.
It is also interesting to see that Lord Sugar praised Melody for hogging all the pitches, 'Don't care if she hogged it all... showed aggression', saving her because she was ruthless. But if Lord Sugar only bases who he hires on their ruthlessness, and disregard for other team members how are any of his teams going to perform at a high level?
Episode 7
In episode 7 of The Apprentice we saw the contestants designing "freemium" magazines, resulting in the now infamous “Hip-Replacement” magazine from team Venture, and a new lads' mag “Covered” from Logic.
This episode brought to the fore the leadership capabilities of the team leaders Jim and Natasha.
During the decision making process we see Jim suggesting the over sixties demographic as team Venture's target audience. He managed to successfully engage his team with this idea, creating an environment where it looked like they were really in it together. However, Jim does not assert his position as leader; he plays it “safe”. As Nick states, Jim “never isolates himself to take his own decision”. Instead he asks his team over again whether to go ahead, he never owns his idea. Here, Jim is displaying a classic trait of the “safe” leader; he is worried for his position later on, being fired if the task does not go to plan. He is unwilling to put himself on the line.
Jim's discussions around leadership and his role as the leader are also interesting. At the beginning of the programme he talks about how leaders “take…. hearts and take minds, I am good at making them do what they need to do” while in the boardroom he states “I was the project manager that they loved”. Here he seems to value the “adoration” and prestige that comes with leadership, and the ability to control his colleagues. He is again showing a trait of safe leaders, who value the prestige, status, power and authority that come with the leadership role.
Although Natasha's leadership skills are far from perfect, we do see one of the key traits of “real” leaders evident, the tenacity to stand by their decisions and “tell it how it is”. Unlike Jim she owns her decision to create a lads' mag, she takes a risk and runs with it, and it ultimately pays off with team Logic winning the task. However, although Natasha owned her decision, she lacked the ability to listen to her team, when Helen and Tom mentioned that the focus group were not keen on the lads' mag angle, the aspect which let them down when pitching, Natasha outright refused to listen to what they were saying.
Overall we can see that both Jim and Natasha's leadership skills leave a lot to be desired.
Definitions of Real and Safe leaders:*
Real leaders
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Driven by challenge and opportunity to put themselves out there and make a difference
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Become more prominent in tough times- they are highly visible
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View current difficulties as the time when development is most needed
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Are authentic - they don't hide their doubts and worries
Safe leaders
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Driven by their need for reward, status and power
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Risk-averse - they keep their heads out of the firing line
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Little or no innovation - focus on micro-managing the short term
Episode 6
In episode six, we see the candidates getting dirty and dealing with rubbish. Following on from last week's blog theme of listening, we look at how teams learn by listening to minority views.
In this episode we see the end of Team Venture's reign as winners. One of the main mistakes for Team Venture was their inability to get to grips with the task, ending in the team failing to secure any of the contracts that were up for grabs.
When negotiating for the office furniture we see a key exchange between Susan and Zoe. Susan, points out that the team should be offering payment for disposing of the waste, which leads to confusion and Zoe shooting the idea down, opting to charge the client instead. This incident was one in a line of negative interactions that eroded the 'psychological safety' within the team. Psychological safety is present when team members feel comfortable expressing their views, ideas and questions without fear of ridicule or reprisal. The fact that Zoe was unable to create this type of environment was evident on a number of occasions, (e.g. - putting Susan down when she was asking questions, and again her reaction when Susan suggests paying to dispose of the rubbish), leading Susan to back down on her suggestion and the team failing to listen and learn from the minority opinion - Susan.
If we take Team Logic as a comparison, a different tone is set from the start. On deciding team leader, a “logical” discussion ensues, ending with Helen being chosen due to her “strategy” from the outset. This culture of communication continues throughout the episode, with only a few hiccups- Melodie and Natasha arguing about Natasha's previous experience.
This outlook leads to a prime example of the minority voice being listened to. Team Logic win both contracts by charging nothing for their time, however, Melodie from the outset argues for charging the clients. Instead of ignoring her idea, Helen accepts this could be a successful route to follow, resulting in a job worth over £200. Here, we see that the team displays a key trait for creating an environment where the minority voice can be heard- the ability to “learn”, and explore alternatives, always thinking about how the team can improve.
How to create an environment where the minority voice is heard;
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Be learning orientated – teams should have high levels of communication, be open to exploring alternatives, experimenting and thinking about how they can improve.
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Create a psychologically safe environment-Where it is ok to sometimes make mistakes, all options considered.
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Have healthy conversations - Make sure that team members are really listening to each other.
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Episode 5
The fifth episode of BBC's The Apprentice brought the traditional advertising task – in this case the two teams had to create a new pet food brand. For us, this episode demonstrated the importance of listening skills.
Vincent, team leader of Logic, decides that they should target the whole market, and come up with the idea of 'EveryDog'. This idea is challenged by the focus group, which consisted of dog walkers and a vet, with the vet saying that to sufficiently nourish different sizes and breeds of dogs “and to pack it all into the one tin is almost impossible.” Like last week, team member Tom also declared his concerns that the audience was too broad and they should instead try to find a niche. All of which Vincent ignores, telling Tom “I'm going to take a decision on that. I like 'Every'…I think it's brilliant.”
Glen, team leader for Venture, sent a sub team to the focus group to test their branding ideas. While they were away, Glen came up with his own idea – 'CatSize'. Ignoring both the subteam, and the positive response of the focus group to their brand idea 'Lucky Fish', Glen decides to run with his idea. He has no buy-in from the sub team, with Zoe remarking “I feel really deflated. We've spent all morning coming up with ideas and then Glen came along and just said 'No way'”.
Both team leaders have product concepts they are attached to and bat away any other ideas, or indeed questions, from the team. Both seemed intent on making sure that they had come up with the best idea when in reality they were ignoring the warning signs by not listening to the advice of others.
What stopped both team leaders listening to the focus group, experts and their team members? Typical listening contaminators include:
- Our importance
- Our superior knowledge
- Our prejudices, which we hope others share
- Our disdain for the thoughts of a perceived adversary
- Our insecurity about what others think of us
- Our lack of stature in the group
- Our worry that someone is waiting to shoot us down
- Our unfamiliarity with the topic at hand
In this week's episode importance, perceived superior knowledge and insecurity all play a part. Listening is a little-taught skill. At school we learn to read and write; later in life it's common to learn speaking and presentation skills and perhaps specialist writing skills. However it's less common to learn how to listen well, to display empathy and to stay completely neutral whilst listening. We think that if both team leaders had done a bit more listening, the resulting brand and advertisements would have been more successful.
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Episode 4
The fourth episode of The Apprentice brought to the fore the issue of empowerment – when should a leader trust their team and empower them with projects that they can own and deliver, and when should they keep control and take the lead themselves? Empowering requires the leader to share some of their authority and responsibilities with team members, developing the intellectual capital of your business and giving team members a greater feeling of involvement and enriching their jobs by giving them greater scope and depth.
Zoe, team leader of Venture, had a tricky challenge. Susie, full of energy and enthusiasm, claimed to be an expert in the beauty field and boasted “I have my own business in skincare...that's what I'm good at, selling beauty stuff”. Susie claimed she would be able to sell three beauty products an hour, but Zoe mitigated the risk and ordered less stock than Susie suggested, prompting Susie to say “But I would just like to let you know that I am more than confident that we will sell out of all these products.” Zoe ultimately trusted her to deliver on her promises – empowering her to 'do what she did best'. Unfortunately, Susie didn't deliver and Zoe had to have a difficult conversation with her in order to stimulate her performance.
“Susie, last night you gave me a very strong phone call and you came up with these optimistic numbers, you're in skincare anyway, so we trusted you. You've made your bed, you've got to lie in it I'm afraid. Try and recall it back, and try and get the sales.”
Felicity, on the other hand, was seen to disempower members of team Logic. Team member Tom is obviously very details orientated and on reading the locations pack he flagged up concerns about their chosen location and the distance between the main pitch and the treatment rooms. Felicity dismissed his concerns in a patronizing and abrupt way, “I've read it, thanks, so if you can just pop that down Tom. OK, let's move on.” Ignoring Tom's strengths, and ultimately disempowering him, had a big impact on why Team Logic failed – they failed to sell the beauty treatments, and encourage customers up into the treatment room.
Empowerment can be very difficult for leaders as it naturally involves some risk. In the case of The Apprentice where they are ultimately all competing against each other, yet have to work as a team to win a task, it may be very difficult to let go of control when it is often the team leader that is chastised for a poor team performance. But back in the 'real' world, it is essential that leaders build a team around them that can take ownership of projects and deliver on them.
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Episode 3
This week saw the candidates shopping for ten items for The Savoy Hotel, but it made us wonder – was this really testing the qualities Lord Alan wants in a business partner? This week's task was about negotiation and timekeeping. But in reality, the performance conditions encourage poor behaviour and focus on the short term results. Will haggling/begging for 1p off an expensive item result in good relationships with a supplier, and therefore high performance, over the long term?
An example of good negotiating skills, without compromising your behaviour, was Jim aka “the bulldozer of Irish charm”. His approach centred around appearing open, honest and empathetic to suppliers – building relationships then just pushing it a little further. His extra £10 off the fillet steak could be seen to have won this task for Venture, essentially single-handed.
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Episode 2
The second show brought to the fore the issue of teamwork. The nature of the show requires the apprentices to work as a team during the day in order to 'win' the task, yet work as individuals, out for themselves, as soon as they enter the boardroom.
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Episode 1
A good way to start the analysis of the show is with the figure head – the leader of the apprentices– Lord Alan Sugar. An important part of leadership is role-modelling – a leader walking the walk, demonstrating the behaviour they want to see in others. Lord Sugar starts his relationship with his apprentices on a dubious message:
2011-05-12