So, Sir Alan and his pointy finger are back.
As soon as the ‘The Apprentice’ advertised it’s pending return, I excitedly set my sky box up to record, ready to enjoy the trials and tribulations of the latest set of foolishly over-confident candidates.
And it wasn’t long before we had the usual TV gold (would you buy a cruise from a company whose logo looks like a poo?), but there was something else niggling away at me the whole time, stopping me from just enjoying the show…
With very few exceptions, to get on you need to be seen as either an overbearing alpha male, or a heel wearing, ‘ball-breaking business bitch’. Talking over each other, blunt (and unconstructive) feedback, and ‘my way or the highway’ decision making – it’s never going to get results.
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have misunderstood the qualities needed to be successful in business. You can be assertive and decisive, without having to be aggressive and stubborn.
If you spend time gathering the best ideas from your team, it doesn’t make you bad at your job – it just means you’re intelligent enough to look at all the skills available to you and enable people to play to their strengths – then everybody wins! You’ll have ideas from a more diverse pool, you’ll have their buy in and support, and they’ll be wanting to help bring their ideas to life and do the best job for you and your customers. Instead we see one person stubbornly juggling to do it all (badly) whilst the rest of the team are already plotting how they can drop them in it in the boardroom!
My best ever experiences at work have always been enabled by leaders and colleagues who’ve demonstrated mutual respect and value my input. And some of my most successful projects have been a result of great collaboration, as well as understanding and listening to the human-need first and foremost.
Over the last year, we’ve seen more than ever how important it is to be empathetic and kind – both inside and outside of work. So how about for the next series, we have at least a few candidates who can demonstrate a bit of that?
@Katie
