Debra oh Debra. How would you feel about having Debra as your boss? On the one hand, you might know where you’re headed to as a team (which can only be a 'good thing') and on the other hand, you might feel like resigning today/tomorrow due to the abrasive, loud, and meddlesomeness which is embodied in this contender. Being dominating can be an advantage in certain circumstances, but surely it's about knowing when this is needed and when to let your team have a say (yellow or blue floats anyone?). Perhaps an MBTI Team Report would help Debra understand a bit more. As Paula said to Debra on another occasion "You can manage other personalities but it’s your own personality you’ve got to try and manage as well!’. Perhaps my favourite quote of the show yet!
One of our resident business psychologists noticed that Philip stuck up for Lorraine in the boardroom after Debra berated her pitching style. MBTI enthusiasts might be pleased to see that there is in fact room for ‘feeling’ in the boardroom, and it is not all about criticising your colleagues!
Also isn't timing crucial for any leader - to know when to say something as well as how? This takes a certain combination of intellect and personality - which takes me to the Boardroom. On going into the Boardroom, Ben knew very well that this was the place to fight for himself. It's in the boardroom where it counts. And Ben was very clear, concise, and made sure he got his point across. In contrast to James, who under pressure, can't seem to string a coherent sentence together nor stand up for himself. Margaret noted that James is a 'jekyll and hyde' character: he could be a good manager but just not under pressure. Should managers always be under a certain amount of pressure? Certainly if they're going to climb to the other side of that Boardroom table, so to speak.
Our business psychologist also felt that James also seemed to trust people a lot, which implies that he would perhaps have a low ‘vigilance’ (read: trusting, unsuspecting, or accepting) score on the 16PF. This low ‘vigilance’ meant that he didn’t micro-manage his team, and let them get on with the product development. Question is, did this lead to the failure of their task?
Like or dislike him, Sir Alan again seems to have cut to the chase with the line to James about not challenging the hideous product they came up with. Being 'afraid to upset the kids' could be the inklings of some sort of weakness or development point - call it what you will - the failure to execute when faced with rocking the boat. Don't we need more brave and decisive leaders right now who have the strength to upset the kids...but then know how to pull the family back into the fold and get the business working?
OPP
P.S. I can't believe Sir Alan has put a stop to the 110% bingo fun - the scorecard was all ready to go with the copious mentions of ever increasing percentages!!!
Showing posts with label Apprentice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apprentice. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Friday, 27 March 2009
Week 1 - the exasperation begins
Where to start?! Already such fodder for analysis - The Apprentice does it again and manages to give us at least 110% worth of material to cogitate and cast our business psychologist eyes over. Where to start when there's already such so much to say?!
Let's start with conflict. I loved the part with the girls in the grimy cafe. All talking over each other. What would Ken Thomas, author of the TKI Conflict Mode tool, say? I'd hazard a guess at a few too many 'competing' styles playing out over those builders brews. Our recent study found that the average employee spends 2.1 hours per week dealing with conflict – I wonder what the average would be if we surveyed the latest batch of hopefuls in their new flash pad? If you're thinking 'I'd do a better job' and not shout the house down in 'Competing' stylie, then try our mini conflict handling quiz http://www.opp.eu.com/conflict_quiz.aspx
I asked one of our resident occupational psychologists at OPP, Paul Deakin, what he thought: “I was struck by the complete absence of trust and communication. The contestants failed to value the different contributions made by each team member. Yes, Anita could have spotted that the £200 was not a ‘budget’ but the total allowance for the task. But remember, she was the only one with a clear task to perform – totting up the expenditure. What were the others doing at this time? It’s all too easy to be scapegoated when everyone is working to achieve different objectives and teamworking is always undermined by personal agendas. Without trust and communication it’s incredibly hard to move to collaborating in a team: instead you just see people competing and avoiding the issue."
Moving swiftly onto leadership I wish the candidates would actually display some inkling of knowing what this might mean. Those spurious things called 'leadership goals' - did Mona stop to consider what success might look like? At least Howard mentioned the word 'objective' (lip service at least) when taking on the responsibility of being in a leadership position. But to think that neither considered mentioning the words 'margin', 'profit', or 'costs' in this climate is scary - this is a time when our leaders need to get back to these basic fundamentals.
In the words of Gillian commentating in the after show, 'sell, do, or bean-count' is what companies need to focus on now - with their leaders getting the fundamentals right. You'd hope that 'Commercial Awareness' would make it onto every organisation's list of core leadership competencies, eh?
Self-awareness if this is a key to developing into an authentic leader (as we believe it is) the Apprentices seem to be brutally lacking - preferring instead to fit into what their perceived model of what Sir Alan is looking for. We found recently that a third of employees said that they acted a part at interview to fit in with the company. If we surveyed the Apprentices, I'd expect that stat to rocket. Let's hope next week the true selves start coming out - that's got to be more fascinating than the current mis-mash.
Eagerly awaiting next Wednesday,
OPP
P.S. I’ve just thought of a new scale for a psychometric (perhaps we'll add it to the next edition of the 16PF?) - the scale would measure someone's ‘diamondness’. At one end 'sparkling' at the other 'rough' - perhaps that's the scale that Sir Alan should recruit against?
Let's start with conflict. I loved the part with the girls in the grimy cafe. All talking over each other. What would Ken Thomas, author of the TKI Conflict Mode tool, say? I'd hazard a guess at a few too many 'competing' styles playing out over those builders brews. Our recent study found that the average employee spends 2.1 hours per week dealing with conflict – I wonder what the average would be if we surveyed the latest batch of hopefuls in their new flash pad? If you're thinking 'I'd do a better job' and not shout the house down in 'Competing' stylie, then try our mini conflict handling quiz http://www.opp.eu.com/conflict_quiz.aspx
I asked one of our resident occupational psychologists at OPP, Paul Deakin, what he thought: “I was struck by the complete absence of trust and communication. The contestants failed to value the different contributions made by each team member. Yes, Anita could have spotted that the £200 was not a ‘budget’ but the total allowance for the task. But remember, she was the only one with a clear task to perform – totting up the expenditure. What were the others doing at this time? It’s all too easy to be scapegoated when everyone is working to achieve different objectives and teamworking is always undermined by personal agendas. Without trust and communication it’s incredibly hard to move to collaborating in a team: instead you just see people competing and avoiding the issue."
Moving swiftly onto leadership I wish the candidates would actually display some inkling of knowing what this might mean. Those spurious things called 'leadership goals' - did Mona stop to consider what success might look like? At least Howard mentioned the word 'objective' (lip service at least) when taking on the responsibility of being in a leadership position. But to think that neither considered mentioning the words 'margin', 'profit', or 'costs' in this climate is scary - this is a time when our leaders need to get back to these basic fundamentals.
In the words of Gillian commentating in the after show, 'sell, do, or bean-count' is what companies need to focus on now - with their leaders getting the fundamentals right. You'd hope that 'Commercial Awareness' would make it onto every organisation's list of core leadership competencies, eh?
Self-awareness if this is a key to developing into an authentic leader (as we believe it is) the Apprentices seem to be brutally lacking - preferring instead to fit into what their perceived model of what Sir Alan is looking for. We found recently that a third of employees said that they acted a part at interview to fit in with the company. If we surveyed the Apprentices, I'd expect that stat to rocket. Let's hope next week the true selves start coming out - that's got to be more fascinating than the current mis-mash.
Eagerly awaiting next Wednesday,
OPP
P.S. I’ve just thought of a new scale for a psychometric (perhaps we'll add it to the next edition of the 16PF?) - the scale would measure someone's ‘diamondness’. At one end 'sparkling' at the other 'rough' - perhaps that's the scale that Sir Alan should recruit against?
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