What I Learned from Last Night's Apprentice

With his inflated self-image and weak leadership skills, Surya is shaping up to be the "boss from hell," a position that his education , resume and obvious intelligence may get him. It's good that Mr. Trump fired him relatively early in the process, and in his career, to give him time to "shape up" in a better way. And if he doesn't, the rest of us are at least forewarned.

I agree. Perceptions that people have of your leadership can affect your ability to lead. Being sensitive to those perceptions and correcting them is critical. My perception (and perhaps those of Surya's team) of Surya was that he was conceited (based on his wordiness and ramblings) and unwilling to listen to his team.

If the team is not behind you, your leadership is powerless.

This reminds me of one of the taboos to avoid as an effective leader, as described in Jim Collins' excellent book "Good to Great". Suriya took credit for the successes and deflected blame for his failures.

A better leader aknowledges that his team delivered the successes while failures are the result of lack of strategy, foresight, communication, coordination, inspiration, management, etc. on the part of the leader.

When one sees a leader who blames others for failure and one does not have an opportunity to advise the leader regarding better ways of execution, my suggestion is to find a better team to be a member of. Otherwise, if the leader's lack of vision or any other impediment causes a compromise in the result, it won't be the leader who takes the fall - it will be the team members no matter how badly the leader fouled up. Some of these leaders make quite a career around doing this dance before finally reaching their ultimate level of incompetence and exhausting places to keep hopping to.

Best regards,

Harry

I'm a The Apprentice fan.

I find a rule in it, if you shine your leadership but you finally lose, you'll be leave and inspected.(Except final round)

'Cause Mr. Trump isn't finding a Task-finishing Machine, but a incredible leader.

And I wanna say, just like Arch Lustberg's word,If you think you're the best, why you still depreciate someone.

I appreciate to leave a comment here

Chinese student in GZU

I work with someone exactly like Surya. The only exception is that he is from one of the former Russian bloc countries.

This person also rambles on endlessly about "the way things need to be done". Has THREE whiteboards he works with and fills them with nonsensical data no one understands but him. Is also convinced that whatever he decides to do in development, programming or work requests, that HIS way is the only logical way of getting the problem or job solved.

This person even tried to take over an emergency project where I had to rebuild a server for the company I worked for. I knew what the problem was (the power supply failed, I saw it die). Luckily, we had a similar casing with power supply available and 75 percent into getting the equipment transfered over to the new assembly, he comes in and starts taking parts out and trying to power the system up. In his words "to double check and see where the problem was". Not taking the hint that he was not needed, we finished the server got it back online. The next morning I was discussing the problems we had had with that equipment with a co-worker when my fellow employee walked by and commented on how "he" had fixed the problem.

I don't know if this is an issue that comes down to the way that Americans are perceived by the rest of the world in regards to work. But the feeling that I get is that we are seen as lazy, uneducated and overpriviledged. See us how you want, but we are resilient. We find a way to get the job done. But there is an old saying that most of your apprentices need to learn (from what I have seen this season) and that is:

"If you need to drive a nail, you don't need to do anything fancy, just get a hammer and hit it".

You don't need three whiteboards full of nonsense to sell a botlle of honey. Just like you don't need people like Surya or my fellow employee who cannot see beyond they end of their nose. Just do the job and show leadership.

I am a big fan of the Apprentice, but #6 has become boring becasue it is predictable. The Project manager of the losing team always is fighting for their survival and almost always gets fired. Mr. Trump's analysis of who to fire has become superficial lacking depth of insight. Mr. Trump automatically fires the Project Manager regardless of the task details and problems caused by others. contestants have learned to sabotage the PM or gang up on the PM to insure the PM is fired if they lose a task. Mr. Trump is rewarding and reinforcing this behavior by not looking deeper than leadership issues of the PM. Being a PM is suicide because Mr. Trump does not change PMs when they win. It is just a matter of time before a PM loses a task and gets fired. Mr. Trump should go back to switching PMs every week, especially if evaluation of leadership is the sole criteria. all members must get into the leadership role and that isn't happening. The tent idea for the losers is also a lame idea. it was cute for one week, but is now boring.

What I was able to learn in my air force career, isn't any different then the business world. When a squadron, unit, or even section has success, the leader praises his/her troops for their accomplishments and ensures they are the ones recognized for their achievements. When they fall short of meeting their goals, the leader takes the responsibility/accountability then moves forward to improve. I think Surya tried very hard to get the other members of Arrow to support him, but some were not on the same page as him. Surya is gone so it's time for someone else to step up. I want to see how someone else will perform as PM. To my knowledge, I think only Frankie has been PM but lost. Hopefully, Stefanie will volunteer because I like her and want to see her put James in his place. KUDOS to Kinetic for winning the task. Kristine's prior experience of doing these types of events paid dividends to her and her team. I can't wait for week 9.
rickyl

You know what's really cool all these smart good looking men and women want to work for you.

They treat you like the King that your are! It's so cool.

At least Surya didn't quit before you fired him like that other loser quitter, what was her name? I guess no one remembers a quitter or loser now do they?

What I learned from the show last nite is that whenever there is competition and you are managing the same people you are competing against and you are not clearly labeled as "boss" these people will sabotage you as they did with Surya last nite.
The were afraid of him and righfull so, he is in a separate league from the rest of them, he has intelligence and ability to think constructively, he is well mannered and is beyond where most of the clowns on the show will be able to get anytime in their life.
Trump gave Surya credit as should the rest of you. He will go far in life and does not need to defend himself against gossipers and townies...you know who you are...
Best.

All of Surya's blathering, and endless notes were to convince himself that he was going in the right direction. His followers sensed it and didn't trust him as a leader.

Once he confessed that he had been more comfortable as a follower on the other team he sealed his fate. Donald Trump doesn't need another follower to oversee a major project.....NEXT.

I think the winner had been selected by Mr. Trump by the third episode, and now he is just sifting the chaff until he is left with that person.

I agree to a tee again with you Mr. Quintal in regards to your comments
about this weeks' episode of The Apprentice. All I have to say is thank you Mr. Trump. Surya is gone, and Randall was not in the Boardroom. I see why it was a hard decision for you last night Mr. Trump.
You should have perhaps fired two of them? Thank You and God Bless.
PS Mr. Trump. Could you please have your secretary email me. I have something to ask of you. Won't take but a minute and no, I won't be asking you for any money. Thank You Mr. Trump.

Often, I notice that attention always focuses on the team that lost. Enough has been said about Surya.

I'm will now comment on Kristine's leadership qualities. During the discussion in the van, she became offended when Muna asked her questions to verify certain issues. In that instance, Kristine took it negatively at a personal level. She stoically believed that she would not fail the task simply because she had handled it countless times.

Many times, leaders with big egos do not take questions or criticisms positively. They become closed systems, unable to grow and eventually implode with false arrogance.

Of course, Muna is not exactly tactful nor skilful in the way she keeps her team in check, although she does possess an excellent questioning mind. I only see it as Kristine's fortune that her team won this time.

Andrew Wee
AAE Immigration
http://www.aaeimmigration.com

Now those pure politicians are gone and I am looking forward the following exciting episodes. In this episode, Tim is so politic to shift the focus to the tension between Surya and James. I like James because he is very sharp in business and always get to the point when he speaks but it seems that he needs to be more politic.

I could not agree with you more. Unfortunately your show did not air this week on my television and I have now missed two of your segments either due to hockey or special events. I cannot tell you how frustrating that was.

As for what I did see of Surya he has a very intense face that compounds the issues you outlined and so he is then into the situation where he has to compensate for the knee jerk reactions he gets when he furrows his brow.

I have noticed this aspect of communication from a few amateur debuts on television lately.

To add to your concept I have noticed a few in your forum compete with one another and when new people join they don't understand and internalize that those competing remarks are aimed at them.

To some degree if they leave the forum because of those remarks it might show their lack of character and conviction however it would be nice to see a kinder forum for newcomers in the future because in the least they are Mr Trump's budding and potential customers.

I have to admit even I was forced to compete with some of this wit and snide treatment. It certainly effected my performance as I have spent my time here.

Still my determination remains true and you have not lost me yet.

Nice article I am almost ready to creep up from behind :)

Never in my life have I read so many posts about nothing.

Lets break it down into simple terms.

Surya, the day before the task, sat at a table and said how proud he was that he had made the move.

When he thought the end was near (both times) he went to his competition and told them everything they wanted to hear in hopes it would save him.

He went into the boardroom and launched into a tirade of how his team was weak and they needed him to win.

Never mind that he was missing in action (either physically or mentally) on EVERY task he was involved in. He completely lacks integrety.

How many of you could either work with him, for him or deal with him on a professional level and trust a word he says?

It's not about bad boss, good boss. It's not about mistakes. It's about his complete lack of real life business sense. Trump made a great decision. And as for the blogger who said "It's always the projector manager who gets fired". Heidi didn't get fired. Maybe that's becuase she wasn't a complete screw up.

Difficult not to judge here. Even more difficult if not painful to see someone in a leadership role struggle between two extremes: taking inspiration from the big boss (idealization) and casting himself in the role of outsider (narcissism, as someone said). Now we've seen and probably understand you can't be truly yourself in business. The business etiquette lived by Mr. Trump is, hm, very useful, and good, but somewhere there's a place for that real self, a person's authenticity. Surya surely has that, too. You kinda want to like him, but instead of developing that, or it being brought out through the tasks, he so far only gets on people's nerves.

Look, it is really simple and everyone is overlooking the obvious.

There are three elements to Leadership:
- Leader
- Followers
- Circumstance / Situation

The Leader can emerge during a different circumstance and different leaders emerge. Leader is title does not mean that person is the real leader.

An no one is talking about followership. Without followers, there would be no leader. More study of the followers should be done rather than focusing on the leader. Why didn't the followers buy into the leader? What are the group dynamics?