
“I am the benevolent dictator... does everyone understand that?” said the ever-entertaining and charismatic Gene Simmons. It sounded like a Gordon Gecko quote straight out of the film Wall Street. And I loved it.
Gene’s style of leadership is your old-school Gordon Gecko-esque, thick-skinned alpha male. And it’s all completely natural. He’s confident in everything he does, believes he is capable of achieving anything and has the consistent mental posture for success. These are all the winning qualities of a true leader. So why was he fired? Ego. Ego is the number reason why so many quality candidates on The Apprentice are fired too early.
My good friend Omarosa pointed out that, “Gene Simmons had no idea about the product. In fact he didn’t even know the name of the product.” Gene sending two people instead of six to the client meeting was understandable. When your company wins a new a client, it doesn’t send the entire company along for the meeting, however, it does send the person who is responsible for the delivering the service. In this case, Gene. Gene’s ego, however, prevented him from attending the meeting and having any idea of what the client wanted.
Gene’s an amazingly successful businessman, entertainer and marketer. And to his credit, he does embody all the attributes of a good leader:
Integrity: People with integrity tell the truth and they keep their word. This is amongst Mr. Trump’s primary values.
Intelligence: You need to have an intellectual curiosity and breadth of knowledge to work with or lead other smart people.
Maturity: You need the ability to handle stress and setbacks, and enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility.
Energy: Embrace action, relish change and energize others. Energy is infectious.
Courage: The courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions.
Execution: The ability to get the job done.
However, on The Apprentice you have to remember that you’re surrounded by equally successful and intelligent business people. In business you should manage your subordinates with the same care that you manage your boss. I’m not sure Gene has ever had a boss but nonetheless, losing the ego and interacting in a more respectful way shows integrity and would have been looked upon more favorably by his teammates.
Making such an effort to adapt to his teammates would have meant that they would’ve all nominated Nely to be fired. But then would an egoless Gene have been as entertaining? Probably not.
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9 Comments
I didn't think Gene was really gifted at all. Had he been extremely professional he would not have been advertising popcorn at the end of the show :) Dry he offered me nothing but assumptions.
In his parting words fast thinking did not become him. He is slow, lethargic and his success is at the expense of others.
His weakest link
-- Florence who has accomplished more wealth in her life time by comparison without money than Gene with his kazillions.
But we wanted to give our viewpoint on Gene. We don't think it was a bad idea..to set the tone on his new assignment with a losing team. He shook them up, with his leadership style. He had a proven win prior..and has certain rules that he lives by..that is went sets him apart from the rest. He has a very succesful style..it works for his team. Additionaly, he wanted to win.
In our view he left...because he wanted to walked away. He really felt that his team had won...made setbacks and mistakes...but admited no defeat. He left with honor.
His leadership style is not really ours..but it works for him.
Something similar happened to me what happened to Ivanka in front of some 80 people.
I took him all power.
And put him in the ''corner''.
My eyes and ears were blind form him completly.
His ingenuity was only interesting to walls.
Ina Matijevic
p.s.
Thoughts that are not spoken and done are easily read in eyes !!!!
They are much lethal in genius mind than in average mind.
Interesting comments... Gene does have a HUGE ego, and is the first one to tell you about it. I think that is mostly an act that he exaggerates for the reaction. He's obviously a smart guy. He has a lot of irons in the fire right now and his participation in CELEBRITY APPRENTICE was great exposure - great advert. for all of his other endeavors... he's great at cross-promotions.
Why did you post this here, instead of under the CELEBRITY APPRENTICE BLOG?
Speaking of "bored"... where are the clowns? To be successful in business you need a sense of humor. The late Rodney Dangerfield from NYC was very successful financially and made people laugh while he took their money. So did Grocho Marx. Everything on business these days is way too serious for the average smuck who dreams like a billionaire then goes to a job just to support his ex-wife and unplanned kids.
Lighten up!
And another question. Why is it that when you post your picture on the blog, tons of women write compliments and when I post mine, the silence is deafening. Only kidding! Your views are terrific.
Who cares how good you are when you screw up a task? And by screw up I mean when you turn your team mates against you and do not reach objectives of the clients. A project manager is a team player, not an ego maniac. With his abilities Gene could bring a lot more money to his charity, if he was more flexible. His ego ruined not only Mr. Trump's believes, but also sagnificantly cut contributions to his charity.