If you’ve ever watched the Television series Celebrity Apprentice you can see what organizational health is not. It is humorous how dysfunctional the “teams” are on this show. 2013 Celebrity Apprentice

Donald Trump created this show and pitches it as the ultimate interview, he causes contestants to compete with one another then he forces them to work together to accomplish tasks that require leadership skills and teamwork.  Trump himself could not pull this off if  forced to work with this level of back stabbing and competitiveness.  In the real world project leaders have authority and they can fire people.

Omarosa, the ultimate celebrity villain on the show told the producers recently that Brett Michael’s her team captain, who won in a past show, is the project manager so this means that “he has a bulls eye on his back.”  Omarosa epitomizes what this show is becoming.  The rest of the players are not far behind her in this and as the show progresses almost everyone turns on one another.

These highly dysfunctional team dynamics make for great television but make for horrible leadership examples.

I hope that young business people are not taking this show seriously!

The back stabbing the hyper competitiveness the irrational antagonism by some players is disturbing.

To be honest I have worked with people who act like this and they don’t last long in the corporate world.  I hope this show is not creating more of these people in the young business people who are watching. The idea that leaders must undermine, take over, back stab and compete with other leaders is just not true.  Good leaders are willing to follow and cooperate.

Healthy teams work together, healthy teams don’t compete internally, healthy teams do not destroy their project leaders, they work together for a common goal.

I wish there was a show that would teach its viewers about healthy organizations rather than toxic and dysfunctional ones, if Mr. Trump’s teams worked like this he would not be as successful as he is in business.  I notice that his teams display a united front, they help Mr. Trump, they defend him and work to analyze the contestants together.

Do young business people get a twisted view of business leadership due to shows like The Apprentice?