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Celebrity Apprentice and Organizational Sickness

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

toxic

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?

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Healthy at Work

 

Almost everyone longs for health, some of the most unhealthy people long for emotional and physical health and the peace of mind that it brings.  If you’ve ever watched the TV series Biggest Loser you can quickly see this, some of the most unhealthy people go on that show, striving for the health they desperately need. They seem trapped inside a body and mind of dysfunction.

This same thing can happen to us in our work, we can find ourselves inside an unhealthy team or company. We may even realize that our behavior is contributing to its sickness.

Here are 7 strategies for improving the health of your team and company for those who are not in leadership.  There are other strategies for leaders but first non-leaders.

  1. Don’t gossip about leadership – there is nothing more discouraging than a team grumbling team members, I learned this at an experience at church, even if you are right just communicate up then zip it, put your head down and work hard.
  2. Don’t spread rumors – rumors destroy morale, don’t purposely destroy morale in the place that is your livelihood, that is like biting the hand that feeds you.
  3. Be a problem solver – seek out problems and attack them, especially the problems that your boss has.  For the problems that are not in your power to control, don’t spend too much time stressing about them, instead focus on the ones that are potentially within your power to control.
  4. Pursue leadership – if you can see and you care about toxic and unhealthy situations in your team or company, chances are you can help to bring change, and you will be better able to influence a change if you have more influence as a leader. Prepare yourself to lead and then volunteer to lead.
  5. Help those being bullied – If you find yourself in a toxic team or company chances are someone is being or was recently treated unfairly, help them by sticking up for them or even by just being a friend and helping them to get perspective.
  6. Accept your situation – if you find yourself in a toxic environment and you are not a leader, realize that your situation is not fair, it is frustrating, but that is pretty average, accept your responsibility for where you are and do what you can to better yourself.
  7. Set a time limit – toxic situations at work can get better or they can get worse. Try to get in a place of influence or even leadership by good behavior, building relationships and by leadership training. If that is not possible then I recommend you set a time limit beyond which you plan to move on to another team or to another place of employment, if at all possible.

What other ways can non-leaders improve the health of their teams?

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