Well, well, well…if you have been following this season’s edition of “The Celebrity Apprentice” you know that the gloves have come off early and often.
You also know that we have seen some examples of good project management and bad.
Despite one team having to win, last night’s episode was truly a case study in how not to be a good project manager and I have to say that if I were the hiring manager, neither LaToya or Stephen would be making the cut on my team.
1. You don’t have to be an alpha man to be a good project manager: Stephen seems to have taken a lesson from his last appearance on the show, and that was that you have to be bossy and dominant to be a good PM. That’s just wrong. Being a good PM is almost all about being able to effectively communicate with your team. Stephen failed on that a hundred times over the course of the task. He also failed to take into account the different stakeholders’ needs, desires, and personalities. He was just a terrible PM, don’t do what Stephen Baldwin did.
2. You have to know how to manage the members of your team: Just knowing that you have various personalities on your team isn’t enough. You have got to be active in engaging your team members. There were good examples of this throughout the show, but, really, LaToya didn’t do a good job of managing Omarosa. I mean Omarosa is a train wreck of a person on this show and probably every PM’s worst-case scenario for a member of their team. That being said, if you are going to be successful, you have to manage even the most difficult personality in a way that allows the team to be successful. You also need to look into how you can incorporate project management office software to help streamline projects and make them clear and concise for all those involved.
3. You have got to be a very good listener: This comes back to Stephen Baldwin again. If you read your PM books, they will tell you 90% of project management is communications. I would add that much of that 90% is going to be listening and understanding the information your team is giving you so that you can create a path forward. Stephen felt differently, that communication was all about him talking. In your projects, don’t let this happen. You will never learn what nagging issues are at work in your project or what ideas your team has from their work on the ground. Active listening is just as important as clear direction.
I think I could come up with a few more, especially with Omarosa and LaToya. I may or may not visit these again this week, but if you didn’t get a chance to watch the show, check it out. Your team will thank you for not doing some of the stuff that Stephen and LaToya did.