The Apprentice: Weekly Performance Review, Episode 7 – Professionalism and Class

It’s funny how these shows work. You think you’ve got someone figured out, and they show you aspects of themselves you hadn’t expected. Of course, some things never change. But all things in time.

Amy: I’ve read a couple of stories that say Protégé was foolish to pick you, since you were picked first at the last corporate reshuffle, and it’s a mistake for your competitors to highlight you in that manner. Trump said it, so obviously it has helped you. I just don’t see it. Nick picked you a couple weeks ago because he is enamored with you. You were picked this week because you get along with Omarosa. That all said, I can’t really give you any advice except to keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.

u>Kwame: I haven’t been impressed with you yet. Once again, as I’ve said a number of times to a number of people, DO SOMETHING already.

Heidi: It’s funny, I started off disliking you, and aside from Troy, now you’re my favorite on this team. It just goes to show, in business, talent can make up for a lot. Your talents have become obvious now that the focus has been taken off the “sex appeal” tactics of the women. Plus, as the saying goes, my enemy’s enemy is my friend. You stood up to Omarosa, in my opinion getting the better of her.

And I must give you credit for the way you handled the phone call. It would have been completely understandable if you had taken Trump’s offer to leave (although it wasn’t clear if he was going to allow you to stay in the competition while giving you a couple of days off, but I tend to doubt that). Obviously, there was going to be emotion involved – I would have been worried if there weren’t – but you did not let it get in the way of your job. Had you wanted to stay and been an emotional wreck, that would have been a problem. As it was, you handled the situation with, dare I say it, professionalism and class.

Omarosa: As the exception that proves the rule, any talent you may have is completely overridden by your horrible attitude. I read another story where you claimed to have been in the hospital for 18 hours from your “minor” head injury, so it is possible that the editing made the injury seem less than it was. That doesn’t explain why you begged off work only to play basketball. This is, quite frankly, inexcusable, and I would think to Trump it was worse than anything else you have done so far. Worse than being a bitch, worse than being a hypocrite, it makes you a poor worker.

Troy: This is the second time you have been accused of being unethical. With the “Kwame Jackson” incident, you walked a moral line. This week, I saw absolutely nothing wrong. In my mind, you were completely honest with Katrina: you wanted the exact same apartment as she did. You were merely playing with her, refusing to participate in her ridiculous game. Seriously, what kind of real estate agent conducts a negotiation in such a way? But even more importantly, you found a weakness in Katrina, even if it was one that was flashing in twenty-foot neon letters, and you exploited it for your team’s benefit. Should Trump be angry about it? Are you kidding? He should be ecstatic!

VersaCorp:

Nick: You didn’t do much in this episode, but one thing you did do is display another wonderful management trait: confidence. You did not seem worried to be going into the boardroom, because you felt confident in your performance. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it in you, and it seems natural. Just be careful it does not become arrogance.

Ereka: Once again, I feel that you’re only around because others have performed worse than you have. My only advice is the same as always: make an impact.

Bill: Well, you are not infallible, apparently. I agree you did not do a great job negotiating the lease. However, I do not feel that you should have been given the responsibility, at least not by yourself. You should have gotten a better price, or else you should have told the prospect that you’ve got someone else coming in who has already agreed to the higher price and you’re just waiting for their credit to clear. You settled early for a low price, which worked in the flea market challenge, but not here. Selling an apartment is a little different than selling t-shirts.

The problem here is, this challenge was lost when your team lost the 3rd Street apartment, even though your apartment had its advantages, the lower original price of the other apartment made for an imbalance that was too difficult to overcome. Which brings us to:

Katrina: Once again, you just don’t get it. Bill should not have been the person negotiating the lease, it should have been you. You were the Project Manager, and you appointed Bill into a position for which he was unqualified. The blame is thus YOURS. You allowed Troy to take the 3rd Street apartment out from under you. The blame is YOURS there too. I can’t help but notice that you failed to take the blame for anything, but you were real quick to throw your business plan in Trump’s face, or yap about your brilliance in hiring a contractor. When talking of failure, it was blaming everyone else. When talking of success, it was literally “me, me, me.” I’ll admit, the contractor was a nice move, but your failure in assigning Bill overrode it. You did more in this episode than in your last go-round as PM, but you were still incredibly ineffective. You’re just lucky that you had a total screw-up on your team to take the fall, because I firmly believe that you were the cause of your team’s loss. You won’t have the same luxury the next time.

Tammy: I’ve covered all your problems before, as has David Bloomberg in his “Why Tammy Lost” article. So there’s no real need to go over them again. All I really have to say is, the only reason you lasted this long is your team had not lost before now.

Mike DeGeorge has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, and has almost ten years of management experience. Email Mike at mikmaria@charter.net.

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