The Apprentice 3: Why Stephanie Lost

Considering the way Chris has been behaving, it seemed like a lock for him to get fired in this episode. However, Stephanie managed to find a way to look even worse than he did. How did she manage this? Or did she manage anything at all? Why did Stephanie lose?

As usual, there was more than one factor at play in Stephanie’s loss. Therefore, the best way to sort everything out is to look back at What ‘Apprentice 3’ Applicants Should Have Learned to see where she went wrong.

The first rule, of course, is to show leadership. Considering the number of times that Trump asked Stephanie if she had the leadership ability to handle guys like Chris and the number of times he stated that she didn’t have leadership ability, I think we can safely say that Stephanie failed here. Although Alex pointed out that she had failed at pretty much everything previously, we really don’t have to look beyond this task for some good examples.

Good leaders don’t leave in the middle of a task to do menial labor. The team hired people to promote the product, and a number of them were just standing around. She should have sent the grunts to bring pizzas to the construction workers in Brooklyn (and just think of how happy they would have been to have a couple models bring them pizza!). Instead, she took an hour and a half and left the group she was supposed to be managing.

Good leaders make sure the people they hire are doing the work. Carolyn walked up and saw the models just standing around. Where was Stephanie? Why wasn’t she making sure they were doing the job she was paying them to do?

Furthermore, as far as we could tell, Stephanie didn’t really lead in the task. Trump essentially picked the meatball topping, Alex came up with the name. So what, exactly, did Stephanie do? Hire the models and send them to dorms? (By the way, I have to disagree with George about nobody being there at noon – I think a fair number of college kids would be in the dorms at lunchtime.) If that was her work, she failed to send them elsewhere, so it wasn’t exactly a roaring success.

The second rule says to stay cool under fire. Stephanie certainly stayed cooler than Chris, and I have a feeling I’ll be writing about him in the very near future, but Stephanie was not really able to handle the stress. She complained about Angie yelling at her, Chris yelling at her, etc. OK, get over it! If you’re the Project Manager, tell ‘em to shut up, don’t just complain about it.

This leads directly to the third rule, about having a backbone. How poorly was Stephanie standing up for herself in the Boardroom? So poorly that Trump had to tell her, while she was leaving for the short break between the initial and final Boardroom, that she needed to defend herself better. That’s not a good sign. And it pretty much tells the tale. All sorts of bad things were said about Stephanie – by every one of her teammates. She barely did anything to deflect the attacks or to explain her side of things. She just kept coming back to Chris being difficult to manage. OK, we get it. But that doesn’t really say anything about Stephanie herself.

Stephanie also failed in the fourth rule, because she thought she could scheme and plot her way out of this situation. She told Alex that she was planning to take him to the Boardroom, in hopes that he would side with her against Chris. Alex wisely saw that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and knew that if he went in there was no guarantee that he would be going back to the suite. What’s funny is that Alex even told her that he would not just go after Chris, and she still took him in. Alex’s summary of her poor performance in previous tasks definitely cemented Trump’s low opinion of her.

The fifth rule says to play well with others, but stay professional. Stephanie didn’t have the problems dealing with others that, say, Chris has. However, she did constantly have issues. In the mid-season recap, one of the scenes we hadn’t seen previously was Chris trying to give Stephanie back to Magna after Magna had just given her to Net Worth. Neither team wanted her. Part of that was their perception of her abilities, but part of it was her personality as well.

Sixth is to focus on the long-term. Honestly, I’m not sure what Stephanie was focusing on. Maybe she could only focus on small details, like getting pizza to Brooklyn. She didn’t seem like a big-picture kind of person, and she certainly didn’t appear to understand how to impress Trump & Co. Complaining that one of your coworkers is difficult to manage only works if you have an explanation of how you handled the problem. Otherwise, it just comes off as whining and leaves the question in Trump’s mind of whether you can do the job. Indeed, that’s exactly what happened here.

The seventh rule says to think outside the box (yes, I know, recapper Betsy doesn’t like the term – but hey, it’s a rule, so I’ve got to keep using it). Stephanie’s team had a good idea in hiring people to do grunt work for them. They were smart to send them to one place that might house hungry folks. However, they missed other opportunities. Her opponents, however, were much more creative. Rather than just waiting for people to stumble by the pizza stand, they actively sought out nearby businesses for major orders. That was smart thinking, and it’s what won them the challenge.

Eighth is to not be one-dimensional. Considering that Alex said Stephanie always did poorly, I’m not sure we can even cite a single dimension for her. However, we can definitely say she is not multitalented enough for this competition!

Finally, we have the rule that says to use common sense. We’ve pretty much addressed the issues that relate to common sense already, but let’s just repeat one very important one: If you are the manager, you should not leave your employees to do menial work in the middle of an important task. You don’t need a whole lot of business savvy to know that, you simply need common sense. Stephanie showed a complete lack of both in that instance.

Stephanie did so many things wrong that it’s difficult to pinpoint the specific ones that led to her firing. However, in the end, it really comes down to her utter lack of leadership skills, or even any knowledge of how to lead. Some people know how to lead but just can’t put it into practice. Some people are natural leaders but can’t explain the theory behind it. Stephanie could do neither. She showed no understanding of how to lead people, and she showed that she couldn’t do it when it was necessary. She added to her problems by trying to scheme her way out of the Boardroom, but that also backfired.

It was down to Chris or Stephanie. Chris has problems of his own, but the scale tipped Stephanie’s way. She simply had shown no ability to lead, nor any other ability that Trump would value in his organization. That is why Stephanie lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our Apprentice 3 Episode 10 recap:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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