Apprentice motivation
I was bothered by the way The Apprentice set up its final showdown between "street smarts" Tana Goertz (left) and "book smarts" Kendra Todd (right). The two finalists were each assigned three fired contestants to work with them as associates. Kendra was given three who were portrayed on the show as clueless and distractible; Tana had three who were considered unmanageable. So the real test becomes not so much how the finalists handle their task as whether they can manage their teams. Motivation is the issue.And in this Kendra appeared to be the clear winner. The show is on tonight; I see no way Tana will be able to pull out the win, although personally I like her better. And both of them are in my mind better than Kelly Perdew, the last winner.
The lesson we're supposed to learn is that it's our job as entrepreneurs and managers to motivate those working alongside us. In this case it's hard, because (as far as I know) Tana and Kendra are given no budget for wages or rewards to their "employees," and as such they appear to have no leverage. But don't the "employees" have any pride at all? Don't they realize they are still appearing on national TV, and if they goof off or have an attitude the world sees it? To me that should provide ample motivation to at least try to do a good job. You can do ANYTHING for a couple of days. And if the Apprentice job is paying something like a cool quarter-million $US per year, can't I make a promise to anyone working with me that if I win, I'll make it worth their while myself? Because unless the contest rules prohibit it, I certainly would.
So instead, what happens is that the failed contestants get on TV again and do pretty much exactly what they did before. Hint: it didn't work the first time. Why should it work the second time? The smart entrepreneur adapts. And for Kendra and Tana, well, the smart entrepreneur motivates. SOMEHOW.
Labels: diversions
posted by Ron @ 9:52 AM
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