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NEW YORK, September 17, 2004—Contestants from
NBC’s reality TV show “The Apprentice”
continued their quest for a major corporate position as
they raced to create and sell a new flavor of ice cream
for Ciao Bella Gelato Company during the show’s second
episode. While primarily designed to entertain, “The
Apprentice” does depict business interactions and
challenges that frequently occur in real-world settings.
While most of the episode focused on team organization,
the critical lesson learned occurred when one of the candidates
made a fatal decision that cost him his chance at becoming
the next Apprentice.
American Management Association (AMA),
the world’s leading membership-based management development
organization, has brought together its leading experts to
provide viewers with practical advice that they can apply
in their own workplace. Each week, AMA will post management
and leadership lessons based on issues raised on “The
Apprentice.”
“Business is all about decisions—decisions
you make as an individual, a team member or a team leader.
There are considered decisions that come with the luxury
of time, like marketing plans and budgets, and then there
are other decisions that are thrust upon you and have to
be made instantaneously,” said AMA President and CEO
Edward T. Reilly. “Every decision can be important
to your business—and your career.” Reilly offers
the following tips that will help you make sounder decisions:
- Before you make a decision, carefully weigh the risks
and rewards. Don’t act, or react, without giving
thought to the consequences. You want to make thoughtful
decisions, not reckless ones.
- Don’t let your emotions influence your decisions.
Too often, such decisions will be wrong—and regretted.
After you have spoken, you may find yourself either backtracking
or trapped.
- Seek balance and moderation in your decisions.
You don’t want to be known as someone who is indecisive
or is impulsive. Colleagues expect decisions to be made—it
can be frustrating not knowing what course to take—but
they also respect someone who listens and weighs information
before making a decision.
- Make decisions for the right reason. If you
are in a position of strength, watch that one of your
subsequent decisions won’t actually diminish your
power. Don’t jeopardize yourself or your team out
of bravado or to impress others with a grand gesture.
Make decisions for the right reasons—weighing a
fleeting moment of glory against the long-term consequences.
Picture the worst-case scenario.
- Compensate for your personal decision-making biases.
Are you a “numbers” person or a “big
picture” person? Do you look for the quick-fix or
a long-term solution? Improve the quality of your decisions
by better understanding yourself.
- Practice the 80/20 rule. Recognize that 80 percent
of the information you will need to make a good decision
generally can be assembled in a relatively short time.
Don’t wait for the remaining 20 percent—in
most instances, it isn’t likely to change the situation.
- Develop quiet confidence in your decision-making
ability. The more decisions you make, likely the better
they will be. Most professional decisions don’t
require Solomon-like wisdom, but they do require that
you weigh the facts and understand the individuals involved.
When you make the wrong decision, you need to be flexible
enough to change direction.
- As a leader, you are expected to make decisions.
Teams need the clarity that decisions bring…even
if the leader’s decision is to postpone one for
awhile. Team leaders often make the strategic decisions
and rely on team members for the tactical ones.
Every Friday, AMA will post the lessons learned from “The
Apprentice” on its Website at www.amanet.org.
AMA will also be offering Forums this fall featuring Apprentice
participants. For more information, contact AMA at 1.800.262.9699.
About AMA
American Management Association is the world’s leading
membership-based management development organization. For
80 years, it has provided valuable and practical action-oriented
learning programs to people at all levels, in all industries,
from companies and agencies of all sizes. More than 500,000
AMA customers and members a year learn new skills and behaviors,
gain more confidence, advance their careers and contribute
to the success of their organizations through a wide range
of AMA seminars, conferences and executive forums, as well
as through AMA books and publications, research and print
and online self-study courses.
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