This week we saw Natasha Scribbins missing out on a place in the final of The Apprentice. Her team lost the task to design a pop-up fast food restaurant. Project manager, Jim initially put his hand up for the role, but crumbled under the pressure, with what resulted in a disastrous restaurant system. In the boardroom it looked as if Jim was destined to get the axe, when in a twist of fate, Lord Sugar turned on Natasha.

Natasha’s departure highlighted how quickly things can go wrong when exaggerating your skills. At the start of the task Natasha boasted about her degree in hospitality and how she had taken part in a similar task during her degree course. However, back in the boardroom Natasha found herself in a sticky situation, claiming that she didn’t have the experience in hospitality needed for the task.

The episode illustrated the dangers of highlighting qualifications (or even boasting about them) but then not being able to deliver. It also shows how graduates and first jobbers cannot be overly demanding in their first roles – just because they have a qualification in the field that they are now working in, doesn’t mean that they can demand to be fast-tracked into a senior position. It also shows that that a candidate’s qualifications certainly aren’t everything and recruiters should not rule out a perspective hire just because they don’t have the formal qualification to go with the experience.

Tom Bodett, a famous American author once wrote:
The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.

Natasha was certainly taught a lesson; one I am sure she will never forget. That said, f you want to promote yourself as capable you have to be prepared to stand up and be counted. Employers in this market are always looking for attitude as a stand-out requirement. Failure is not necessary a sign weakness it is how you go about the task that reflects your attitude. Not to try at all is a weakness.

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On last night’s episode of The Apprentice, both teams struggled to grasp the idea of the reinvestment task, whereby they were given a pallet of stock from a wholesaler to sell to the public. The real challenge was to make a profit by reinvesting in stock they knew would sell. At the end of the show, chatterbox Melody Hossaini was silenced by Lord Sugar when she became the latest contestant to be fired.

Over the course of the season we’ve watched Melody demonstrate some great skills; consistently taking big risks and putting herself forward as project manager.

It was clear that firing Melody was not an easy decision for Lord Sugar to make. Unlike the usual slaughter house style axing, Sugar commented, “You three have given me a bit of a dilemma to consider here”. Lord Sugar’s final line before dismissing Melody was “It is with regret, Melody, that you’re fired”. After Melody left the boardroom he said, “We have a woman of exceptional ability there I think, but it is a cruel process”.

Will Lord Sugar live to regret his decision? Like he did in the 2010 series after sacking Lizz over Stuart Baggs? Time will tell.

The advice we can offer:

Employers – clearly you won’t be under as much pressure with cameras rolling to make a decision on the future talent of your company, but choosing the right professional, no matter how many rounds of interviews are done, is always a gamble. Using an experienced recruitment consultant will  reduce that risk so always seek their advice and make sure you are working with the best.  Remember, a recruitment consultant’s success is measured by matching the right individual to the right role, consistently.

Job seekers - clearly Melody was talented, Lord Sugar thought so, and so are you, but often when you are up against competition that appears equally as good as you, it’s hard to not feel bruised when you’re not chosen. Learn from knock backs and work to gain more experience until you get that offer.  Be patient, confident and believe in yourself. The right role will come along for you. Trust me, I am a recruitment consultant…

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During this week’s episode of The Apprentice, the two teams were tasked with designing and marketing a new biscuit brand. The ‘cookie crumbled’ for strict Zoe Beresford when she became the latest contestant to be fired due to her aggressive, grumpy attitude and inability to manage Team Logic.

Throughout the series Zoe had come increasingly antagonistic, particularly towards fellow team member Suzie. In this most recent episode it became clear that Zoe’s attitude was a problem for her and more importantly, Lord Sugar her potential business partner.

Zoe was eager to nominate herself for the position of team leader.  As a project manager for a manufacturing company she declared she would be well-placed to take the role. But during the challenge she struggled to make decisions on behalf of her team. Despite her lack of leadership skills, it was in fact her confrontational management-style that finally prompted Lord Sugar to let her go.

Top tips for avoiding confrontation at work:

1. Address the issue immediately

As soon as you have an issue with someone or something – or as a manager, you spot a point of tension – address it immediately.  An off-hand remark can easily escalate, especially in a high-pressured office environment.

2. Do not overreact

The worst reaction to confrontation is to go overboard. Sometimes, it’s better in the long-term to compromise on an issue rather than let it grow into an all-out confrontation that causes further disruption.

3. Listen before you speak

In the heat of the moment it’s easy to react quickly without clearly thinking through what you’re going to say before airing your opinions.  Take the time to review the situation from both points of view – your colleague can only appreciate your willingness to listen.

4. Work out your differences in a neutral environment

It’s unnecessary and maybe inappropriate to air your issues with the rest of the office.  Instead suggest grabbing a coffee with the person/people you are at odds with, or go for a walk outside to discuss your differences. Choosing a neutral setting to reach a solution will remove the tension and break down feelings of defensiveness.

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Last night’s episode of The Apprentice saw Lord Sugar boot out the latest unsuccessful contestant Glenn Ward, a senior design engineer. In the moments before firing Glenn, Sugar said, “Glenn, I’ve never yet come across an engineer that can turn his hands to business.” Online bloggers went spare at this comment.

Glenn ended up in the boardroom when his team failed the task to publish a free magazine (or ‘freemium’) of their choice. Glenn’s team chose to target the over 60s market, and attempted to be ironic by naming their magazine ‘Hip Replacement’. Despite being praised at first for choosing a gap in the market, the team lost the challenge after their negotiation skills were criticised and media buyers baulked at their magazine’s title.

Sugar’s aide Nick Hewer provided further insight into the situation on the aftershow. “Lord Sugar loves engineers…he is an engineer! He has just had a couple of bad experiences where professionals with engineering backgrounds were given commercial roles and it didn’t work out,” he said.

This may be true but the reaction on blogging websites conveyed the feelings of many that Sugar was being prejudiced. Had he never heard of Isambard Brunel, Henry Ford, James Dyson, Steve Jobs – engineers who didn’t do too badly at business?

So what do you think? Do employers view a change in career path negatively? Are quantitative degrees considered unsuitable for commercial roles? I’d be interested to hear from you.

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In last night’s episode, business psychologist Edna Agbarha was the latest contestant to be booted out of this series of The Apprentice.  As opposed to the usual humiliating boardroom battle, Lord Sugar instead had enough of Edna purely for personality and work ethic reasons. “Edna, I just don’t think that me and you are going to gel in business…you’re fired.”

Edna’s departure came after her team failed a two-day task of making a profit from waste disposal. Despite being part of the team’s near-success by negotiating client visits and making sales, her departure highlighted the importance of personality fit in a team and so prompts the question: to what extent would you trust a recruiter to find the right match for you and your workforce? Or do you sift through the rubbish?

Despite being a capable and robust business partner on paper, with three degrees and 14 years’ experience across several continents, plus an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Edna couldn’t escape the axe.

This year’s series has a twist on the usual format; the winning contestant will go into a 50/50 partnership with Lord Sugar on a new venture. It may be that he has different criteria for a partner rather than an employee.  A lesson taken from this episode is that even with the right skills and experience on paper, the right personality fit often goes over and above qualifications in a final decision.

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Popular leader Felicity Jackson was the latest contestant to be axed from last night’s Apprentice. Felicity was singled out by Lord Sugar for the position of team leader for the ‘girly’ beauty task but the writing was on the wall for Felicity and she was unceremoniously despatched from the boardroom.

In a shock result, a poor performance by Team Venture was overshadowed by an unforgivable loss for Team Logic.

Felicity had made two irretrievable mistakes; firstly she failed to win the rights to sell the spray tan – the simple to use and highly profitable treatment. This, along with failing to focus her team’s efforts on chasing the lucrative treatments proved a disastrous combination

The challenge that Felicity failed to embrace was taking decisive action when the treatments weren’t being sold. ‘She had enthusiasm, she had passion but there was a lack of strategy,’ Natasha told the board. And when firing the project manager, Lord Sugar told her: ‘This was a disastrous task and a lot of decisions weren’t really made.’

It goes without saying that when recruiting senior positions leadership is key but being a popular leader directly conflicts with making unpopular decisions. It takes courage to make difficult decisions.

It’s important that candidates are able to prove they are not afraid to take decisive action. Allowing candidates the platform to define how they have positively influenced a floundering situation and so have taken decisive action to turn a situation around is an important part of the interview/ assessment process and should be an area prospective employers probe using competency based interview techniques.

Competency based interview techniques are becoming increasingly popular as a way to predict a candidate’s future performance. Essentially a series of behavioural questions, the candidate will be asked to describe a situation which demonstrates their abilities that will be integral to the role they are interviewing for.

The failings highlighted in last night’s task would definitely serve as a ‘what not to do’ scenario.

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Last night’s uninspiring leader, Gavin Winstanley provoked plenty of Thursday morning post-Apprentice debate over what it takes to be a successful team leader.

Gavin, the latest contestant to be axed from the show, was more than keen to put himself forward for the position of team leader for the task. As a managing director himself, he has ample experience of organising others, and was seemingly capable of the job. It soon became apparent he wasn’t equipped for the task, being described as ‘uninspiring’ and ‘disorganised’.

Following the team’s harsh scrutiny of Gavin’s management skills, Karren Brady jumped to his defence, “He had a much more difficult team to manage, of very strong people, who didn’t want to listen, who wanted to do it all”. The challenge Gavin failed to embrace was to unite his diverse team and bring individual strengths and skills to the fore.

As recruiters, we often see job seekers with strengths in areas that their prospective managers do not possess. This has the potential to negatively impact the hiring decision, as managers might feel their experience is not relevant, or might even feel threatened. However, it is important to embrace professionals with varying skill sets; they can often boost your own performance and that of your team.
The real question was whether Gavin was truly motivated to be Lord Sugar’s business partner or whether he would be happier running his own business.

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