NBC.com

May 3, 2006 | permalink
Presented by Trump University

Episode Summary: The teams created promotions for opening day at Hair Cuttery salons. The promotion that brought in the most money would win.

Tammy, Synergy's project manager, tried to patch up bad feelings left over from last week, when Sean alienated the rest of the team by defending Andrea during the firing.

Gold Rush, led by Charmaine, was experiencing frictions, too. Charmaine believed "grand opening" was the only theme they needed to drive their promotion, while Tarek thought they needed a more compelling idea.

The day before the opening, both teams set up their Hair Cuttery salons. At Gold Rush’s location, Charmaine insisted that the salon's hair care products be displayed in a very particular way. Lee objected that they should have been marketing instead of shuffling bottles, but Charmaine shut him down. Meanwhile, Gold Rush was handing out flyers at local restaurants and businesses.

On the day of the grand opening, Charmaine sent Lee and Tarek to put flyers on the windshields of cars in the area. Lee knew that sticking flyers on cars was not going to attract many customers to the salon. He was right because very few customers visited their salon.

In contrast, Synergy's opening rocked. Dollars flew in as Allie and Roxanne concentrated on selling hair products to every customer.

Synergy earned $1,005.47 from their event. Gold Rush earned $700.

Back in the boardroom at the firing, Charmaine said that her team lost because they should have been selling products. When Mr. Trump asked Charmaine why she was getting her hair done on opening day instead of selling, she made some absurd excuses, then desperately tried to pin blame on Tarek, calling him "hard to control."

But Mr. Trump quickly cut through Charmaine’s distractions and fired her for being a poor leader. Then in a surprise move, he fired Tarek for being inconsistent and hard to manage.

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This episode demonstrated the critical role a leader plays in a team's success. Let’s investigate further.

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When Charmaine had her team stack and restack bottles on the salon shelves, she squandered hours that should have been used for selling. When Lee told her that, she ignored his sound advice and kept right on wasting time.

Success Lesson

Prioritize. Instead of getting mired in secondary details, attack the critical tasks that help you reach your most important goal.

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When Lee and Tarek were roaming around sticking flyers on cars, they were laughing at the ridiculous task Charmaine had assigned them, but they were not laughing when their team lost and Tarek got sacked.

Success Lesson

The laugh is on you. There will be times in your career when a mediocre boss will give you dumb assignments. Instead of laughing, devote part of your effort toward reaching valid business goals anyway. Sooner than you think, important people will notice that you are a star who happens to be stuck under a weak supervisor.

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Allie and Tammy threw their energy into selling hair products because that activity would generate a lot more revenue than convincing people to get haircuts. The result? Synergy’s promotion outsold Gold Rush’s by 30 percent.

Success Lesson

Know where your profits come from in your product mix. If you own a service station that makes more money inspecting vehicles than it does selling gas, for example, advertise inspections – even if that is not your “core” business. To keep profits high, market your top earners.

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When Tarek tried to defend himself in the boardroom by calling Charmaine a crybaby, his attack backfired. He should have attacked one of her leadership shortcomings instead.

Success Lesson

If you want to look businesslike, stick to business issues. Waging personal vendettas makes you look worse than the person you are attacking. Get in the habit of taking the “high road” instead by keeping your criticism businesslike. That’s the pathway that will lead you to the top.

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What will happen next week? Six very strong candidates remain and it is inevitable that two of them will move to the top of the pack within the next two weeks. We can hardly wait to see who they are.