Business Advice From Trump
Take Donald Trump’s Advice with Grain of Sand
Scenes from Donald Trump's NBC show The Apprentice encourage poor business practices--but great ratings.
Clearly Donald Trump is a smart businessman. I won’t argue with that. But some of the business practices on his hit show The Apprentice have me more than a little concerned. He encourages candidates to interrupt one another, argue pettily, and rat each other out in the interest of locating the best candidate.
In order to help job seekers worldwide, here are some Trump preferences I urge you avoid.
- Tattle-telling. Trump loves finger-pointing. His favorite thing to ask in the boardroom each week is “Whose fault was it?” In some situations, the question is warranted—in the case of a major disaster, or significant financial loss to the company. The point is, though, that in a real situation, the boss will know who is responsible without you having to tell him. Running around saying “It was Jan’s fault!” is childish, and appears as such.
- Interrupting. Trump giggles with glee when his candidates interrupt each other. I don’t know why. He thinks it proves their spunk, or passion, or something like that. But a person can have passion and a sense of decorum. Trump disagrees, and as a result ends up hiring nothing more than the loudest yeller. Some bosses reward this type of rudeness, but customers certainly won’t. Smart managers hire people who work well with other people, not those who bully and railroad to get their way. Hire a two-year-old if you need that.
- Ganging up. Trump tends to the fire the person the rest of the team gangs up on. His logic is that if you’ve lost the respect of the team, you won’t be an effective leader. Touche, Mr. Trump. However, your candidates have caught on to this and are now using it as a strategy. As soon as someone points a finger, they all point a finger in the same direction, simply glad that it isn’t them. As a result, you’ve lost some extremely great candidates, because people are threatened by them. And what is this, eighth grade?
Donald Trump clearly has ratings in mind when he encourages candidates to fight and rat each other out in order to compete for a coveted job with his organization. Unfortunately, I worry that young, eager job applicants may be watching The Apprentice and taking this advice to the real world. So, don’t. It’s a TV show. Not real life.
