Well, the season has wrapped up, and for project managers, there were plenty of lessons to learn.  We saw failures in communication, planning, execution and risk management.  We saw poor ideas that were well-executed and good ideas that suffered in implementation.  We saw coalitions form and break apart.

Ultimately, it came down to Holly Robinson Peete and Bret Michaels, neither whom I would have predicted would be a finalist.  Both played the game well, and if you could take the best of both of them, you would have the Super Hero of Project Managers: Bret’s creativity, warmth and ability to leverage the skills of his resources with Holly’s fierce determination and drive for success.  Over the course of 11 weekly episodes, Bret ultimately impressed Donald Trump the most and was offered the ostensible job of Celebrity Apprentice, following in the footsteps of Piers Morgan and Joan Rivers.

The show mimics the real world insofar as most of us have about 12 weeks, or 90 days, during which our new organization can terminate us without cause.  In the United States at least, we have 90 days to impress our new manager, peers and direct reports, make them happy they hired us, and want to keep us around. 

In his book “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels”, Michael Watkins identifies 10 key challenge areas that a leader in a new situation needs to manage. 

One of these challenges, which Watkins characterizes as “negotiating success”, involves your manager.  “Because no other single relationship is more important, you need to figure out how to build a productive working relationship with your new boss and manage his or her expectations.”  In the Celebrity Apprentice example, we know that Trump has a history of picking an outlandish figure as his celebrity apprentice, a real character.  He loves a clever turn of phrase, as both Piers Morgan and Joan Rivers did so well.  Although Bret is much kinder then either of his predecessors, his colorful style of dress, peculiar vernacular and endearing view of the world undoubtedly provided enough flair to appeal to Trump, who wanted some celebrity “cred by association”. 

Another key challenge that Watkins recognizes is to secure early wins.  “Early wins build your credibility and create momentum.  They create virtuous cycles that leverage the energy you are putting into the organization to create a pervasive sense that good things are happening.”  This season started with Bret as the winning project manager for the first task.  Joan Rivers was the winning project manager for the first task last season.  Piers Morgan, while not the project manager, served on the winning team for the first task and differentiated himself from the first episode by gleefully engaging in a blood feud with arch-villain Omarosa.   

The ability to create coalitions is a further key challenge identified by Watkins.  “Your success will depend on your ability to influence people outside your direct line of control.  Supportive alliances, both internal and external, will be necessary to achieve your goals”.  Bret did a masterful job in this area, and may have been where he really pulled ahead of Holly’s grim efficiency.  Bret was nice to everyone and never lowered himself to interpersonal squabbles.  Early in the season, like the Kodak challenge in Episode Two, Bret acted a little high maintenance and needed an inordinate amount of hand-holding, but he pulled himself together and ultimately won the respect and admiration of all of his team mates, even before facing any of the health challenges that he and his family were confronted with during the season. 

The Celebrity Apprentice demonstrates that just because we made the first cut doesn’t mean we will have a successful run at an organization, and offers lessons to us all on how to navigate those critical first three months to ensure that we really get a chance to make a long-term impact.