Well after a lengthy break from posting I feel compelled to discuss last night’s Apprentice on BBC one. What amazes me each week - although maybe I should no longer be amazed by this - is that the team that wins does so by just being a little less useless than the other team, rather than winning because they’ve done well. Am I being harsh? Maybe, but hey, you’ve got to admit, so far this series I haven’t seen anyone that I’d actually want on my team. Well maybe Kate…let’s wait and see how she gets on in the coming weeks.

Anyway, back to teambuilding Sir-Alan-style. This week he decided to nominate the team leaders himself, putting Noorul and Paula in charge for no other reason than to get a chance to have a look at them in action.

Although his team ‘won’ in the end, Noorul’s team-leading skills were non-existent. He didn’t set any direction, his decision-making was poor and his team didn’t seem to know what he wanted or what he was thinking most of the time.

Paula, on the other hand, was pretty good, I thought. She got her whole team involved but made decisions when she needed to. She seemed to have everyone on board and working well with her.
Unfortunately her lack of attention when calculating the soap recipe meant that she costed it at ‘naff all’, rather than the £700 it should have been - a mistake that ultimately led to her demise…

Obviously it is a competition with an individual winner so the teamwork element is always going to be a bit contrived, but surely part of the aim is that candidates demonstrate their ability to work well with others and to support them, rather than shoot them down and deny all accountability, à la Ben. So far I haven’t seen much teamwork or team leadership, though maybe that’s still to come…