“Most bosses appreciate when their employees effectively communicate new ideas, innovations and better ways to get the work accomplished,.  Communication skills are critical to succeed on the job and for career advancement. Many managers have room for improvement in this area and need to hone their skills.”

• Prepare for scheduled meetings. Anticipate what questions will be asked and make sure you can answer them. Run through possible scenarios in your mind. If you have documents that your executive might want to review, bring them along.

• Take a moment to think before speaking. Be sure you know what you really want to say. Think about the attitude or emotions you want to express. Consider how your body language will help reinforce your message and your point of view.

• Be concise in responding to questions. Answer directly and stay on point. If your executive wants more details, he/she will ask.

• Be direct when the situation demands it. Say what you mean clearly. Be polite but decisive. Do not garble your message behind phrases that obscure or soften its impact.

• Encourage a positive response by considering the executive’s perspective. This is particularly true if you expect opposition to your remarks. So, before an objection is raised, you might want to raise it yourself, then systematically and objectively disprove it, speaking calmly and objectively like a bystander, not as a defender.

• Make sure you have all the information before making a statement. If you are unprepared for a specific question, it is better to postpone the discussion than provide inaccurate or incomplete information.

• Be certain the time is appropriate for communicating. A quick update is usually welcome at any time, but avoid lengthy or complex discussions when an executive is pre-occupied, has one foot out the door or is leaving for a three-day business trip. Better to save your discussion for when the executive will be less distracted and can more fully focus on what you have to say.

PASS

• High-performing team.  Kelly was the winning, veteran quarterback leading a high-performing team this week. Apex demonstrated its ability to collaborate creativity with synergy, resulting in a winning product design and effective teamwork. Throughout previous episodes of this season's "The Apprentice," we have seen the teams consistently getting stuck in the brainstorming phase.  Bruce Tuckman first identified the five stages of sequential team development as forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. In the performing stage, the team gels by working together collaboratively to achieve the team goals. Apex provided a great example this week of what a team in the performing stage looks like.
   

• Strong leaders have conviction -- even in the face of obstacles.  Kelly stuck with his conviction for the "hole" in the bottle, even when bottle designers said it would present a problem. Kelly responded firmly that the hole was the "wow" factor he needed. Because he refused to let obstacles sideline his vision, the bottle was developed -- and wowed the Pepsi marketing team.
   

• Keep your team on track with direction and order.  As leader, Kelly refused to allow Ivana to sidetrack the team's focus with frequent off-color remarks. He took a moment to stare at her as if to suggest that he wasn't amused. He then led the team's focus back to the task without being condescending or alienating her.   Leaders must provide direction and order for their teams to perform. A good leader is able to discern when to allow a team to get off track to pursue humor and when to keep them on task.

  FAIL

• Losing sight of the customer.  Mosaic got so wrapped up in its perception that they had a clever winning idea that they completely lost sight of the customer. The Pepsi generation market brand is clearly one we all recognize as hip, youthful and contemporary. Mosaic's entire marketing campaign was based on geography. Sorry Mosaic, but geography isn't hip.
   

• Market branding shouldn't be confusing.  Mosaic's marketing campaign was so difficult to describe that their own pitch person, Sandy, couldn't explain it effectively to the Pepsi team. A winning design would be one that a typical consumer would understand by simply looking at the product.
   

• Even great ideas need to be tested.  An effective leader would have conducted a problem prevention/identification exercise to determine whether their marketing concept was the best solution. Even a simple pro/con list might have identified that their idea wasn't practical, hip or easy to understand. They might have also conducted a focus group on the product design. Unfortunately, Mosaic failed to test its concept effectively and instead allowed team members to be wowed by their own cleverness and ownership for their idea.
   

• Basic needs must be met.  Andy tried to motivate the Pepsi designers and his team by withholding food from them. Faced with a tight deadline, he refused to allow his hungry team to eat pizza until after they completed the task.  Maslow's hierarchy of needs demonstrated that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs (such as food and shelter) need to be satisfied before higher needs can be. The smell of pizza in the air would be a strong distraction for anyone with a growling stomach.
   

• Understand what motivates people.  Andy tried to naively motivate the professional Pepsi designers by throwing out $100 to them to speed them up. My story is that they were more insulted than motivated. I am doubtful it is a winning strategy to motivate professionals with a Fortune 500 giant. My bet is that providing them with pizza would have motivated them more.
   

• The pitch: Practice, preparation and the right person for the job.  The keys to an effective presentation are practice, preparation and selecting the right person to make the pitch.  In football, executing the right plays require practice, preparation and putting the right player in the right position.   Mosaic failed to make an effective pitch. The presenter must be able to clearly articulate the concept, which means they first must understand it, with passion and confidence to their audience.  Sandy was definitely not the right person for this job. She was inarticulate, stumbled over her words and failed to simply describe the marketing campaign. She blew the pitch for Mosaic.

MAUREEN MORIARTY
SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER