Watching Your Back in the Workplace

Throughout our Insight on Coaching show dedicated to The Apprentice, we talked about the best practices and lessons learned that could be gleaned from the show from a leadership development, teamwork, and coaching perspective.

According to a February 2004 Business Week article, one of the lessons learned is “Always watch your back.”  Troy McClain and Elizabeth Jarosz touched on this topic throughout our conversation. 

When I asked Elizabeth how she collaborated and worked with team members who didn’t have her best interests at heart in many tasks, she shared it was important to not focus on the backstabbing and competitiveness, but to instead try to rally the team around a third point of reference that everyone could relate to.

In the case of The Apprentice, the third point of reference was winning the task.  By keeping everyone’s attention on something mutually beneficial to the entire team, it helped reduce tension and bring the team together. 

Share your strategies and thoughts with us:

• What strategies have you used to successfully “watch your back” in the workplace?
• How do you decide who to trust – and who not to?
• How have you handled backstabbers on your team who are focused on personal gain?
• Have you used a strategy like Elizabeth’s successfully in the workplace?

Looking forward to your thoughts!

Tom Floyd
CEO
IEC: Insight Educational Consulting
Specializing in Management Consulting, Change Management, Workforce Performance, and Employee Development

Coaching Lessons from The Apprentice



Business Week Tom Floyd The Apprentice IEC teamwork Elizabeth Jarosz executive coaching workplace strategies backstabbing workplace politics coaching best practices organizational development Turbo Tagger