Does Lord Sugar’s “The Apprentice” give PM’s a bad reputation?

Does The Apprentice give a false impression? Does it misrepresent……giving a bad reputation of “the project manager?”

The person tasked to lead the group challenge is labelled the project manager yet it bears little resemblance to the role in reality. The PM in the apprentice generally shoulders the blame for a task failure and is always bought back into the board room to explain their lack of leadership and then look to spread blame out to the rest of the team.

They are rarely given the full facts yet are expected to make snap decisions that make or break the challenge. They don’t have the time to assess the skills of the team, plan effectively or escalate key decisions, risks, etc. They play the role of both sponsor and PM, yet manage neither effectively. They are the scapegoat for failure.

Take the latest episode……you had the “head mistress” as PM ordering people around in an egotistical way and taking total credit in success but no accountability in failure. On the other hand, you had a PM that argued they gave clear role definition, people understood their roles but that meant they could easily hand out blame, at the appropriate time.

How many organisations in the “real world” set programme and projects managers up for failure in a similar way. Allowing the PM to have to make critical decisions that will determine the success or failure of the project….then hold the PM to account without hopefully hearing those words….”you’re fired”.

“People Change Projects”