Business Coaching

The strategies used by people on Survivor can be used in your office.

Everyone has at least one “job from hell” story.

If you don’t — count yourself lucky.

What the people who have had a job from hell know is that going to work is similar to going into battle, or a war zone, where you’ve got to rely on strategy, not just skill, in order to make it through another day and come back the next.

But if you’ve got no experience as a veteran or fighting on an actual battlefield, don’t worry: these same strategies can be seen in action on an episode of Survivor.

Yes, Survivor can teach you how to act in the workplace — if it’s a tense workplace — to, well, survive. Take a look at Spirit magazine’s first few points:

“1. Align yourself with the power person Survivor, like most offices, isn’t fair. Some of the nicest people go home first, and some of the sleaziest survive. It’s not about truth and justice, it’s about power, and in most offices the boss has all the votes. This isn’t true in every workplace—some companies have employees anonymously rate their managers and oust low scorers, and a teacher friend of mine can tell off his boss because he’s protected by a union. The rest of us need to identify who has the power—even if it’s someone as rotten as sock-burning, water-draining Russell, a finalist in season 19—and appear to be on his or her side.

2. Don’t fight the power—work it Most Survivor winners have been champions at charm and guile. I started at Crazy World Inc. horribly naive; I thought that honesty was the best policy, which just lead me to trouble in the conference room. Instead, I had to learn how to manipulate the unhinged bosses for my own needs. This made me feel like a sham until one of my mentors said to me, “Pretend you’re playing a part.” OK. I tried not to let the people who annoyed me know it. I tried to smile to their faces and make them think I’d never vote them out. I tried to keep my big mouth shut. When I did something well, I told them it was all thanks to them.

3. Blend in with the crowd Anyone who’s watched more than two seasons ofSurvivor comes to realize that, as they like to say in Japan, the nail that sticks its head out gets hit with a hammer. On Survivor, the first person voted off is almost always someone who is unusual in some way: older, more religious, more eccentric. People like people who are the most like them. If you stick out from the group—if you like to go sit by yourself on the beach, if you have strong opinions about how to build the shelter, if you’ve got a weird haircut (season 19’s mulleted Shambo) or tell long, strange stories (vainglorious, tattooed orchestra conductor Coach)—you could be exposing yourself to the group’s wrath and allowing yourself to be seen as a threat. Much better to be useless than different. The person fired fastest at Crazy World Inc. was bubbly and smart, but she talked too much about her love of roller derby for the boss’s comfort. Many a million-dollar winner of Survivorwas the best at lurking in the background and making minimal waves.”

Need more survival skills? Read the full article here.

If employee morale is down or your business environment isn’t the greatest, consider hiring a business coach to see if there’s anything you can improve.

Some temp jobs are better than others.

Good news! More U.S. companies are hiring.

Bad news: Many of these positions companies are hiring for are temporary.

While this isn’t uncommon for an economy in the early stages of recovery, it is frustrating not only to those looking for work, but also companies.

According to an article in this week’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek, iring of temp workers had been rising each month since October 2009, until they dipped in July by 5,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. From October to January, employees at staffing agencies like Manpower and Robert Half

Given the depth of the recession and concerns about a double-dip, companies are seeking more proof of customer demand before doing much permanent hiring. In a robust economy, the acceleration in orders at GE Transportation could have led to hiring full-time workers, says Stephan Koller, the company’s spokesman. Proof of sustained demand hasn’t yet appeared.

But like most things are moving in this recession, it will most likely be a long ways away until lower unemployment stats. The jobless rate won’t budge from 9.6 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. While growth in gross domestic product of about 3 percent is widely expected for 2010, Oppenheimer Funds corporate economist Brian Levitt says it would take at least 4 percent to make a dent in the unemployment rate.

Read more from the full article here.

There may be some truth to Michael Scott's mug. Keyword: some.

If you’re a television watching American, you’ve heard of The Office, an American spin-off of the British sitcom starring Steve Carrell. The show portrays Carrell as a poor manager… but is he?

In the British original, the boss, David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais, is an egomaniacal moron, unable to look past his own needs. In the American spinoff, Steve Carell’s Michael Scott began the same way, but over the show’s seven seasons, he has become something different.

He looks at his business as more than just the bottom line. He shows he cares about his employees and he believes in himself and the team he has assembled, for better or worse. He has become, in some ways, an effective manager who gets the most out of his team.

For example, he is constantly involved in his team’s lives. From taking an active role in Jim and Pam’s relationship to trying to find love for his employees in the last Valentine’s Day episode, the employees at Dunder Mifflin Scranton know he cares.

According to recent studies, one of the biggest problems employees encounter in the workplace is management that doesn’t care. Nobody wants to feel like they are easily replaceable or underappreciated. This is something Scott makes sure to not do.

Of course, on the show Scott does some ridiculous things, but his management style makes a relevant point for small businesses to take note of.

The personal touch that Scott exhibits on The Office is one that could be used to help businesses of all kinds, so long as it’s balanced with a strong team and business structure.

While nobody believes Scott is the role model to emulate when it comes to business management, following a few of the “strategies” that he uses certainly make sense for company’s looking for an edge. Do any Office fans- or non-fans- agree?