I don't know about you, but I am an absolute slave to 'The Apprentice'.

The Apprentice is an NBC show produced by and starring real estate mogul Donald Trump - usually referred to in and around New York as simply 'The Donald'. I've watched several seasons of The Apprentice and they're all good; pretty much every episode is edge-of-your-seat as you watch young (and sometimes not-so-young) teams of executive hopefuls claw their way through challenges, striving to make it to the end of episode board room meeting without having Donald's finger - and the ringing words, "You're fired" - aimed at their hearts.

The prize is to be the last one standing; to be selected as Trump's apprentice. It's quite a prize, too. The winner of the very first season of 'The Apprentice', Bill Rancic, is having a very successful career with the Trump organization and often appears on 'The Apprentice' as part of the boardroom review of the current applicants.

It seems like in every episode, I see life and leadership lessons. I may, when the next season rolls around, do a weekly recap. But, in the meantime, here are some things I've gleaned from my slavish devotion to NBC's 'The Apprentice'.

Don't hold back. If you have an skill, use it. I don't know how many times I've watched a team's failure being analyzed in the boardroom only to hear one of the team members say, "I knew they were plumbing that sink wrong, I'm a trained pipe fitter." Trump and his people immediately jump with both feet on that person and say, "Why didn't you say something when you saw your team struggling? Why didn't you lend your expertise and bring home the win?" The answer is usually that the team member was assigned a different task by that week's leader, or that nobody asked them. That team member usually goes home that night.

If you have a skill that can contribute to the success of the mission, speak up so that whoever is in charge can make an informed decision. If your team is struggling to make a fire and in a previous life you were the Junior Chipmunk Fire Making Champion for four years running, speak up!

Be honest about your abilities. The corrollary to the previous lesson is another thing I see a lot of on the show: someone touts their skills and then completely fails to come through when presented with an opportunity to use those skills. In one season, a woman went on and on about her abilities as a salesman. However, when it was time to deliver in a challenge involving sales, she failed utterly. Her team lost and she went home. Was she a great salesman and just had a bad day? Was she a poor salesman who was talking a good game? Who can tell, and what difference does it make? All that matters is that her team needed her to sell and expected her to sell, she failed and they failed, she went home.

The lesson here is to be realistic in your assessment of your abilities. There's no shame in not doing something well, but there is a lot of shame - and potential danger - in saying you do it well and you don't. Precious time can be wasted while a team waits for someone to come through on a promise; time that could have been used to make something happen if the promiser had been more realistic in their claims. Back to the fire making example: don't claim to be the best thing in the woods since Les Stroud when you can't make a fire with two pounds of white phosphorus, a blowtorch and a Bic lighter. While you're screwing around rubbing two sticks together, it's getting dark and your team is getting cold.

If you're in charge, be in charge. If you're not in charge, be not in charge. Another one of my favorite failings is to watch someone take charge of a challenge and steam roll the task leader, then get nailed in the boardroom for the team's failure because they took the baton and ran with it. They complain because the plan was terrible and the leader didn't or couldn't lead. But by then it doesn't matter because they took charge and, by extension, took responsibility. And, to add insult to injury, they're generally also blamed for being 'hard to manage'.

Of course, being in charge means just that: being in charge. I see a lot of challenges end in failure because one team member was disruptive or divisive or distracting and the leader failed to assert authority and rein him in.

These problems are way too common in general. I wouldn't even dream of trying to count the times I've watched a disruptive Cadet take a class or mission completely off track while the Cadet in charge couldn't or wouldn't take control. It happens all the time and learning to deal with it - as a leader and as a team member - is a critical life lesson!

Apply yourself fully to the tasks assigned. I don't know how many applicants I've watched that, when assigned to do a task, will do something completely different. Either they don't want to do the task they're assigned or they feel a different task is more important. Quite often their team fails because the thing they were supposed to do doesn't get done. And then they go home.

Everyone is given jobs they don't care to do or sees their assigned job as less important in the grand scheme of things. But that doesn't excuse not doing that job. If you team leader assigns you to collect nuts and berries and you feel water is more important, you can't simply go off and get water. Perhaps the team leader did underestimate the water needs; in which case consult with your leader before changing your task. It could be you're right or it could be that someone else is handling water and you'll end up with too much (and not enough nuts and berries).

Keep your mouth shut. Week after week after week after week I watch people talk themselves into a firing because they couldn't just keep their mouths shut. I have literally watched Trump get *this* close to firing someone only to have someone else start jabbering and end up going home. It happens again and again.

Often, the person who starts talking is busy defending themselves because they're being badmouthed. They justify things they don't even need to talk about, leading Donald to ask very pointed questions. If they'd just sat and listened, they'd have realized - as I did - that the trash talk was a last desperation measure by the person who was going to get fired. All they have to do is sit quietly and in a few minutes they'll be back upstairs high-fiving the other survivors.

Even worse is when Trump points out that one of the applicants did something wrong and, rather than saying, "Yes, sir", they'll argue with Trump. And I'm sitting at home going, "Dude! It's the Donald's boardroom! It's the Donald's show! It's the Donald's world. You don't argue with the Donald!" And that person goes home.

Stanford's Rule #3 is "Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut". There are very few situations - especially when you're in hot water - that can be improved by flapping your gums.

Be loyal. A thing that I absolutely hate - and Trump hates it to - is when a team is all about tossing one of their own under the bus. It doesn't take much to see through this and the Donald will home in on it pretty quickly. "Sure, he didn't complete all seventy-five pizzas, but that's not the reason you failed." One season an applicant hung on weeks past when she probably would have otherwise gone home because Trump admired the loyalty she showed to a fellow applicant who was clearly struggling.

Take responsibility. The last swan song of the doomed applicant is "It wasn't my fault". Yeah, it was, and everyone - especially Donald - knows it. If you screwed the pooch, step up and take the hit. If you didn't deliver the pizzas on time because you chose to deliver by bike messenger instead of using a truck, don't blame the guy whose job was to make the crusts, even if he was making the crusts too slowly. I've literally watched the Donald fire three applicants in one boardroom because they were busy blaming each other and bickering like children. This, of course, ties into keeping your mouth shut. But, the point here is if someone - preferably the leader - had take responsibility it might have saved at least two of them.

Don't lose sight of the ultimate goal. This should be a no-brainer, but I've seen people fail and go home again and again for this. An example that sticks out in my mind was a challenge to increase sales at a large sporting goods store. In one store, the first team set up a mini-golf course near the golf equipment. In the other store, the second team set up a baseball batting clinic - complete with pitching machine - in the center of the store. At the end of the day, the golfers had increased sales of golf equipment by 50% over a normal day, while the other team saw sales actually fall by 30%. In the boardroom, Trump and his people pointed out that the baseballers had concentrated on creating a great experience, but had forgotten to think about how to translate that experience into sales. The other team's mini-golf course hadn't been as cool as the batting clinic, but it was good enough to get people to stop and think about golf long enough for them to buy equipment. The simple analysis was that the baseballers, in the excitement of running a batting clinic, had forgotten that they were there to sell equipment.

Well, there you have it! A few of the lessons on leadership and teamwork that I've learned watching 'The Apprentice'.

See kids: watching hour after hour of TV does pay off!