To quote myself, Trace Adkins "has been a Project Manager only once and he lost, but he was not viewed as the cause. He was the reason why his team won many times, either due to his modeling or due to the interesting concepts that he developed into the winning ideas. He has the complete respect of all his teammates and of Donald Trump. He also has many friends that he has called on to make charitable donations to support Trace's team. He is smart, savvy, tough, and very sexy to women."
I have gone back and tried to identify those situations where Trace demonstrated leadership of his team without being its Project Manager. There were many:
the voice of the commercial for Pedigree Pet Adoption
Vera Wang - the concept of Great Lovers in History
Carriage Rides in Central Park(he was the losing Project Manager but nobody on his team was fired because they did such a good job;this was the famous Piers/Omarosa meltdown)
QVC - he did the on air segment with no rehearsal and was totally smooth and appealing; would you buy a sweeper from this man? many women would and did
Redbook/Dial - he was on the losing team but did a super job as the cowboy model
I haven't even got all the early season incidents where he was a major contributor but the major action concerned other contestants. Point out to me any other contestant who has shown as much leadership as Trace. Other contestants have been 2 time or one time winning Project Managers, but I will state that nobody has made as significant contributions to the overall success of his teams as Trace.
EDITOR'S NOTE - Here's some extra things Trace accomplished:
came up with the winning slogan for a Crocs show campaign, and conceived the Cowboy Club sandwich
The Crocs campaign was a winner. Most people, especially me and Ivanka Trump, believe that the Cowboy Club sandwich design was a major reason Trace and Stephen lost the Quiznos sandwich challenge.