Need advice. It’s a poor carpenter who blames his tools, but what do you do when your team delivers subpar work and the deadline is hot? I feel like I’m always caught between redoing it to make it passable and pissing off the team or letting it ride and looking like shit in front of the higher-ups. Let’s assume that asking for additional time is not an option.

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It sounds like it’s too late, but if your teams are predisposed to not performing you need to install checkins while they’re roughing out their work.

Set expectations and give them ample time and/or fair warning.

Meanwhile, if their work is garbage it’s on you to get it right. And that very well may mean you doing the work.

likesmarthelpful

I think you need to spend some time trying to mentor them. I had a weak team in the past. So I decided to give them brainstorm sessions with me when they had difficulties. They got to the level I expected after 3 or 4 projects.

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And if you ever need to bailed out at the last minute, that’s what (experienced, nimble) freelancers are for ☎️🤙🏼

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Yes! Killer award-winning NYC based freelance team is always available. Just reach out!

Yes, as ECD said. Plus, I would try to figure, in addition to the early check ins… What is breaking down? Are they not caring? Are they being briefed badly that they don’t understand? Or are they just not of the talent level that you expect? And if it’s the latter, do you have the power to shake things up in your team a bit?

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Sometimes I’ll tell them to workshop the creative with their peers before showing it to me. The work is usually tighter by the time I see it.

I think you need to spend some time trying to mentor them. I had a weak team in the past. So I decided to give them brainstorm sessions with me when they had difficulties. They got to the level I expected after 3 or 4 projects.

If your team produces shit work no matter the deadline... You have the wrong team. There is so much talent to choose from these days there is no reason to give jobs to shit people. Get people who work harder. There's thousands would kill for the chance.

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