Question for the group:

How do you coach the uncoachable?

If you were charged with trying to get conceptual work out of non-conceptual, unmotivated members of your respective teams, what would you do?

For over a year, I’ve tried 1:1s, group discussions, dissected examples, and templates with some mids I inherited and have gotten absolutely nowhere.

Thanks in advance for the advice/group therapy.

You know the answer.

I’ve been struggling with this for the past few years.

I started implementing a monthly team project to use it as a teachable moment and motivate them creatively. I pick one of our clients and have them do a refresh on their creative with no rules. It also helps me learn more of their strengths that I could use to my advantage on picking which creatives I want for certain conceptual projects.

Another approach I’ve done is added more mood-boards to my creative briefs with specific notes. It’s helped me not have them go back to the drawing board and start over.

I also encourage them to bring their ideas to me before and some rough pencils to help visualize their thoughts and guide them down the right path.

I first wanted to clean house and hire a new team but I couldn’t get approval from leadership. So worked with what I had and really found some of their strengths.

Fire them all and hire more talented, harder working creatives that are desperate to make great work. The market is full of them, but the great ones won’t last long.

Before you do that, have you tried asking these people what they want? Plainly and clearly. One time an art director told me she wanted to find a new job. She wasn’t happy. Her work was fine, not great. So I helped her and she left. It was a win-win.

Similar situation. Basically found their strengths, understand their weaknesses and use those strengths to make life easier on those who need time to concept. Ex: very good writer, not great at concepting yet, so use their talents for social, body copy, etc. also, this individual seems to do better working on concepts once they’re set, so have them focus on writing headlines or executions off a campaign to help them along. It’s a learnable skill, to an extent, but does take time.

In theory it sounds nice - to be able to coach the depths of non talent into a future generation of stars. But sadly some people just don’t want to achieve that level of work and you have tough decisions to make.

Find them oblique assignments and praise them when they eventually follow your path.

Here’s another angle to consider. This is frustrating for you but maybe even more so for their hardworking, talented peers. Having other creatives who aren’t pulling their weight, leaving early, not solving the tough briefs and basically getting away with it can be super demotivating.

Often the talented, hardworking teams are loaded up with more work to cover for the un-coachable, unmotivated team members.

If these problematic team members are not showing any signs of improvement or growth despite multiple opportunities, it may be time for them to move on. In the long term you’ll be doing them a favor.

It's important to address this before their negative influence causes resentment amongst the other who you want to keep happy.

Hire me instead. Plenty of talented conceptual creatives out there looking for gigs while mediocre talent hide within long-term employment comfort.

Ok, I’ll be the one to throw it out there:
Have you tried fear?

Before I go any further let me just say that the positive approach you have taken and most others here are advocated is absolutely the right way to do things; however, if you’ve dangled every carrot with no response, all that’s really left to you is the stick.

It doesn’t have to be telling them they’re on the verge of getting canned (though it can be that direct). It can be making it clear that if they don’t bring the stuff you need they’re getting put on crap assignments. It can be you making very clear in reviews that they haven’t done their job and you expect more at the next review. It can be require them to work late the make up the difference when they drop the ball. Make it clear that if they’re not going to put in the work on the brief, you’re not going to put in the work on them.

Again, this is never the go-to solution. I personally hate it. The anxiety it can create can be as distracting as it is motivating. But for better or worse, some folks can only change course when they start feeling the consequences.

Everyone is coachable. How many of your team members do you find coachable? If that number is equal to or less than the uncoachable you may need leadership training. They may not trust you, etc.

One thought to consider: maybe it's their team dynamic. Maybe behind the scenes they're fueling each other's bad habits, like laziness or pesimism towards the work. But with the right partners, they may find the right motivation and new ways of working that override their worst habits.

Personally, I've benefited several times in my careers from a change in the partner dynamic. It taught me new ways of working and got me unstuck from creative ruts.

The caveat, of course, is that if you pair them with the wrong partners, you risk bringing down 2 teams. Think long and hard about each one's strengths and weaknesses before you pair them randomly.

We keep tiptoeing around the real truth — the agency mistakenly hired a wordsmith instead of a copywriter and a designer instead of an art director. Whose fault is it?

They will never learn how to concept until they unambiguously get trained on how to do it.

Boy this is a great thread. Lots of great leadership advice in here. I’ve solved this before, and love this kind of puzzle. There’s clearly something you have to tiptoe around - like… they’re your clients nephews, or there’s something going on in HR protecting them. Care to DM?

Hire a couple great ACDs and tell them to coach the mids.