11 How will we handle it if there’s a personality clash between our team and the agency’s team?
Teams – whether it’s your own people or the experts sent by an agency – are made up of individuals with different personalities, and those personalities can clash every now and then.
First off, some level of friction is normal when two teams start working together. Different work styles, communication preferences, and the occasional collision of egos are to be expected. But if you’re daydreaming about accidentally leaving the agency team off the next meeting invite, it’s time to address the elephant in the room.
Identify the real issue
Is it actually a personality clash, or is something else at play? Sometimes, what looks like a personality conflict is really just miscommunication, unclear expectations, or good old-fashioned stress. Dig deeper before you start pointing fingers.
Don’t play the blame game
It’s easy to paint the agency as the bad guys. But a successful partnership takes effort from both sides. Be honest about your team’s role in the conflict.
Speak up early
Every good agency will assign an experienced account manager to you. It’s in their best interest to ensure that things are running smoothly. Seek the conversation with them early, ideally before things escalate. Be transparent and try to characterize what you are seeing as accurately as possible. Depending on the situation, it might also be worth discussing with the team before reaching out to the manager to get a more complete picture.
Set clear boundaries
Sometimes, personality clashes stem from unclear roles, expectations, or responsibilities. Revisit your project charter and make sure everyone knows their lane. If need be, mix things up a bit. Maybe the project managers need to step back and let the engineers and designers talk to each other more directly?
The nuclear option
If all else fails and the clash is truly irreconcilable, it might be time for a change. This could mean swapping out team members (on either side) or, in extreme cases, terminating the relationship with the agency. However, it’s costly, disruptive, and should only be done if you’ve exhausted all other options
In the end, the best antidote to personality clashes is professionalism and transparency. Keep the focus on the work and maintain open lines of communication. You can also expect both from any good agency worth their salt.
Our take
We are a service provider. Companies buy from us and stay with us because we’re easy to work with (in addition to being good at what we do). We will do our very best to accommodate our customer’s needs wherever and whenever possible.
That being said, we will never sacrifice our own employees over a customer’s demand. It’s what we’ve promised our people when they came on board, and it’s also bad for business. Whether they realize it or not, our customers don’t just buy the code we write or the experiences we design. They also buy the culture. And when we succeed – when we deliver what they need – it’s in part because of the way we treat each other, the way we collaborate and communicate. If we threw that out the window at the first sign of distress, we’d have a lot to lose, but so would our customers.
