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Boost your performance and avoid the ghost of routine: With freelancers you get new impulses, new knowledge, new skills
By Carsten Bjerregaard, CEO and founder of MarketingCapacity.com
The daily focus in marketing is often aimed at getting deliveries out the door. Deadlines, campaigns and stakeholder management fill the calendar. But when execution takes over, you risk losing the connection to the new – that which could lift both creativity, efficiency and results.
Here, freelancers can be much more than “extra hands”. They can be the vitamin injection that gives new life to your projects – and direct access to new skills, perspectives and methods.
That’s why you need new impulses – even in a skilled team
When you work closely together in the same department, in the same company, in the same structure – and maybe even with the same customers and platforms – there is a risk of becoming “home blind”. You end up repeating what you know works – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
But over time, a form of internal logic and habitual thinking emerges that can slow down innovation.
According to Harvard Business Review (2022), one of the biggest dangers to performance in high-performing teams is precisely that you become self-affirming and repeat previous solutions rather than challenging them with new perspectives.¹
Freelancers bring new impulses because they come from the outside – with experience from other industries, other clients and other setups. They see things that the internal team no longer notices.
They have updated knowledge and specialized skills
Many freelancers work as specialists – not generalists. They make a living by being sharp in their field. This means that they are often at the forefront of the latest methods, tools and best practices.
McKinsey & Company points out that access to specialized talent – even temporarily – is a key to increasing agility and performance in marketing organizations.²
So where the permanent team may have breadth, the freelancer brings depth.
This could be, for example:
- A performance specialist who knows the latest AI tools in Google Ads
- A creative storyteller who has tested format successes on TikTok and LinkedIn
- An automation expert who can build flows that the internal team hasn’t had time to learn
- Freelancers can learn from you – if you give them the opportunity
Freelancers can also act as a competence boost for your internal team. However, this requires that you think about onboarding and collaboration correctly. If you only use the freelancer as “external muscle”, you risk missing out on the most important thing: the transfer of knowledge.
A report from Deloitte shows that companies that have a structured approach to integrating external consultants and freelancers achieve a higher learning effect in the internal team.³
So ask yourself: Have we set the framework for the freelancer to share his knowledge with the team? Have we put in time for sparring, knowledge sharing or review sessions? If not – then you only get half the value.
They inspire because they are not trapped in your culture
Culture is important – but it can also be a prison for new ideas. Freelancers have the advantage that they do not necessarily have to take into account all the internal norms and informal rules that often characterize large organizations.
They can – with due respect – ask the stupid questions and suggest new ways of doing things. This often creates healthy reflection and constructive debate.
Because as a report from BCG (Boston Consulting Group) shows: Diversity in thinking and experience increases both innovation and performance in teams.⁴ Freelancers are a shortcut to exactly that.
Here are 3 suggestions for how you can concretely anchor and integrate new ideas and methods from freelancers
Getting new knowledge and inspiration from the outside is one thing – but how do you ensure that it doesn’t just disappear again when the freelancer logs out? Here are three tips that will increase the effect and create real anchoring in your team:
A) Make knowledge sharing part of the task
When you engage a freelancer, make it clear from the start that part of the task is to share experiences and methods. This can be in the form of:
A final walkthrough of how the task was solved
A mini-workshop for the team
A short documentation of tools, processes or insights
It doesn’t take long – but can be of great value for the internal team, who will gain concrete insight into how things can also be done.
B) Use the freelancer as a sparring partner – not just an execution partner
If you only use the freelancer to “execute”, you miss out on the sparring. For example, set aside 30 minutes in your calendar for feedback and sparring during the task – not just at the end. This results in both greater quality in the solution and a better exchange of knowledge.
C) Evaluate internally when the task is over
After working with a freelancer: sit down as a team and ask:
- What did we do differently this time?
- What tools or methods will we take forward?
- Was there anything in the process that we can repeat in the future?
- It creates reflection – and helps to make the new part of your normal practice.
- According to a report from MIT Sloan Management Review (2023), reflection and active “sensemaking” after external collaboration is one of the most important factors for organizational learning.⁵ It doesn’t require big processes – just a little structure and attention.
When you do it right, you don’t just get a job well done. You get a sharper team with new ideas and a better way of working.
Conclusion: Freelancers are not just a resource – they are an opportunity. It’s not just about getting things done. It’s about getting them done better.
Freelancers can be:
- Your access to cutting-edge skills
- Your antidote to home blindness
- Your source of inspiration, learning and pace
If you integrate them right, you don’t just get deliverables – you get a team that is constantly getting smarter, more skilled and more relevant.
So the next time you’re considering hiring a freelancer: Don’t just think about output. Think of the knowledge and impulses they bring with them.
Sources:
- Harvard Business Review: “Beware the High-Performing Team” (2022)
https://hbr.org/2022/10/beware-the-high-performing-team - McKinsey & Company: “The agile marketing organization” (2022)
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-agile-marketing-organization - Deloitte: “The open talent economy” (2023)
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/human-capital/articles/introduction-human-capital-trends.html - Boston Consulting Group: “How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation” (2018)
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation - MIT Sloan Management Review: “Making the Most of External Talent” (2023) https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/making-the-most-of-external-talent/
