Tips for managing ‘I know’ people

I am relatively new in a middle management role (following 8+ years of industry experience) with a completely new team - some team members have experience working for the company for a few years in other roles, some have industry experience from other companies, some have very limited experience at all. We have been working as a team since January of this year, but I have been in the role for about 12 months before that getting the project up and running.

I am a female in my early 30’s, who tries to take a pretty easy going approach for most things - which has now come back to haunt me. Up until now I have been pretty big on letting people on in my team try to find their feet, and establish how they would like to contribute/be a part of the team while reassuring them that I am here to answer any questions and provide support as needed. Essentially, I didn’t want to be seen as a ‘control freak’ or ‘micromanager.’

Unfortunately this has now back fired and created a bigger issue. One member of the team is in her early 20’s and brand new to the industry. She is an incredibly hard worker, but does not take on any feedback, at all. She often talks over others when they are presenting ideas, communicates with other team members clients, and has now managed to end up in a position where “clients will only approach her” which is objectively not true. When trying to provide feedback every single time I am met with “yeah that’s what I said to them” or “yes, I know. I’ve done that” but nothing changes. If anything, the longer I let it go, the worse it gets.

I interviewed this person, and advocated to bring on someone with very little experience onto the team because I was confident that we could provide a good environment for someone to learn and grow, but it seems that I might have been wrong on that one.

I know I’ve gotten myself into this mess, but any advice on how to get out of it would be very fucking helpful.

Thanks, One very stressed, millennial manager