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It must be hard for sometime who thinks they're more qualified than you to get passed over for the job they want. Even though it's not your fault, it makes sense that they might be resentful/resistant. Give them and time to process on their own. Then try to talk to them one-on-one and express your desire to have a clean slate with them and talk to them about the great skills and qualities they do have. Ask them where they want to go in their career and what you can do to support them. You can offer to help them develop and gain practice in what they need to in order to get that. If they want your job, maybe you can make them your second in command or give them some increased responsibilities. Of course, they would be to be aligned with you and you can explain your expectations. If you give them a chance, you might be surprised to learn that they might actually have been treated unfairly or written off. I've seen people do complete 180s but getting a new manager who made them feel respected, seen, appreciated. Even though it might not seem like it now, they could be your biggest fan if you make it clear that you value them and want to help them get where they want to go in their career - even if that means they ultimately find a job somewhere else.
That was my first thought. So I actually had that meeting with him yesterday, ultimately leading to why I’m making this post. My department is part of a weekend coverage team for weekday customers. My team currently only works four days a week Friday through Monday and he doesn’t have any desire to move to Monday through Friday. The tough part is being a weekend skeleton crew, I have the most senior role on the team because there’s no need for a director to overlap only two days of the week on Saturday and Sunday. Basically there’s zero movement for this person unless they move on the weekdays (our development structure is just that - move to weekday for continuous opportunity or wait on weekend for the few elevated positions) and I’m trying to convince him that he is a great asset but he doesn’t want to work a different schedule. This is part of the reason why he’s so senior and has not already been moved up. It’s almost a 2 fold issue, my job now is to essentially support and develop people to be strong weekday account leaders, as weekends don’t actually report at all to customers it’s mostly reactionary.
Does anyone have tips to continue to develop a talented coworker that just happens to have a non-leader attitude? At this point he doesn’t want to work for me, but the rest of our 9 person team views them as a strong senior member.
I would try to get to the bottom of what they want and their main skills and try putting a formal plan together for growth. Maybe there’s not an immediate opportunity but working with them directly on growth areas could give them a clear path. You could also try and work with them on new opportunities in other departments, a specialization, etc.
Sounds like you’re approaching it in a good way. Ultimately, you were selected for the job and he wasn’t. And that wasn’t a decision made by you. I had someone on my team that applied for my job before I was hired and the company chose not to promote her because she wasn’t a good fit for the position. I was never able to get her to a point where it became a good working relationship, so if you think it could be a problem, start documenting things early on. Document insubordination, conversations you have with him if there are performance issues, and know what the policy is if they need an improvement plan or if you need to tap on other managers’ shoulders for help. Sounds like he’s set on staying there until he retires, so he might come around so his last working years aren’t miserable, but know your resources in case you need them