my junior colleague won't seek my input

Post date: 2022-05-28 11:50:05

I am the most senior person on a small team that is currently without a direct manager. My junior teammate puts their hand up for every task, but does not seek peer review unless he is forced to (which is standard practice in our work). This sometimes leads to more time on corrections or lower quality than if he just ran more of his decisions by me. How do I get this person to want more peer feedback, or should I let it go?

I spent more than two hours yesterday putting in a correction for something junior colleague did, and this morning I had to point out that a report he had already sent direct to the CEO without asking anyone included data he didn't intend to include. Neither of these were end of the world mistakes, or mistakes I wouldn't make myself on an off day, but he's more junior and it shows in his work. I'm not his boss but I do have better judgement born of 6+ more years experience and a higher degree and title than he has, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't ask for peer review in part to prove I'm his peer not his superior (I'm not under consideration to be nor do I want it) or so he can take credit by doing things alone thinking it will help him get promoted to my level. He is the type to give his opinion at every turn, whether or not he has all the background knowledge. Increasing independence and scope is a marker of seniority in our work, but he has the mixed judgement normal for someone only a few years out of undergrad and has blinders about it. I think I contributed to this dynamic somehow in our interactions by pointing out necessary corrections he needed to make (also a very standard formal technical process in our work) and he does take correction when it's clear that 2+ 2 != 5, but he won't stop being a cowboy when he has a chance unless I get out in front of him. We have informal venues and formal processes for peer review, he's just choosing not to use them even though it could be as simple as asking "I'm thinking a round handle on this teapot I'm making, agree?" in Slack. Our acting boss is too high level and busy and too far away from the day to day of our work to see this and I would look petty for pointing it out because it hasn't resulted in disaster. Is there anything I can say to junior colleague to get across the point he would produce higher quality output and get on my level faster by asking my opinion on how to execute or checking his output with me or our other teammate before it is final more often? Is it better to let it go, let most of his mistakes slide unless they're big enough to cause a very visible or costly problem, since I'm not his manager and not at all interested in becoming one, and he's clearly not interested in learning from my greater experience?

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