How to talk to an oblivious colleague about improving?

Post date: 2018-01-13 04:39:18

How do I talk to someone who I hired (but have no direct authority over) about how things aren't going well? This is complicated by the fact that this person appears fairly unaware of the fact that things aren't going well. I want to find a way to help this person without alienating them.

"Alan" was hired approximately 6 months ago for a faculty position at a small college. I was the head of the hiring committee that hired him. He's a more senior person in the field and we were excited for the experience that he would bring. We were slightly put off by some excessive self-promotion, but mostly chalked it up to the interview and figured it would go away once he settled here.

Overall, the first semester has not gone well. Alan has clashed with "Bob," who is the person who is (by far) closest to Alan's subfield and, therefore, who he has to work with most closely. On paper, Alan is more qualified than Bob; he has loads more experience and has been successful in the field (although has bounced around a bit). Bob, however, is one of the strongest faculty members we have and really "gets" how to be successful here.

Alan, on the other hand, doesn't seem to completely get the type of place he's come into. He can be braggy (overly so for the world of academia) and is very proud of work that is not as important as the core things he should be thinking about. He has also taken to bossing Bob around ("bullying" may be too strong of a word, but also maybe not) and throwing his weight around trying to make things go his way. This is very much not how things work here; we all work together on things, but we also all trust each other to do our jobs in the way that we think makes sense to us. At the same time, Alan is not very self-reflective about whether what he is doing is going well.

Alan also tends to jump to wildly wrong conclusions about things; he had trouble with a student and came to me in a panicked fury suggesting that Bob had somehow created an environment where such a thing could happen. I cannot emphasize enough how far from the truth this is; Bob is very thoughtful and careful about not allowing things like that to happen.

I suppose my question is: what do I do? The management structure here is very "flat." Alan, Bob, and I are all effectively at the same "level" and none of us have any authority over any other. However, because I was a key part of the committee that hired him, Alan often comes to me for advice on day-to-day things. I think it is very likely that Alan will not survive his first performance review if things continue how they are going. I would like to communicate to Alan that he needs to find a way to work with Bob; if Alan makes us choose between him and Bob, there is no question that Bob would be our choice. I am also trying to separate out some of my personal feelings from my professional ones; Bob is a good friend. Alan is significantly more socially awkward and does not pick up on social cues, which makes socializing with him more difficult. I want to help Alan succeed here without feeling like I have to be his "friend."

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