Which person would you employ?

[Rossita]

Which of these two people would you employ? For a bit of background they both started at the company at the same time and they’re both currently doing the same job. The vacancy they are both applying for is a promotion and will involve managing the department that they currently work in. The role does not require any professional qualifications.

Person A:
Highly qualified to PHD level in an unrelated field.
Has some experience from a previous role that helps in her current position.
Works very well alone and produces some really good work.
Is very committed to the department
Does not work so well as part of a team.
Can sometimes act a little ‘superior’ and has upset every other member of the team at some point.
Does not accept any constructive criticism and believes that her way is the only way to do things.

Person B
Qualified to GCSE level
Has previous experience that helps in her current role.
Is committed to the department.
Produces some really good work.
Sometimes struggles to work alone as she can lack in self confidence and needs to ask advice from other team members.
Is very much a team player, she is good at building professional relationships.
Has on several occasions managed a project which showed she was a good leader.
She is not always great at delegating so ends up taking on too much work herself.

I’ve posted here so people could vote because it makes it easier to see the overall opinion.

YABU Person A
YANBU person B

B

Promoting A to manager will be a nightmare if they're not good with a team and could lead to loss of staff or bullying.

A needs to work on their confidence but hopefully the promotion will boost this and guidance.

B

Although external if possible

@UntamedWisteria

I'm person A.

If you want the job doing properly & efficiently, I'm your man.

And I may rub people up wrongly a bit initially but they learn to love and value my foibles and quirky ways.

Sure you are 🙄

Neither.
Hire externally

If just about every part of the new role would involve working as part of a team, how would it be that there has been scope to work in this department on lone tasks which are significant enough to have won Candidate A the reputation for producing of 'really good work'?

This makes me think that A is much more competent than the initial evaluation makes her sound. If 70% of the work is necessarily teamwork and meeting new people, A can't be as horrendous a people person as the OP makes out and still have a reputation for doing good work.

It sounds like A is unsuitable for the role and while B is more suited, will need a lot of help so I would hire externally but give B support and development opportunities to be ready when the next role comes up.

I'm another vote for neither; advertise externally.

A would cope better at being a manager. B may try to be everyone’s friend. However I guess management dislike A as she has upset the team.
Op are you B?

I'd employ B. All the areas they struggle in can be improved through teaching, mentoring and job experience.

With regards to A i would not employ her as she's not a team player, has upset others, wont accept criticism and thinks she is superior.

Neither seem suitable.

YANBU because B would be the best person for this job, but please be aware that person A will be pissed off and start jobhunting and will probably be gone soon.

I say this having been person A in the past (I am not the specific person A in this situation as I am not currently applying for a promotion).

This is OK. If the time is right for person A to move on to the next challenge, with a different company, then so be it, be supportive and part on good terms.

If you really value person A then look to create a non-managerial new challenge for her within the company. She probably doesn't actually want the managerial responsibility of leading a department but does want the kudos and status of having a promotion. How could you tailor a role that plays to her strengths, stretches her abilities, and adds more value to the company in ways that bring in more income ultimately, without putting her in charge of a team? If there isn't such an opportunity then that is OK though. Such opportunities do exist in other businesses.

Having been hiring for over 40 years and spent the last 25 at director level, the most common recruitment mistake I see is that hiring managers recruit/promote who they like, not who is best for the job.

Once they have decided they "like" the candidate, they look for reasons to confirm that view. So, a failure of organisational skills becomes "hard-working" and poor communication is "lack of confidence". Not taking ownership is often "team player".

An unfavoured confident candidate will be described as arrogant (or more usually if a woman "full of herself" . Gets things done = "brash".

I sense there isn't a lot of objectivity in this process....

Not taking ownership is often "team player".
So, so true. (And the rest of your post, obviously).

I would probably be described as an A. I'll say we can do the touchy feely, relationship building as well. We are more robust than B and would be much more capable of dealing with difficult situations and difficult people than B. B will experience people not wanting to work with them and, if they lack confidence, they are not going to progress things without intervention from someone else.

Touchy feely can be taught, as long as A is committed to doing it. I've just done a 360 review and my humanistic traits were scored extremely highly by everyone. It can be developed.

Neither

Get systems straightened out first.

I've never worked in a big company, or at management level, but certain factors hit me in the inexperienced eyes.

I feel there's some structure lacking in this company. It seems that there could usefully be added some templates/ written guidance on how to proceed with certain common situations which are causing hardworking A and B difficulties.

If B has been asking a lot for help and advice when making day-to-day routine choices, and A is having carte blanche to play situations out her way in order to get something done, there seems a need for more 'instruction' clarity. Also, situations shouldn't be allowed to escalate to the stage where colleagues are getting seriously peed off with each other. Management should have there eye on this and diffuse with known offenders.

Especially as the job is about dealing with people. I guess many of B's questions are probably: "Difficult person asked for this, what can I do about it?" So having stock responses modelled would be an easy matter.

I guess there hasn't been a good managerial model for A and B to emulate, so bring in a C.

I have to say neither however put a development plan in place for person B for any opportunities going forward.

If you have to choose then probably B, but frankly neither sound right for the role for different reasons. I'd advertise and hire an external candidate.

B

Can you explain why you haven't even considered recruiting externally since neither person appears to fit the profile, op?
I'd really quite at your own apparent managerial skills, tbh.

If you’re involved in the decision for a promotion to department manager level and posting on MN for advice, you REALLY need to sort out your own coaching / mentoring.

Is there budget for training?
I would go with A with leadership training.
Having said that, it would very much depend on the interview for each candidate.

Person A if I had to.

If person B can't work alone how on earth will they be able to lead a team.

Person A because you're clearly B and biased.