Yup, the pinky finger takes awhile to catch up.

I gravitated to songs/licks that require the pinky and made them a part of my regular practice and warm up routines (i.e., John Frusciante). It helped a lot. Exercising my pinky on my guitar improved my typing at work, which in turn improved my guitar fretting. Once I got some momentum, it was hard to stop it. I saw improvement in strength and flexibility almost daily.

Sometimes you gotta force yourself to use something until it becomes second nature.