Leading Gen Z
I’ll start you off with a quote from a leading London based headteacher:
“He has never before seen this level of “apathy” in the 20 years he’s worked with teenagers.”
This is a damning inditement of the generation coming into the workplace.
However, I intend to show you how you can unlock the huge potential within a misunderstood generation.
Firstly, let’s be clear on the problem, what is it that leaders are saying to me about Gen Z on a weekly basis?
- Work 'behaviors' not as expected – communication, dress, respect, work ethic etc.
- Lack of engagement and motivation
- No resilience, seemingly more vulnerable to negative outcomes
- Not willing to go the extra mile
- Not ambitious
- No loyalty and quick to quit.
However, every generation has the same potential so what’s going on?
Gen Z is the generation born from 1997 to 2012.
What is their life context?
When Covid hit the oldest member of Gen Z was 23, those entering the professional work force in 2025 were in their late teens
What I think many leaders fail to appreciate is that 2 years of Covid impact in your late teens / early twenties is vastly more impactful than later in life.
The experiences had, and the skills learnt along with the perceptions formed at that age are infinitely deeper, more vivid, and more impactful than 2 years in our 30's 40's or 50's.
So, we have Covid, secondly;
When the financial crisis hit the oldest Gen Z’ers were 11 or 12, old enough to notice the panic and fear around them. Lest we forget, the news was reporting the potential collapse of the banking system, we had queues forming as people took their money out of financial institutions, unemployment doubled, and growth stagnated, still not returning to pre-crisis levels.
As human beings we see the world through a paradigm that forms in our pre-teen/early teen years.
In simple terms our view on how the world works is strongly influenced by the lessons we learn at this age.
Therefore, the financial crisis, its long running after effects, along with Covid and its huge social impact have set the paradigm through which much of Gen Z view the world, and it’s not a pleasant view.
To emphasise the contextual difference, The ONS defines the last UK boom as the 16 consecutive years of economic growth between the end of the 1991 downturn and the downturn in 2008 - Gen Z has no memory of that time.
They have NEVER been conscious of a BOOM period.
How optimistic and confident would you expect them to be?
Without optimism how hard would you expect them to work?
The impact of this world view was emphasized in Gallups most recent ‘Global Insights on Leadership’ report:
The number 1 thing your younger employees are looking for is HOPE, closely followed by Trust. That sounds to me like a generation in pain, not one expecting success.
These issues have left big gaps:
Namely gaps in soft skills, especially communication, a gap in self-confidence, and a gap in a belief that the world is one of opportunity.
BUT in a fast moving, highly disrupted world, who better to adapt to and deal with that than those who have known nothing but fast-moving disruption?
So, how do we unlock the potential of Gen Z?
3 steps:
- Empowering leadership behaviors – generating the HOPE, Trust and compassion we need to engage our younger audience.
- Boundaries and accountability - These give everyone clarity, security and results.
- Leaders who Take Action – Learn to be a leader who is comfortable with difficult conversations and hard decisions.
Empowering leadership behaviors.
First and foremost - Expectation setting – You have to assume Gen Z know none of the work norms you grew up with, and you cannot hold people accountable to something they do not clearly understand.
Vision setting – OR in simple terms, the CREATION OF HOPE. It is the role of good leaders to find a way to paint a picture that takes people forward to a better place.
Empathy & Compassion – empathy will help you to understand the context and challenges of those you lead, compassion will help you to react more objectively.
Excellent communication – Misunderstanding is a big part of workplace friction. Ensure your leaders cannot hide behind emails, skilled interpersonal communication is the only way to build understanding and rapport.
Remove all toxicity – Gen Z are, and I agree with them on this one, even more allergic to any sign of misogyny, intolerance, abuse, bullying or harassment of any kind.
Positive reinforcement – Always reward the behaviours you want to see. Make people feel seen and valued and they will thrive!
Boundaries and accountability
Expectations on your Gen Z team members must be absolutely consistent and have 100% clarity for both sides.
Give them the security of understanding and knowing exactly where the boundaries lie.
We can then focus on holding people accountable promptly and consistently, and the big lessons are always found in the small things.
This is really important, because if you ignore the small things, then big things will fail.
What I mean by little things are your leaders ignoring issues such as, being 5 mins late for a meeting, turning a camera off for 10 mins during a meeting, missing a deadline by a few hours, sending a seemingly rude or ill-considered email.
These are not grounds for a disciplinary conversation but if you let any of them slide then you will be in a disciplinary situation not too long afterward. Not to mention the damage these small points of friction do to a culture, and a team's sense of purpose.
And finally: Be the leader who takes action.
Challenge and stretch the leadership skills in your team and organisation.
Lazy or unskilled mid-management leadership will kill off any hope of unlocking your Gen Z talent.
Look in the mirror.
Are you and your leadership team role modelling the behaviours you want to see? Are you setting an example Gen Z would look up to and ideally showing them the path to get there that they can believe in.
The tone is set from the top, your emotional state will spread, are you bringing energy, positivity, hope and a clear sense of direction?
Finally, after taking all the positive and empowering actions you can, don’t be afraid to remove people who are undermining the organisation.
Allowing underperformance will only spread mediocrity, frustration and compound the problems you face.
Gen Z could be your businesses' superpower, just remember;
Have compassion; their life experience is not yours.
