Leading Gen Z - A Changed World for Leaders

Welcome to the May edition of the Haylor Leadership newsletter!

Last month we discussed whether or not Gen Z are different, and what their context is. As I highlighted, as people, they are not different, but their context is. Therefore the way in which they are responding to the workplace is new and having a real impact.

This month I'm going to look at leaders, what has changed for them and the impact this is having on the workplace.

My starting point is a challenging one, in short it is harder to be a leader today than it was pre-Covid.

Why?

The world has changed and that change is accelerating...

For example:

Hybrid workforce - Leadership is about emotions. A high performing team is more regularly in a positive, energised, confident emotional state than another team of similar capability. Understanding and influencing that emotional state, the role of leadership, is a lot harder when people aren't in the same room, especially if you struggle with reading emotions in the first place.

Understanding your team, seeing who is struggling, identifying friction, building rapport are all much harder when your interactive time is reduced and moved online.

Additionally those leaders who are a natural fit for leadership get a lot of positive emotional return from interacting with their team and seeing the impact of their efforts, by diluting that we make the upsides of the role less rewarding.

Leadership just becomes more complicated; grabbing someone for 5 minutes to work out a problem that just cropped up is a lot harder than it used to be!

Hybrid workforce - I'm going to split out another specific point on this which is, communication. Communication is the tool through which leaders influence and create desired outcomes.

We will no doubt argue for ever as to the different impacts of verbal and physical 'language' but even if you take the lowest estimate of the impact of body language and say it is a 50/50 split, then you are still losing 50% of available communication when you are not face to face when speaking. This inevitably leads to increased misunderstanding and friction and less connection, which means less trust and less engagement within a team.

My point is not that any of this is insurmountable, we are not going to return to the old ways of doing things, but this does make the job of leadership harder.

Gen Z - Given last months newsletter I won't go into detail here, but suffice it to say Gen Z are responding to the workplace differently and those differences are requiring more hands on leadership activity. To manage Gen Z well requires more proactive leadership work than previously, and in simple terms this adds time and some degree of stress to the leadership role.

Communication (again) - It's a big topic! With a remote team, and with the acceleration of technology we now have a vast array of potential ways to communicate. Many teams, especially new joiners, get confused as to what communication channel is formal, informal, for project work, for clients etc. We can all point to embarrassing stories of sending the wrong message to the wrong group, or including the wrong person. Just ask the recently sacked US National Security Advisor!

It is a challenge to consistently present a message with clarity, when the importance of different forms of communication are blurred. I have seen teams fall into conflict simply because different groups prioritised different communication channels and therefore felt that others weren't listening and being responsive.

Again, with thought, this is easily fixed. However that thought and applying new solutions is another responsibility added to the leadership 'to do list'.

AI - There are currently two key issues with AI.

Firstly, is the fact that we now have a tool that can radically change the productivity of each human being and that tool is changing fast. This clashes with the short term human behavioural trait of resisting change. Pair those two points together and you have teams who take some convincing to adopt AI in a certain way, and by the time they do the tool has already moved on and they need to embrace change again. This leaves leaders in a constant state of change management which as any leader knows is one of the more challenging leadership tasks there is.

Secondly, AI is raising general anxiety levels across the workplace. The change point above is one reason, but the other is that jobs are already being lost or dramatically changed. Skill sets that have taken a lifetime to develop are losing their value. For those this has yet to happen to, it almost certainly will and exactly how this plays out for employment and salaries is unknown and therefore stressful.

Cultural change - It has become accepted to always consider individual circumstance, whether that be making suitable adjustments for induvial needs, mental health days, flexible working and many other initiatives.

I am not saying these are bad things, but again it puts more pressure on leadership. Pulling together a diverse team into a happy and successful unit with the degree of individualised flexibility we now expect, is a real challenge. A challenge which tests even highly skilled leaders.

Caught between generational realities - Leaders are in the unfortunate position of having a generation of executives above them who are placing them under increasing pressure to deliver results with fewer resources and limited understanding of the issues they are facing as laid out in this article.

In a consistently volatile and constrained economic context these pressures from senior leadership have been consistent and show limited signs of abating.

Secondly, as already mentioned, leaders are increasingly leading a generation (Gen Z) who put more demands on you as a leader. (See last months newsletter)

Some middle leaders feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I could go on, the list of change is long, but I think this covers the main elements, other than one...

Training and lack thereof...

Leadership has and will always be the most complex human skill set you can master. There is a reason why the majority of those questioned have a negative perception of the leadership cohort above them.

If we don't train a skill set, then it is unfair to expect people to excel at it.

So not only is leadership complex but it has become harder.

The effect on the workplace is that with stress from above and below, leaders are starting to burn out, disengage, and lose effectiveness.

Leaders, especially middle management, are on the front line of rapid change. They need support, training and to be recognised as critical to the successful running of any organisation.

If you want to dive deeper into this topic I would suggest you read 'State of the Global Workplace' Gallup , 2025 Report.

There is a positive side to this, if we can adapt then the changes we are seeing open up lots of opportunities, just as much as challenges.

Join me next month where I will take you through the opportunities and the solutions we can use to bring a hybrid multi-generational team together to form a truly high performing team which thrives.

Have a successful May!

Haylor Leadership Good leaders change the world for the better.