Bridging the Gap with Gen Z | 9 Keys to Effective Leadership

Are you struggling to get through to the younger generation on your team?

It probably feels like they're not taking ownership of figuring anything out on their own, or they don't seem to care about staying until the job is done and they're just leaving early all the time, or maybe it feels like they're just not even following the directions you're giving them.

I've heard it all before and I know it's frustrating, but you can't throw in the towel on them yet, because I'm going to teach you simple ways to motivate and influence Gen Z.

But before I get too far, I just want to quickly introduce myself. My name is Doug Howard, and I'm a leadership coach. I use this YouTube channel to teach leaders and managers how to leverage people skills to increase your impact on your team and throughout your organization at every level.

Common Struggles Managers Face
with Gen Z

Today's episode is going to be entirely focused on how to effectively lead Gen Z. This is something that a lot of managers are struggling with and it's a growing problem because, currently today, Gen z makes up about 25 percent of the total workforce. Now just think about that 25 percent, that's a quarter of the entire workforce. Over the next few years it's going to keep increasing as this generation gets older and they say within the next few years They will be the majority of the workforce. They're even going to outnumber millennials and as baby boomers retire as well.

So the point I'm making here is this is a problem that is not going to go away. This is a problem that we need to figure out how to manage and we need to figure out how to effectively lead this generation. So if you're a manager who feels like, Gen Z has no work ethic and they don't really care about, doing a good job. They don't really care about completing their work on time. These are the things I hear a lot of managers talk about another thing I hear is that, they feel like Gen Z is very impatient and they're expecting the corner office right away. That there's no professionalism or soft skills. I've heard it all before.

The main point I'm making here is, if you're struggling to manage this situation now, it's only going to get worse. So you need to take an active interest in learning how to effectively lead and manage this generation now.

Gen Z isn't the Problem, and Neither are You

It's easy for us to want to blame Gen Z, but I'm here to tell you that they're not the problem and neither are you. It really all just boils down to different perspectives. There's a huge difference in our perspectives between Gen Z and pretty much every other generation. To explain just how drastically different these perspectives are, I want to share a story with you from back when I was an engineering manager.

When I first started hiring people that were from Gen Z, I had this one situation with someone who, I was an engineering manager, and I was sending them on a job site, a project site. It was located about six hours away, so it was a long drive. The night before, I asked him if he knew how to get there, if he was familiar with that part of the state.

So he told me no, and I offered to give him my map, my physical paper map. He said, no thanks, I have GPS. Now, I pointed out that, he was going to a very rural part of the country. Cell service might not be the greatest and, there's a good chance that his GPS would not work, somewhere along the way. That he'd be lost and wouldn't know how to get there. But of course he said, Oh no, it'll be fine. I got it. But using my intuition, I encouraged him to take the map anyway.

But then he told me something that really stopped me in my tracks. He said, how do you use this thing? He said, how do you use a map? Now, to me, that just seems silly, instead of picking on him or instead of making fun of him I just took a step back and realized, I guess, yeah, this guy grew up in an era where GPS was available. Why would he know how to use a map? If he never had to use it before, why would he just go out of his way to learn how to use a physical map?

That was eye opening for me just to, to realize that, it doesn't mean he's lazy. It doesn't mean he's not intelligent. It just meant he never had a reason to learn this skill that people from my generation and older had to learn. So we sat together and I quickly just showed him how to use a map. I showed him how the legend key works and how you cross, the letter column by the I column, the X and Y axis and find the location and then map out your highways for how to get there.

It was actually an interesting experience just to work together on this and just see how he approached, understanding this new skill. It was really eye opening for me because it helped me empathize that, it all really just boils down to different perspectives.

Why Gen Z Has a Different Perspective Than Every Previous Generation

It's all about understanding the other person and how they view things and what their background and frame of reference is on something, because it's different.

I feel like a lot of managers miss this. We automatically assume when someone doesn't get something that they don't care. Or when they don't respond the way we're expecting them to, we think that they don't get it or that they don't want to get it. Again, this is where a lot of these challenges start, is just by misaligned perspectives.

To illustrate this a little bit further, I just want to point out this, Gen Z, as far as what the numbers are, they were born in the mid nineties to the late nineties. So just think about how much the world changed since that period, right? Google was invented, the iPhone, YouTube, streaming music, Twitter, the entire world has dramatically changed in this generation's lifetime where when you put it in perspective, someone that was born in the 1980s really doesn't have that much in common with someone who was born in the 1990s. They grew up in two completely different worlds.

Meanwhile, someone that was born in the 1980s has quite a bit in common with someone that was born in the 1970s. The world didn't change that much in that timeframe. Likewise, someone that was born in the 1980s has a lot more in common with someone who was born in the 1960s versus someone who was born in the 1990s, right? There's this very big gap in our perspectives that are created just by how much the world changed from the period that we were brought into the world and growing up as teenagers and in our young professional era versus the Gen Z's experience and in growing up and entering the workforce.

To just put this in perspective even further, imagine if someone that was born in the 1940s, if you were born in the 1980s, imagine how much you have in common with someone who was born in the 1940s, right? That's like what the generational gap is for someone that was born in the 1990s to the 1980s.

You have to work extra hard to find that common ground and understand this generation. You can't just expect it to happen automatically. That's the point I'm getting at here. 'Cause now just think about it, if you were someone who was born in the 1940s, think about how different they're gonna view someone who was born in the 1980s. They're gonna think, they don't care. They're gonna have totally different values. So it's kind the same thing going on here.

You Can't Lead Gen Z Unless You Understand Their Perspective

The reason you've heard me say the word perspective about a million times in the last minute is because whenever you go to any of my training sessions, or you watch any of my YouTube videos, or if you work with me one on one, you're going to hear me emphasize the word influence and empathy over and over again.

You can't influence people unless you empathize with them. You can't influence them unless you understand their perspective, unless you know how to see the world the way they see it and understand what's important to them. You can't motivate people. You can't lead people. You can't influence people without empathizing with them. That means understanding their perspective.

It was a drawn out way of explaining this, but I wanted to just really emphasize that you have to take an active interest in understanding Gen Z if you want to effectively lead them. Otherwise, you won't be able to effectively lead them.

However, when you do find common ground with them, this is the key to creating an intrinsic motivation in them. What I mean by intrinsic motivation is getting them to want the same thing as you. That's the difference between getting them to actually take ownership of doing what you want them to do on their own, versus you having to micromanage them and babysit to get them to do something. Now this is true for all people, but this episode we're just going to focus on Gen Z.

9 Way to Find Common Ground with Gen Z

If you're having trouble relating to Gen Z and having trouble with understanding them, I'm going to give you nine specific areas where you can use to find common ground and use this to influence them.

1 - Support Gen Z's Tech Fluency, While Encouraging Soft Skills

So the first area is, Gen Z, they're digital natives. What I mean by that is they grew up with technology in their hands. They grew up with smartphones. They grew up with iPads. From the moment they could crawl, they were playing, Angry Birds on their iPad or on their parents iPad.

Just to think about this deeper as a manager, if you want to effectively manage them, you need to understand that they have a high level of online fluency and to manage this effectively, you need to utilize tech for collaboration, communication, and growth. But at the same time. You also need to understand that they didn't get the same level of soft skills development that you did. So at the same time as you want to encourage utilizing tech skills for collaboration, Microsoft teams, and things like that, you also want to actively encourage them to develop their soft skills and professionalism.

For example. If you read an email from them that, their communication wasn't clear or maybe they gave a bad tone to someone else in their email, you should have a one on one discussion with them in private. Ask them to read the email that they wrote. Read it out loud to you and then ask, do you think that was clear or how do you think the other person would interpret that? Do you think you included enough information?

Whatever the context is of what they did, you want to ask them questions to get them thinking about, was this clear, when it comes to soft skills. Ask them to consider how their communication is coming off to other people. Cause they're probably not thinking about this stuff on their own. You don't want to come at it from a place of telling them what they're wrong or that they're failing, or you don't want to embarrass them or anything like that. You just want to get them to start thinking about this stuff and kind of coach them along to recognizing that they need to work on these areas. That's the starting point.

2 - Adapting Your Communication for Short Attention Span

The next area I want to focus on for bridging that gap with Gen Z is, let's face it, they have a short attention span, right? Just call it the elephant in the room. There's really no ducking around that.

They were raised in a world where bite sized content was the norm, right? Clickbait and Twitter feeds and video shorts and TikTok, right? So they're used to short, bite sized pieces of information, and it should be no surprise that they have short attention spans. They grew up their whole life this way, so you're not going to change that. You're not going to change that by managing them. You're not going to get them to increase their level of focus overnight. I'm not saying things can't change, but if this is how they've been their whole life, don't fight it. Adapt your leadership style for it.

What I mean by this is, you need to communicate more efficiently. Ways to do this are, simplifying complex concepts, right? Instead of having long drawn out communication, you want to simplify into more like a bulleted list style of communication when you're talking with Gen Z.

You want to emphasize clarity and brevity in your messages. But then when you do this, you're probably wondering how do I make sure that they have enough detail to do the job. What you do is you encourage them to ask for more details. So you start with the top level information to basically maintain their attention. Then you want to encourage them to ask for more details. So an example of this would be if you just gave them instructions, steps one through four on something you want them to do. You can use a technique called empathic listening to make sure that they understood your directions.

Hey, I want you to do step A, B, C, and D. Then after you say it, hey, I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Can you tell me what you're going to do after you walk away from here? Then that gives you a chance to make sure that they heard you. Then you can ask them, is there any more details that you need? Is there any more instructions you want to walk through with this? Is there anything you're not clear on? Now if they're not opening up to you on this, you can go a little bit deeper and ask, what will you do if this happens? What will you do if you face this problem? What will you do if you face this challenge? So you start giving them situational questions that get them to start saying I don't know. What do you think I should do? Maybe I need to know more information about this. My point here is, you need to influence them to ask for more details.

Now, I know this probably feels like a lot of work and annoying, but we're not talking about right or wrong here. We're talking about how to be an effective leader for this generation, because that's what you want, right? Once you start doing these things, more and more, it becomes more natural for you, but it also gets them to change the way they act with you, too. So it doesn't have to be a one way street, but as the leader, you need to make the first move if you want to get these types of results.

I just talked about an exercise called empathic listening, and I explained this exercise in a lot more detail in my episode called How to Make Sure People Listen and Understand You, I'll leave a link to that episode in the episode description.

3 - Gen Z is More Adaptable Than Your Realize

The third area I want to focus on for finding a common ground and really better understanding Gen Z is adaptability. Now, one of the things that I hear from almost all managers is their frustration with Gen Z, not really doing the things the way that they had to do them when they entered the workforce.

What I mean by that is, I'll hear managers say, when I entered the workforce, I was expected to stay late. I was expected to figure things out on my own. I was expected to ask questions. I was expected to do what I was told. It's always this, I was expected.

Something you want to keep in mind is, just think about how much the world has changed in Gen Z's lifetime, right? They were born in the late 90s. So just think about how much change has been happening and the rate at which change has happened in the world and in the way things are done and in technology and tools and all these things.

Gen Z, from their perspective, change is the only concept. There is no such thing as a standard way of doing things because the world has just been changing faster than ever in their lifetime. Instead of expecting them to conform to the way things were when you entered the workforce, the best managers are going to understand that, your best approach is to encourage flexibility and adaptability within your teams. What I mean by that is, when someone on your team is, pushing for more flexibility on something, explore ways that you can give them more flexibility instead of expecting them, just do it because that's the way it used to be done.

Another thing I want to point out here is, we have this tendency to rule things out without really considering it, without consideration at all, just because that's not how it was when we entered the workforce. You want to be more open minded and challenge yourself to be more adaptable. If you struggle with this, what you really want to do is then just spend more time talking with the younger generation one on one, and just hearing their perspective and understanding their point of view and why they value these things.

4 - Gen Z Can Be Stubborn About Learning on Their Own

Now, the fourth area I want to talk about with finding common ground is self learning. Gen Z, believe it or not, they are self learners.

Just think about it. They grew up in a world that has vast online resources. They grew up in the information age. So there's been no limit to the access of information they've had. They're able to go find out unique ways of doing things on their own. The downside of this for them is this is why they're not quick to ask for help. I'm typecasting here, but they have this tendency to, feel like they can go figure everything out. They have access in the means to go find things on their own. So they're not going to be quick to ask for help.

The reason I'm sharing this perspective is, I think there's this misconception that they don't want to ask for help and they don't want to go figure things out on their own and it's a little bit different. They do want to figure things out on their own, but they don't really feel like they need to show you that.

Now, keeping this in mind, the best approach for managers is for you to provide guidance and mentorship, but you also want to create guardrails for them. So you want to definitely support their autonomous growth and let them go explore things on their own, but you want to create guardrails for them. An example for how to do this would be if you're giving them a new challenge, if you're assigning them with a new project that's maybe something they haven't dealt with before, or if you're giving them a task they haven't worked on before, what you should do is create a checkpoint meeting for them to review their progress with you.

So instead of giving them some big task where they could spin their wheels on it. There's going to be a lot of rework that needs to be done afterwards. What you should do is break down this thing you're giving to them into, let's just say three to five milestones and then have a checkpoint meeting after that, when they reach each milestone and the milestone could be based on, a progress point, but it also could just be based on time. Hey, why don't we see where you're at by the end of the day tomorrow, no matter how far you are, let's just check in and see where you're at. That gives you a chance to keep guardrails on this versus them just going off on their own and trying to figure out on their own and maybe giving up as well.

5 - Gen Z Wants Your Feedback, Even if They Don't Show It

Number five is the fact that Gen Z, they are feedback seekers, and, you might not feel this way, so just give me a second, hear me out. Gen Z actually does want your feedback, and if anything, they want instant feedback, they grew up in an era where you're getting constant validation and instant feedback from online communication, but the challenge is they might not be comfortable with asking you for feedback. They just might not be comfortable with asking for it. They're, they want it, but they're also just not going to be proactive about approaching you for it.

So to balance this dichotomy, managers must adopt a feedback rich culture in your team where constructive criticism is openly welcomed and encouraged and it's not taken personally. If you're not sure where to begin with kickstarting a process like this, you should begin with showing your team that you are open to receiving feedback, especially negative feedback yourself. You can do this by asking your team for feedback about yourself in a specific area.

So for argument's sake you can approach one of your direct reports and say hey, you know I'm working on my presentation skills. I feel like I wasn't really clear in that team meeting I had last week about topic X, Y, and Z. Could you give me some feedback? Do you think there's areas for me to improve on that? Pick a focused, specific thing that you're asking for their feedback on because then that'll make them comfortable with giving you the feedback.

But then, as a leader, they're going to notice that you... are the type of person who wants to get feedback and who wants to improve and that you don't see feedback as a sign of weakness. So that's going to encourage them to be open with asking you for feedback.

Think of it like Newton's third law for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So by you seeking feedback from them about something very specific, they're going to be more open with coming to you to seek feedback, as well as just receiving your feedback in the moment.

Constructive feedback is a topic that a lot of people don't feel comfortable with and they don't feel comfortable with, navigating these situations. So if this is something you struggle with, you're going to want to check out my episode called 5 Keys to Navigating Difficult Conversations at Work. I'm going to leave a link to that episode in the description.

6 - Alligning Your Goals with Gen Z's Goals

The sixth area I want to talk about is goal oriented. Gen Z is very goal oriented. Again, we're talking about different perspectives here so hear me out. But Gen Z, they're very ambitious, and they do have a clear vision for their careers.

However, there's a good chance that whatever their clear vision is, their goals and their values are probably a lot different than yours. The things that they find important are probably not the same thing that you find important, unless it's just a mere coincidence.

Instead of forcing them to want the same thing as you, managers need to take the time to understand each individual on their team. You really need to understand what their goals are, their values, their aspirations. What do they place a high level of importance on? Then once you understand that, then as a manager and a leader, you can help align their goals with your team's objectives or the organization's objectives.

But sometimes it's tough to get people to open up and share what their goals are, which is why I'm going to share a resource with you at the end of this video to help you with that.

7 - Recognizing Results and Effort is Key with Gen Z

Moving on to number seven, recognition and rewards. Now, keep in mind, Gen Z grew up in the Kardashian culture where, you know, posting your life on social media was normal. So it should be no surprise that this generation craves recognition, praise and rewards. It's just to be expected, honestly.

To account for this, managers should implement systems that acknowledge hard work and achievements, but not just tangible results. If there's specific types of effort you want from your team too, you also want to make sure you're giving praise when you notice them delivering the type of effort you want. When you notice someone staying late to put in the extra hours, if that's what you want, I'm not saying that's what your culture has to be, but if you notice someone staying late to make sure the job gets done right, or if you notice someone admitting they did something wrong or you notice someone, doing a good job at communicating, however little it is. When you notice someone doing the effort that they want, make sure you're giving them praise for it because that's going to send them positive reinforcement that gets them to want to keep doing this.

They grew up in a culture where you get instant feedback and you get instant recognition for what you do. So this is going to help create that positive reinforcement to get them to continue doing the type of behaviors and accomplishments that you want out of them.

8 - Gen Z has a Diversity Mindset

The eighth area I want to touch on is diverse mindsets. What I mean by this is Gen Z values inclusivity, and they believe that every individual, regardless of their background, should have an equal opportunity. They view diverse workplaces as more inclusive, where they can express themselves freely and do this without fear of discrimination.

This is closely tied to Gen Z's core values and their sense of intrinsic motivation. That's key. Intrinsic motivation means, it's tied to how you motivate them and influence them and lead them. So this is why managers must embrace these values to foster a positive work environment that harnesses the creativity that comes from all perspectives.

Now, if this just sounds like a bunch of buzzwords to you, then I'm going to give you a few tangible examples for how to do this and how to show Gen Z that, you place a high value on diversity and inclusivity. The first thing you can do is lead by example and just show that you as a manager value diversity by consistently demonstrating inclusive behavior and attitudes, showing that you're open minded, that you're respectful, and that you treat everyone fairly and that you're welcoming everyone's ideas. I'm not just talking about ethnic backgrounds, I just mean, different experience levels, too. That you're valuing the new person's opinions just as much as someone who's been here a few years.

Another way you can do this is by creating inclusive policies and practices. For example, you could make sure that you have policies for anti discrimination or anti harassment policies on your team and actively ensure that these policies are communicated clearly and consistently applied whenever you notice someone breaking these policies. The idea here is making your team feel comfortable and safe.

Another thing that is maybe a little bit more of an outside the box idea is, actually providing training and development for your team on diversity and inclusivity training. Actually providing resources for your team on opportunities for skill development and advancement for underrepresented groups in your team.

9 - Sustainability Matters to Gen Z

The ninth and final way to bridge the gap with Gen Z is sustainability. What I mean by this is, I just want to point out that Gen Z grew up in a world that was already facing urgent environmental challenges, such as climate change and resource depletion. Gen Z is very acutely aware of the need for sustainable practices to protect the planet for future generations. This is something that's very near and dear to their heart and very important to them.

Even if this isn't something that resonates with you, it's good to understand that this is something that's very important to Gen Z because this is how they make decisions and it's tied to their, again, their motivations and their core values.

So how can you use this to bridge the gap with Gen Z? As a manager, you can lead by example. This is one way you can promote sustainability within your team. You could figure out if there's ways to, find more sustainable materials that you're using, depending on what, line of work you do. Or maybe it's just being more sustainable with, starting like a recycling program in your office or something like that. Or. contributing to a cause that's going to be related to sustainability for your team.

But honestly, this is not something that I'm strong at. So what I would say, and what I've done in the past is I would actually empower the Gen Z people on my team, and ask them to explore opportunities for us to improve sustainability within the company, show them that you care about it, but you just maybe don't know where to begin. That's something that you can give them to take ownership of on their own. It's something that, you're not really going to micromanage either. If you do that, give them a time limit on it. Don't let them spend 40 hours a week doing that. But it's something that you might, have a little fun with and actually learn from them in the process.

Gen Z has a completely different perspective than every other generation in the workforce right now. That's why it's so important for managers to realize this difference, because then you can proactively work towards bridging this gap and you can actually take an active interest in understanding this generation, which is ultimately going to help you lead, manage, motivate, and influence Gen Z.

Now, if you want to learn more ways to do this, and if you want to learn an extremely simple technique for doing this, you're going to want to check out my episode called How I Motivated a Struggling Direct Report to Improve Their Performance In One Conversation.

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