My own first work experiences and what I (didn’t) do
I remember well that at the beginning of my career, I accepted a job that was quite disappointing. The work was dull, the guidance was lacking, and I found my boss a bit unpleasant. I tried for a while, but one day, during a visit to my parents, I let slip that I actually wanted to quit. My father immediately responded, “Whoever convinced you that work should be fun? You can’t just give up. You have fixed expenses, a resume with little work experience, and a gap in your CV can work against you. Working somewhere for less than two years raises questions, and you want to avoid that.”
And what did I do? I returned to that dull job and that unpleasant boss. I did what my father said I should do, but it came at the cost of my mental health, my sleep, and certainly my joy of life. Looking back now, I regret not being a little braver and doing something else a bit earlier.
The challenging relationship between Generation Z employees and their leaders
The Generation Z employee is a topic of discussion for many of my clients. Many managers find this new group of colleagues difficult to motivate. This generation values their personal lives, seeks a sense of belonging in the workplace, and wants to be able to be themselves. They ask questions and demand honest, meaningful conversations, more learning experiences, faster career progression, and action-oriented feedback.
How different the reality is in the job market for a starting Generation Z employee compared to their leaders when they started working. The latter could rent a house with their first salary at the time, whereas Generation Z considers owning a home as utopian and often continues to rent a room, with or without friends. Owning a car has become less common, there is doubt whether this is still a world in which you want to raise children, and whether there will even be a pension by the time they reach their seventieth year. Uncertainty reigns.
Motivation experts emphasize that motivation stems from pursuing achievable goals that genuinely interest and satisfy you. The absence of these small motivational boosts results in many in the new generation being less inclined to fully dedicate themselves to their work and to easily forgive the mistakes of leaders in exchange for career opportunities.
What Generation Z wants
Generation Z strives for engaging work and inspiring leaders. They are young people who ask critical questions, long for meaningful conversations, mental well-being, career advancement, and constructive feedback. In other words, they seek purpose, growth, and a sense of connection.
Research from the Workforce Institute shows that the percentage of employees willing to give up a well-paid position for a job with better mental health is increasing. This poses significant challenges for current leaders.
For organizations that want to remain attractive to employees of all generations, there are some valuable considerations:
1 Trust your employees before they trust you Give employees the flexibility and autonomy they need to do their work well and have a good life. People looking for other jobs closely scrutinize vacancies for flexible work arrangements. This is decisive for whether or not they respond to vacancies. If it’s unclear how flexible the work environment is, they won’t respond. Of course, this comes with trust and requires responsibility from both sides. You can, of course, hold your employees accountable if the given trust is breached, but above all, give it first.
2 Engage in more authentic interactions Make time to really get to know each other in your team and make people feel truly at home. Honest, vulnerable conversations, especially with leaders, bring the psychological safety that employees and teams need; it makes teams stronger and helps them perform even better together. I meet many leaders who think that taking time for vulnerable conversations isn’t worth it or that such conversations don’t belong in the workplace. A lot of research (and especially the response from Generation Z) shows that these leaders are really mistaken.
3 Invest in career development with frequent, concrete feedback Get rid of vague, unusable feedback; employees want clear, practical suggestions for improvement. In many organizations, there are still too many ritualistic, obligatory, annual battles over evaluations, salaries, and promotion opportunities. But employees just want much more frequent, shorter conversations about their careers, their milestones, and next challenges. They want feedback, to hear what’s good and what can be improved. And then, please, make it concrete enough for them to act on immediately. Stop with feedback like “I’m not exactly sure why, but if your leader says my feeling is that you’re not ready yet.” (This is really a real-life example!) Make sure there’s weekly contact with new employees about their progress and how they’re feeling in the team, and after a while, decide together how often those short conversations are needed. Never delay giving compliments; all people are sensitive to them.
4 Give teams space to adjust unworkable rules Give your team autonomy to adjust rules that don’t work. In their quest for overview, predictability, and control, organizations have often devised various rules that work for the majority of teams but not for some teams at all. Or rules that once worked but now mostly work against. Give teams the space to adjust such rules. Of course, this is done in consultation with leadership because giving space also comes with responsibility for the team wanting to abolish the rule. The ultimate goal must, of course, still be achieved.
5 Introduce diversity into the team to promote productive conflict and growth Productive conflict, yes: different perspectives enrich the team and stimulate innovation and improvement. Teams become more attractive when people can challenge each other through productive conflict. This means that team members can contribute from their expertise, life experiences, education, and thinking styles to the plans and to a better team result. Team members benefit from each other and each other’s different knowledge and insight, regularly seek each other out, and make each other better. Teams that want this don’t look for new team members who fit perfectly into the team but for people who can bring something different and therefore extra. These teams also make more effort to integrate the new team member into the team as quickly as possible and make them feel at home instead of asking the newcomer to adapt as quickly as possible.
Generation Z asks for what we all actually want
Many leaders say they find Generation Z difficult. It confronts them with the fact that things can also be different with better results. Generation Z is the generation that takes the lead in making organizations the place where we are all inspired and challenged. Where we can all contribute to something greater than ourselves. Let’s face it: that’s what we all actually want, isn’t it? Leaders who realize this and work on it are the leaders of the future.
