How different is the newest generation in the workforce, really? While stereotypes abound — some of them unfair — it’s important to understand what the young adults of Gen Z have in common and how they differ from Millennials, Gen X and Boomers. Tim Elmore is a leadership coach and author who says that this generation in particular craves connection with their colleagues, meaningful work, and assurances that they’re seen as people not commodities. He explains how organizational leaders can adapt to the needs of these workers while still maintaining high standards, providing feedback, and building grit and resilience. Elmore wrote the book The Future Begins with Z: Nine Strategies to Lead Generation Z as They Disrupt the Workplace.
ALISON BEARD: I’m Alison Beard, and this is the HBR IdeaCast.
Every generation has complaints about the ones that follow. The silent generation thought boomers were too freewheeling. Adi’s not here to defend himself and other boomers. Boomers saw Gen Xers, that’s me, as cynical slackers. They were only half right. I am very cynical, but not a slacker. And then Gen X has dismissed millennials as lazy and entitled.
Today, the youngest generation in the workforce is Gen Z, people born between 1997 and 2012, and a lot of bosses and organizations are having a hard time managing them. In part because of some unhelpful stereotypes. Maybe we think that Gen Z is overly fragile, when we don’t have time for coddling. Or too demanding of work flexibility, pay, and promotions without paying their dues.
But our guest today says that we need to do a better job with Gen Z. First, because they’re a large and growing part of the talent pool, now outnumbering boomers. Second, and most importantly, because they’re the people, the digital natives who are best equipped to help companies understand social media, AI, and all the other technologies and trends they need to be innovative and successful. Tim Elmore is author of the book, The Future Begins with Z; Nine Strategies to Lead Generation Z as they Disrupt the Workplace.
First, I have to ask, is Gen Z really all that different than young people of any other era? Is it generation, or is it life stage?
TIM ELMORE: Some of it is life stage, no doubt about it. But Gen Z has grown up in a different culture than the millennials before them, and certainly more than Gen X or the Boomers. People develop a little bit like wet cement, you know the brain. And so, we’re really shaped as our neuro pathways are growing in those first 20, 25 years. Young people are young people, and they’re going to have to learn some life skills along the way as they enter their careers. But, I do think we’re facing a little bit of a greater difference right now. There’s a greater sense of agency that young professionals bring with them, and a greater sense of anxiety that young people bring with them that we didn’t see 25 years ago.
ALISON BEARD: Are those the two things that most sets Gen Z apart from different generations?
TIM ELMORE: Yeah, and as employers, as leaders, we’re facing what I call a Peter Pan paradox. We all remember that winsome character from the book and then the movie, Peter Pan, right? He could fly into London, and make magical things happen as he sprinkled pixie dust everywhere. The other side of the coin is Peter Pan wanted to live in Neverland where he didn’t have to grow up. He could stay a boy, not a man. In many, many ways, not always, but in many ways, Alison, something magic and tragic is happening in culture today. I think the age of authority is decreasing. Young people are coming in knowing stuff that the boss may not know.
They’re intuitive about AI and smart technology. The last data I read, 42% of companies are leveraging Gen Z to use AI for their company. The age of authority is going down. But the age of maturity is going up. Socially and emotionally, and the pandemic didn’t help us, they’re a little bit behind former generations at their age. I’ve lost count of the number of employers that have said to me, 26 is the new 18. And that’s a little scary because we need them to be 26 if they’re 26. So, we’re going to have to listen more than we ever used to listen to that 22 year old, but we’re going to have to coach more than we ever used to coach.
ALISON BEARD: How have those twin competing forces, the idea that they know more because of their access to the internet, and their willingness to experiment with new tools like AI, and their immaturity maybe because of COVID, because of social media, how has it informed their approach to work?
TIM ELMORE: Oftentimes a young team … I always want to say oftentimes, because there’s 59 million Gen Zers and they’re not all alike. The last thing we want to do is stereotype. But, oftentimes, a Gen Z member will come in, and they’ll just blurt something out, and it sounds like arrogance to their supervisor. And really, it’s not always arrogance. They know something, and they’re kind of excited that they might get some respect on week one.
The other ways it plays out on the maturity side is they might come in with flip-flops on, and you’re going, “What if a board member comes in right now? What are you going to do?” Or they might just not act very professionally, showing up 10 minutes late to a meeting, not realizing what that did to their teammates who need them to be there on time to start the meeting. I tell a story early on, if you don’t mind, Alison, I’ll just jump into it.
ALISON BEARD: Yeah, please.
TIM ELMORE: The story is such a picture of what’s happening too often. I’ve known Colin Webb since he was in high school, smart young man, graduated from high school, and went to MIT. When he finished, you can imagine he had a number of job offers. Well, he decided to move to Detroit, Michigan and work for one of the big three, General Motors.
They put him in the smart car division, but immediately he looks around and sees some, may I say, maybe a little more traditional models of getting things done. And so, he starts scribbling down some ideas on how they can get better. Notice the audacity. We need to do professional development better. We need to do this system better. He takes the ideas to his supervisor, but again, you can imagine they didn’t go over very well.
He was told to just keep his head down, get your work done. Well, I’m sure Colin said, “Yes, sir,” because he’s very respectful, but he wasn’t done yet. He emails the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, and says, “I’ve got some ideas.” And he shares the ideas over email with her. She replies back, and she says, “Colin, these are actually very good ideas. Let me take them to my executive team.” She takes them to the exec team. They agree. But again, as they make their way down the org chart, down to the middle manager, and the supervisor, they die on the vine. Colin in fact was told, “You need to be around here eight years before you can lead anything.”
Well, you might have well have said you just should leave, Colin. Because this entrepreneurial spirit that Gen Z has … By the way, I should point out 72% of public high school students in America want to be an entrepreneur. Colin, by the end of the year, leaves GM, has since then started three companies, just sold the second one. He’s doing quite well financially.
I do think Colin’s a little different. But I do believe we’re going to have to manage this maybe high arrogance thing. And again, I want to be so careful here, but it isn’t always arrogance is what I’m saying. This book is a summation of both quantitative data and qualitative data. I surveyed 2,014 members of Gen Z, and then I did 21 focus groups from California to Georgia.
I know they can be fragile snowflakes. I know they can be seen as lazy, and what’s wrong with this generation? They don’t seem to want to work. But, as I dug a little deeper, I thought, ah, they are just different. And if I can tap into that strength that’s inside of them, and it is, I think we really get something. So I’m talking to a young lady in LA, and I said to her, many employers are saying that they find Gen Z just doesn’t really care about work. They want to leave as soon as the clock strikes five, and not a minute later. They don’t even finish the task they’re working on. What do you say to that?
And she very respectfully said, “Dr. Tim, can I tell you why I leave right at five?” She said, “I have to leave at five to rush over to another job. I don’t make enough here to pay the bills here in LA. And then, after that second job, I rush over to take care of my mother who has stage four cancer.” Suddenly, I realized she did not have a work ethic problem, and what she may have had is a connection problem at work with her supervisor.
So we need to begin with belief, and start that connection. Don’t think control, think, connect. And I think we’re going to get where we need to get to as leaders at our workplace.
ALISON BEARD: Yeah, so don’t start with stereotypes, don’t start with assumptions. What problems specifically do you see in how organizations, bosses, even colleagues of different generations handle their Gen Z coworkers or employees?
TIM ELMORE: One of the big ones is that when we’ve been around a workplace for even five to 10 years, we pretty much assume that your position gives you the right to influence, right? If you’re the president, or the executive VP, you have a right to influence. Gen Z would come in assuming your connection gives you the right to influence. Now, neither are wrong, right? Your position does give you the chance to say something, and people should listen, and implement it, but they were so longing for connection… I need to stop thinking gatekeeper as a leader, meaning I’m the gatekeeper of the budget, and the power, and the people here, and start thinking guide.
Let me be a Sherpa guide as we walk up this mountain, and I’m going to lead you up, but I’m going to build a connection with you. I’m going to make sure you make it. I’m telling you, I think they leave because connection doesn’t happen, and their ideas are not welcome. They desperately want a voice from day one. And Alison, I’ll be honest with you, I would have never assumed that when I was young. I’m going to have to earn my voice over a year of production and performance, but it’s a very, very different day today. Zers.
ALISON BEARD: So there’s no, I’m just going to tell you what to do because I’m your manager. It’s first, I’m going to understand you, then I’m going to explain why you need to do it. That seems like a lot of work for a manager who has-
TIM ELMORE: Yes, it does.
ALISON BEARD: … earned their title and paid their dues. Particularly when the labor market is tight, particularly when bosses are strapped for time and they have other workers of different generations to manage, what’s the argument for investing all this time in people who need so much support? What do you see Gen Z as a whole bringing to organizations that previous generations haven’t? Why should I spend that time beyond wanting to be a nice person and obviously.
TIM ELMORE: Yeah, yeah. No, that’s absolutely true. And I hope that the listeners listening would say, “I first want to be a good human being.” I really do believe that’s where good leadership starts with healthy people. But, I would say, I really do believe by and large with some exceptions, they bring an intuition about where culture’s going. When I hire these 22 year olds out of college, they seem to know tomorrow’s consumer better than I do. They seem to know where culture’s going and how we ought to market to them. But, let me share something that may be counterintuitive. I have discovered that generation Z, is the sandpaper on my leadership I did not know I needed.
ALISON BEARD: Okay. I like that metaphor.
TIM ELMORE: Yes. I think my 22-year olds or 23 year olds have made me a better leader. If I can be forthright here, they don’t put up with the BS that older generations say, “Oh, that’s just Bob. That’s just Bob. He does that.” They’ll go, “I’m out of here.” And maybe you go, “Good. I don’t care.” But, I actually think when I stay with them, and I find that gold inside of them, where they bring that intuition that I just talked about, we capitalize on it.
When I begin with high expectation, high belief, I’m going to find some gold. And I love what Zig Ziglar used to say. Somebody says, “Well, what if I invest in them and they leave?” I would say, “What if you don’t and they stay? It’s better to invest and make them better.” And I believe when we invest in them, we actually keep a good person most of the time.
ALISON BEARD: Okay, so let’s start from the beginning in terms of how to better attract Gen Z. How do you interview them? How do you welcome them when you’re trying to bring them on board so that they don’t depart within a year because they’re bored or unhappy with how the organization runs?
TIM ELMORE: Let me throw out two or three ideas real quick and listeners can eat the fish and spit out the bones here. One is I think we need to work to make our organizations more attractive to a new kind of team member. I’ll give you one example. Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt years ago was getting frustrated that they would hire a 18, 19 year old young person, and they’d leave in a year and a half. They did all this time onboarding, and getting ready to sell frozen yogurt, and then they would leave. They decided to say, “You know what? What if we capitalized on who we’re attracting? It’s this young person and say to them in the interview process, “We want to make this the best first job, the best launching pad you could ever have.”
Suddenly, the focus was on them, not just the business, and the revenue, and so forth. They would say in the interview process, “We want to help you sell frozen yogurt really well,