Building on Gen Z’s Strengths to Lead Your Team to Success
Gen Z is poised to change the face of work culture in the coming years, with a bulk of young professionals coming from this generation. That’s why it’s important to understand them. Identifying their strengths and using these strengths to help advance their careers will ultimately lead your team and organisation to success. But first, let’s get to know them.
In this article you will learn:
Digital natives with global connections
Preferences on remote work and communication
Work ethic and career development
Who is Gen Z?
Gen Z describes the currently youngest generation with adult members and generally refers to people born between 1997 and 2013. As children, Gen Z workers saw their parents struggle financially and their millennial siblings come home after losing their jobs during the 2008 global recession. As teenagers and young adults, they developed their identities in a unique way, being the first generation of digital natives with a social network of peers on a global scale. As a result, they are the most diverse generation. And when they got ready to start working life, the pandemic hit and disrupted their career visions.
Going through such important social and economic events helped shape them to be the hardworking, assertive, transparent, inclusive, and financially pragmatic individuals they are now. And they’re still evolving.
Gen Z professionals are socially aware digital natives.
Two defining characteristics are Gen Z’s social awareness and adeptness in using technology. As digital natives, they live their lives as much online as in real life. And they know who they are and what they want. Gen Z in the workplace are open about their social and political views and seek to integrate them with their professional life. A 2021 Deloitte study found that 49% of Gen Z workers chose careers and employers based on the organisation’s values and ethics. 58% feel their companies should be more environmentally responsible and 68% want their company to be more committed to social issues. 77% expect the organisations and industries they want to work in to be inclusive and diverse. And they are intentional about who they work for: Gen Z professionals leave their employers if they think that they are not acting in the best interest of society and the environment, and find another that echoes their values.
They like working remotely, but value in-person work communication.
Workplace flexibility is something they expect of an organisation in the new and current work culture. 40% of Gen Z professionals think that an organisation’s level of adaptability and flexibility can help determine its success.
But because they’ve spent all their life using smart tech doesn’t mean remote work is the only mode of work they want. Quite the contrary. As we’ve grown accustomed to remote work, they’ve also expressed ambivalence over it, saying that it might undermine their work experience, career development, industry awareness, and most importantly, strong relationships at work.
That’s why they’re drawn to in-person communication. In 2019, 75% of Gen Z professionals shared that they prefer receiving feedback regularly, in person, and in real time. The numbers even went up in 2022, with 85% of them preferring in-person work, as we can learn in Simon Sinek's conversation with two Gen Z experts on his podcast. A lot of them are excited just thinking they’ll be working at an office. For most of them, this will be the first time in their lives to experience working as part of a team in an office.
Gen Z professionals work hard and put a premium on personal career development.
Give a Gen Z professional a job, and they’ll work very hard at it. They pick up skills easily. They’re ultra-focused because they have developed an effective filter to find relevant content in a constant stream of information on their devices. That focus also serves their main goal: personal growth and professional development. As a result, it can happen that even if they seem very committed to their job now, they’ll leave if they find a new opportunity that offers better income and career advancement. A lot of Gen Z professionals not only have day jobs, but side hustles. And many of them see themselves developing into entrepreneurs in the future – a surefire way for them to advance their careers on their own.
Older generations might interpret these as selfish behaviours. An alternative perspective is that people of the Gen Z generation are much clearer on what they want to prioritise and what is important to them, and they have the confidence to go after it.
Supportive leadership is essential to Gen Z professionals.
Gen Z professionals want to work with managers who are honest, engaged, and recognise their contributions to their team or organisation. Moreover, they want managers who will mentor them and spur their professional growth.
They highly value mental health support and workplace benefits.
Mental health has been a concern for Gen Z professionals. Even prior to the pandemic, most of them spent their youth by themselves and would interact digitally more than in-person. By January 2020, 73% of them reported feeling lonely, even though a significant number of them identified as heavy social media users. In 2021, almost half of them shared that their mental health was worse than before the pandemic. That’s why they’re drawn to organisations that offer mental health support and benefits that are more than just a tick-box exercise and promote mental fitness and a healthy work-life-integration.
How do we build Gen Z’s strengths?
Harness individual strengths that might have been dormant during the pandemic.
The pandemic has not only changed the way we work but also our outlook on life. Across all generations, we are only now working through the collective trauma, loneliness and loss. Many Gen Z employees only met their colleagues for the first time in real life after the pandemic. As they continue to define their work identity, offer support to Gen Z employees to identify and harness their individual strengths in the workplace. Highlight how their unique and individual contributions benefit the team and the organisation. Make time to engage with them in person in the office and facilitate meaningful reflective spaces for shared learning.
Strengthen generational characteristics to engage Gen Z at work.
Like every generation, there are a few general characteristics that are attributed to Gen Z professionals. As a group, they have remained consistent before and after the pandemic. They still work hard, are career-driven, and care about the social and environmental issues around them. They are the most tuned-in generation to climate change, social inequalities and the need for positive change.
But: Gen Z is also the most disengaged generation in the workplace, according to Gallup. They also report a higher prevalence of work-related stress, burnout and loneliness. Plus, Gen Z is the generation with the highest rate of climate anxiety. Employers need to take that seriously and offer programs, resources and benefits that help Gen Z improve consistently and positively influence not just their workplace but the society around them.
Offer individual strengths development through team workshops & 1:1 strengths coaching.
A great way to help Gen Z professionals regain and retain their strengths is by offering strengths development programs such as team workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions. They will appreciate this as they are always on the lookout for ways to improve themselves personally and professionally. Strengths development coaching can also help their mental resilience and overall mental health. Also consider offering reflective and regenerative spaces to address topics such as mental fitness, climate anxiety and burnout prevention.
Identify intergenerational strengths and use them to support Gen Z at work.
Strengths development also involves using the strengths from your generation and other generations at your organisation to support Gen Z professionals at work. For example, you could let Gen Z employees participate in co-learning programs run by baby boomers – a generation that equally values hard work and in-person communication. Gen X managers could spearhead professional development efforts and co-create programmes with the help of Gen Z employees. Millennials and Gen Z employees could work together to train prior generations on new technologies and inform them of the significance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) to organisations. Foster a culture of curiosity and empathy, that works harmoniously together across generations.
Adapt business and operational strategies based on contributions from Gen Z.
Create organisational strategies that build on Gen Z’s enthusiasm towards interpersonal communication, real-time feedback, flexibility, transparency and career development. In the coming years, socially aware Gen Z professionals will outnumber other generations in the workplace, so it’s essential that your organisation to carry out its own ESG-based strategy and DEI programs.
Beyond giving them the recognition that they deserve, this helps your organisation retain and develop happier employees, operate efficiently, reinforce a good reputation and most importantly, positively contribute to the society and environment we live in.
Building happier workplaces for all generations is a team sport. I work with leaders, teams and individuals who prioritise a people-first culture. Contact me for coaching, workshops and learning for your or your team.
Are you a Gen Z professional finding it difficult to leave your mark in the workplace? Career coaching can help you! Book a free chat with me to explore how we can help you thrive at work.
