How to Manage Gen Zs: The Paradox of Being a Gen Z (Part 1)

A frequent question I get in my leadership workshops and my online program Leadership Habits is about how to manage Gen Zs effectively.

While there is some variation in the definition, Gen Zs are those born between 1996-2010, which means they are between 15-29 years old today. To rejig Churchill’s remarks on Russia, Gen Zs are "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." To understand this paradoxical generation better, consider two perspectives about them.

From one perspective, they are described in terms that make them out to be heroic. For example, a Stanford study identified a typical Gen Z as “a self-driver who deeply cares about others, strives for a diverse community, is highly collaborative and social, values flexibility, relevance, authenticity and non-hierarchical leadership, and, while dismayed about inherited issues like climate change, has a pragmatic attitude about the work that has to be done to address those issues.”

For those of us who have Gen Z children, or have worked with many Gen Zs, the above description is rosier than the reality we confront every day. It does not do adequate justice to the social, economic, and technological disruptions of the last two decades that created a perfect storm pointed squarely at this generation. Financial crises, climate change, global unrest and wars, the Covid crisis, social media, and other forces have created an “anxious generation” that struggles with its mental health as it confronts an uncertain future.

From this other perspective, A McKinsey report describes Gen Zs in the US as having the highest incidence of mental illness and the lowest positive outlook for the future among all generations. Climate anxiety, lack of a social safety net, reduced economic opportunities, fears of widespread job losses due to new technologies, the relentless pincers of social comparison and expression through social media, and the escalating disruptions of the workplace, have all resulted in a simmering internal cauldron of anxiety and uncertainty.

Given this war between these two sides within many Gen Zs, what is a manager to do?

Besides doing their other work that has become exponentially harder due to a diaspora of disruptions, how could a manager even consider the contradictory expectations of their Gen Zs? A recent Deloitte report described these work expectations in almost utopian terms: “meaningful work within purpose-driven organizations, the flexibility to balance work and personal priorities, supportive workplaces that foster better mental health, opportunities to continue to learn and grow in their careers, and competitive pay and benefits.”

How would one even begin to create such a workplace where Gen Zs (and other generations) can thrive? The first step is to recognize that both perspectives are at once true – many Gen Zs are deeply conflicted between their positive side that is about proactivity, purpose, and pragmatism, and their negative side that is helpless, anxious and fearful of the future.

The key to managing Gen Zs is to show by example how one can successfully resolve these opposing forces in oneself in ways that are authentic and inclusive, two qualities that many Gen Zs care about deeply. To do so, managers need to demonstrate and encourage a beingful way of life at work, i.e., beingful work, as I will describe next.