Senior Client Partner
Leadership
How to Develop a Generation Z Leadership Pipeline
Young workers are saying “no thanks” to management positions, putting leadership pipelines in trouble. Here’s how your company can develop Gen Z leaders.
Generation Z Leadership: Engaging Tomorrow’s Managers
As a CEO, you know your organization needs a robust leadership pipeline for long-term success.
But what do you do when you find your youngest workers, Generation Z, have no interest in joining the leadership pipeline? How will you fill those junior and middle manager roles?
Who Is Generation Z?
Born between 1996 and 2010, Gen Z probably makes up more than a quarter of your workforce.
This generation values meaningful work, flexibility, and mental and physical well-being. Learning opportunities and a clear career path also drive Gen Z employee engagement and retention. Common Gen Z traits include tenacity, determination, and a desire to maximize career potential.
In fact, recent Korn Ferry research on employee motivation levels found that Gen Z is one of the most motivated age groups at work. In the right conditions, this generation of talent can bring immense value to your organization.
How to Identify Each Generation
- Baby Boomer: 1946-1964
- Gen X: 1965-1980
- Millennial: born 1981-1996
- Gen Z: 1997-2010
- Generation Alpha: 2011-current
Why Is Gen Z Saying “No” to Joining Management?
Gen Z may be motivated workers, but they aren’t eager to become the boss. These young professionals have repeatedly seen the middle managers they report to bear the brunt of mass layoffs.
And nearly half of Gen Z employees think burnout is affecting their manager, according to recent Korn Ferry research on employee motivation.
“Management honestly looks like an impossible job,” says Korn Ferry’s Roger Philby. “You’ve got to do your own job, and then you’ve got these people to manage in addition to it. It looks stressful. No wonder companies are finding that Gen Z employees aren’t interested in becoming managers.”
How to Make Management Attractive to Gen Z (and Everyone)
By understanding these reservations, you can reshape your management roles to excite and engage young professionals.
Here are six ways to give the manager role a makeover:
1 Set Boundaries
Start by clearly defining what a manager’s role is and isn’t.
“Managers connect people’s work with the organizational mission and help them understand the value of their work,” says Philby.
People management should also be the focus of this role, not a side job. This focus gives managers time to prepare for one-on-one meetings with direct reports.
“If you’re jumping from one video call to another, you can’t always bring value to these conversations,” says Philby. “Which is why we have to be really clear about the manager’s role in your organization.”
2 Reframe the Role
Chances are, most people associate management with delegation, performance evaluations, and paperwork—grunt work, as some would call it.
But if you move away from this role of organization to one of support, you can tap into Gen Z’s desire for purpose and inclusiveness.
So how do you make this shift?
You make the manager role a coach. As a coach, the manager becomes someone who unlocks an employee’s personal potential, facilitates collaboration across departments, and encourages creative thinking.
“The manager becomes the glue around departments,” says Philby. “They become an essential catalyst for collaboration, empowerment, and innovation. And that sounds like a cool job.”
3 Automate Paperwork
Companies can use technology to lessen a manager’s burden.
Automate administrative tasks, like management reporting and performance evaluations, says Philby. It will give managers more time to focus on their people.
This change aligns with Gen Z’s desire for meaningful work and can make the role more appealing.
4 Train Your Managers
Training is important for any new job in your organization. But some companies promote employees to management positions without any leadership coaching.
This sink-or-swim approach can make Gen Z think twice about moving up the ranks.
Having spent the bulk of their careers in a remote-work environment, some young professionals might also feel they lack the interpersonal skills to take on management.
“One of the things we consistently hear from Gen Z is that they feel less comfortable picking up the phone and in face-to-face interactions,” says Philby.
Address these concerns by offering training that builds communication and leadership skills in a way that resonates with young workers.
Gen Z learning and development should be challenging, emotive, and experiential. Training Gen Z employees involves finding the right mix of cross-generational collaboration, mentoring, and education.
5 Use the Right KPIs
A good manager motivates team members and helps them thrive. They can act as multipliers by creating the best conditions for success. But are you measuring performance in a way that resonates with younger workers?
“A manager’s key performance indicators (KPIs) should not be based on money,” says Philby. “We should measure managers on how engaged their team is, how connected their team feels to their work, and whether their team feels like they’re contributing to the organization’s outcomes. It will drive a completely different set of behaviors.”
This focus speaks to Gen Z’s desire for meaningful work and emphasizes the manager’s purpose as a coach.
6 Pay Managers Adequately
A manager who is doing their own job while supervising others can feel like they have two jobs, but for no additional reward. To attract Gen Z workers into demanding management roles, it’s time to rethink how you treat all your managers—and proper compensation is a must.
“If we’re going to evolve the manager’s role into one that connects people to the purpose of the organization, boosts collaboration between functions, and helps spur innovation, then that’s highly valuable, and they should be paid adequately,” says Philby.
How to Identify Potential Gen Z Leaders
To find your future leaders, look beyond job performance. Companies tend to mistakenly conflate job performance with leadership potential, but excelling at your job isn’t the same as excelling as a leader. They frequently require completely different skills.
When looking for future leaders to develop your succession pipeline, focus on soft skills.
As part of your leadership assessment, watch for Gen Z employees who are open-minded, says Philby. These individuals welcome new experiences and feedback and are motivated by connecting with others.
And don’t fall into the trap of assuming extroverts make better managers.
“Managers can be extroverts or introverts, and there’s no connection to success,” says Philby. “Some of the best managers I've worked for have been introverted. They are often empathetic and careful in their interactions.”
In a remote-work environment, quieter leadership candidates can often fly beneath the radar. To better identify these high-potential young workers, you can create opportunities for individual engagement or mentoring, such as with monthly one-to-one video calls with team members.
Still Can’t Find Gen Z Leaders?
If you’re struggling to identify Gen Z managers, you may need to change your positioning.
Korn Ferry research shows career advancement is the top motivator for Gen Z, so frame management as an opportunity for career development.
Philby suggests companies highlight how a management role grows emotional intelligence, develops collaboration and innovation skills, and trains leaders to unlock the potential of others.
“Gen Z is restless for development,” he says. “Seeing management as development and career advancement is a perfect way of thinking about it.”
How to Keep Gen Z Leaders Engaged
Finding Gen Z managers is only half the battle. You also need a plan to retain them. Philby shares five ways to keep young leaders engaged:
- Communicate how their leadership contributes to the team, organization, and broader mission
- Offer growth opportunities, such as management development workshops, mentorship, and project variety
- Show how their new skills and responsibilities move their career forward
- Encourage informal feedback and adjust their goals to match their evolving interests and the organization’s needs
- Check job satisfaction through anonymous surveys or one-on-one discussions to monitor engagement
“It comes back to Gen Z’s three motivational drivers of purpose, learning, and career trajectory,” says Philby.
How to Build Your Gen Z Leadership Pipeline
You need Gen Z leaders to take your organization to a successful future, but to do that, your approach needs to adapt. With only 12% of organizations feeling confident in their potential leaders, a solid leadership program is a must, from Gen Z right through to Baby Boomers.
Find out how to build a strong succession pipeline by reading our eBook on the five steps for an end-to-end leadership development strategy. Download it now.
Key takeaways
- How to reshape the manager role to appeal to Gen Z
- Why soft skills, not job performance, is the key to finding future leaders
- 5 ways to hold on to your Gen Z managers
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