How The Hell Do We Manage Our Gen Zs?

Thank you Forbes for interviewing yours truly on #GenZ talent strategy, a topic I speak about, write about, myth-bust with analysis of the evidence, and help orgs get a better handle on.

The demand is growing all with backdrop of very high rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation for this cohort.

Like it or not, managers are now at the front lines.

Here are 3 actions I outlined in the Forbes piece:

1. Help Gen Z work with uncomfortable feelings.

Frustrations and stress in the workplace are converting more quickly to HR complaints or to simply quitting with Gen Zs compared to other cohorts. Managers could help this group deal with these feelings by modeling tolerance through sitting with anxiety (much like a therapist treats a phobia), and appropriately sharing their knowledge and experience in choosing healthy coping strategies.

Related to emotion regulation, be cautious with feedback delivery. Contrary to what’s out there, it’s more

attention than feedback that Gen Z is after. And they may hope that this means praise, though the data says that they're a bit less praise-seeking than Millennials were at their age. Tread lightly with hard-to-hear feedback until some cushion of psychological trust and safety has been built.

2. Give clear direction before leaning into ambiguity.

Work offers few “right answers,” but this is unfamiliar territory to most Gen Zs. Critical, big picture thinking may not materialize as organizations expect, and the delay will be felt more since careers demand these skills sooner than for any prior cohort. Ask probing questions to help them see all the parts to problems more fully.

Teaching them about the affect heuristic couldn’t hurt either. That’s the tendency that humans have to consult our feelings when thinking through problems. Young people are particularly prone to this bias. Ask how much or whether that data should factor into issues.

3. Help Gen Z define "authenticity."

Managers can help Gen Z-ers understand authenticity as an integration of an array of personas. It is not appropriate to be your "full self" at work.

Some personas should move forward as context requires and some should be downplayed. This is mature and adaptive. Helping Gen Z better manage boundaries and start to build professional relationships will help set them up for success.

Role playing hard conversations and practicing challenging interactions, even small stakes ones, can help Gen Z effectively manage relationships when people have different values, beliefs and priorities than they do.

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