Leaders Don’t Understand Gen Z: Here’s How To Make Them Your Best Employees

Your Gen Z employee just quit via text message. The one you spent months training. The one who seemed so promising. You’re frustrated, maybe even angry. But before you join your millennial friends complaining about “these kids today,” consider this: Gen Z is projected to account for 30% of the workforce by 2030. You can resist the change or learn to work with them. The smart founders adapt.

The generational disconnect costs you money every quarter. When 47% of Gen Z workers say they’ll voluntarily leave their current roles in the next six months, you’re looking at constant recruitment costs, lost productivity, and damaged team morale. Meanwhile, only 6% of Gen Z say their primary career goal is to reach a leadership position. They want different things. Your traditional management playbook won’t work here.

Gen Z decoder and marketing strategist Holly Pound knows this generation inside out.  Her some of the advices are:

Switch to real-time communication.  Forget the weekly status meetings and endless email chains. Gen Z operates differently. “Millennials grew up on email chains and weekly updates. Gen Z expects instant communication: slack messages, DMs, and real-time collaboration,” explains Pound.  Replace your long meetings with micro check-ins. Use Loom videos for updates. Share project boards on Trello or Confluence. Keep the conversation flowing throughout the day during work hours. Match their communication style while maintaining your boundaries.

Give them ownership early.  Your millennial employees might have waited years for real ownership over their work. Gen Z won’t. They want ownership now. According to Pound, “Gen Z, by contrast, wants responsibility quickly. They thrive when trusted to take on stretch projects early.”  Hand over a meaningful project within their first month. Not busywork. Something that matters. Then coach them through it instead of dictating every step. Meet weekly to guide their thinking, but let them make the decisions. This builds their confidence while teaching them your standards.

Create space for innovation.  Traditional training programs bore Gen Z. They learn by experimenting, failing fast, and sharing discoveries. Pound understands that, “Gen Z is less motivated by formal training programs and more by experimentation. They want to learn by doing, testing tools, and sharing discoveries with peers.”  Start monthly knowledge-sharing sessions. Have team members present new tools they’ve discovered or hacks they’ve developed. Reward the experiments that fail as much as those that succeed. Your role shifts from teacher to facilitator. They’ll teach you things you didn’t know you needed to learn.

Model the balance you preach.  Stop sending midnight emails. Stop working through vacations. Gen Z watches what you do, not what you say. “Millennials called it dedication; Gen Z calls it… why are you working on vacation?” Pound observes. “They want leaders who actually log off and show what balance looks like.”  Use scheduled sends for late-night thoughts. Take real vacations without your laptop. Share when you’re struggling, using what Pound calls the “phone battery percentage” method to communicate your energy levels. Authentic leadership builds trust. Pretending to be superhuman destroys it.

Build continuous feedback loops.  Annual reviews feel prehistoric to Gen Z. They need frequent, specific feedback to stay engaged. As Pound explains, “For gen Z, feedback is a conversation, not a formality. When done regularly and authentically, it boosts motivation and strengthens the relationship between leaders and their teams.”  Send a Slack message right after their presentation saying how impressed you were. Celebrate wins in your team channel every Friday. Give corrective feedback immediately, not months later. Make feedback so regular it stops feeling like an event and starts feeling like support.

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