How to Manage—and Motivate—Gen Z

AI is transforming the world, and it starts with the right compute. Arm is the AI compute platform trusted by global leaders, proudly NASDAQ listed, built for the future. Visit arm.com/discover. I'm Alison Beard, and this is the HBR IdeaCast. Every generation has complaints about the ones that follow. The silent generation thought boomers were too free wheeling. Adi's not here to defend himself and other boomers. Boomers saw Gen Xers, that's me, as cynical slackers. They were only half right. I am very cynical, but not a slacker. And then Gen X has dismissed millennials as lazy and entitled. Today, the youngest generation in the workforce is Gen Z, people born between 1997 and 2012, and a lot of bosses and organizations are having a hard time managing them, in part because of some unhelpful stereotypes. Maybe we think that Gen z is overly fragile when we don't have time for coddling or too demanding of work flexibility, pay, and promotions without paying their dues. But our guest today says that we need to do a better job with Gen z. First, because they're a large and growing part of the talent pool, now outnumbering boomers. Second, and most importantly, because they're the people, the digital natives, who are best equipped to help companies understand social media, AI, and all the other technologies and trends they need to be innovative and successful. Tim Elmore is author of the book, The Future Begins with z, nine Strategies to Lead Generation z as They Disrupt the Workplace. Tim, welcome to the show. Hey, Allison. It's an honor to be with you. First, I have to ask, is Gen z really all that different than, you know, young people of any other era? Is it generation or is it life stage? Some of it is life stage. No doubt about it. But Gen z has grown up in a different culture than the millennials before them and certainly more than Gen x or the boomers. People develop a little bit like wet cement. You know the brain. And so we're really shaped as our neural pathways are growing in those first twenty, twenty five years. Young people are young people, and they're gonna have to learn some life skills along the way as they enter their careers. But I do think we're facing a little bit of a greater difference right now. There's a greater sense of agency that young professionals bring with them and a greater sense of anxiety that young people bring with them that we didn't see twenty five years ago. Are those the two things that most sets Gen z apart from different generations? Yeah. And as employers, as leaders, we're facing what I call a Peter Pan paradox. So we all remember that winsome character from the book and then the the movie, Peter Pan. Right? He could fly into London, and make magical things happen as he sprinkled pixie dust everywhere. The other side of the …