Why we should accept that our Gen Z people are right

As a Baby Boomer (albeit towards the back end) I accept that this isn’t my world anymore. For much of my time in the accounting profession, we Baby Boomers ruled the roost, or thought that we did. We were the rising stars, the next generation of firm leaders, the experienced heads. 

As a Baby Boomer, I had a career path. I recognised on entry into the profession that there was a clearly defined route from tea making junior to golf playing partner and that it would take time to follow. That was okay, I was aiming to hit the heady heights by the time I was forty. Just shy of twenty years to get there was a learning experience.

There were no real issues with this. My colleagues, clients and network were largely either fellow Baby Boomers or from the Silent Generation, two generations who tolerated each other without really understanding each other.

The model of advancement never really changed as Generation X came and went and Millennials began to fill the posts but the move from Millennial to Generation Z coincided with the explosion of the internet, social media and digital disruption as a whole.



Increasingly, our teams and clients are Gen Z or under the same influences. Those who are parents as well as employers will know that we face a very different beast today.

Gen Z are streetwise. They understand that there are winners and losers and want to be on the right side of that. They want to make a difference but come out on top.

So, they want to learn, want to develop and want to show what they can do. They want input. They want feedback. They want to be mentored and coached. They want to have the skills to win and the opportunities to show them off.

We may have seen the tea-making as a route to progression but they don’t.

Gen Z don’t want to do it the way we did, they don’t see the sense in it.

Here’s the thing. Your team and clients will gradually become more populated by Gen Z and less by the generations before…and Gen Alpha are just around the corner. It’s a factor of nature I’m afraid and unstoppable.

As business leaders we can bemoan the fact that people don’t seem to want to do things the way we did it anymore. We can believe that we are right and they are wrong…but where will that get us? Like King Canute, we can stare the tide down all day but there is only one winner.

Unlike King Canute, we must embrace the sea change. We must recognise the ambition, talent, desire, energy, new ideas and new skills of later generations and go with it. It isn’t a matter of right or wrong, it is a matter of working with each new generation to utilise their strengths. 

Your Gen Z team don’t need to learn how to make the tea, they can get a delivery over the App, but they do need guidance in how to adapt their thinking to the business world around them, an area where us Baby Boomers have bags of experience.

If you want to remain relevant then unlock your inner Gen Z. Your team and clients will relate to you and respond to you in increasing numbers.

Good luck!