Engaging Generation Z in Leadership Development

• In Event: Belonging Somewhere: Opportunities for Student Identity Development

Short Description

A new generation has emerged into adulthood that will challenge how we design and facilitate leadership development. Generation Z, born from 1995-2010, may look like Millennials, yet differ in their leadership beliefs and styles. Presenters will share insights on the development of leadership programs, curriculum, and experiences designed with Generation Z in mind.

Detailed Abstract

Leadership educators grapple every day with how to best help students learn and develop their leadership capacity. But, our programs, curriculum, and practices were likely developed with previous generations in mind. This new cadre of Generation Z students will challenge us to re-conceptualize our approach to leadership education and development to ensure we are providing the most meaningful and effective experiences possible.

This session will present perspectives, styles, preferences, concerns, affiliations, beliefs, and approaches of Generation Z related to leadership and tie those to tangible strategies for designing, coordinating, and facilitating leadership development opportunities. Using findings from the 2014 Generation Z Goes to College study (1,143 participants), 2014 CIRP study disaggregated to only Generation Z students (150,171 participants), Northeastern University’s Innovation Imperative study on Generation Z (1,015 participants), market research, national polling data from organizations such as Pew, Gallup, and Census, and adolescent social science data, the following five themes will be discussed:

Theme 1: Generation Z cares deeply about social justice.
Generation Z is the most racially diverse generation in history, with more diverse social circles and a more positive outlook on the value of diversity than any generation (Magid Generational Strategies, 2014). They have a great passion for equity and equality, and even regardless of political affiliation, they support expanding access and protecting the rights of underrepresented groups (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). They believe that having a workplace free from discrimination is more important than money or status (Euromonitor International, 2011). This is a diverse generation who will likely work to expand access, widen perspectives, and embrace differences. Therefore, connecting social justice to leadership is critical to ensure that Generation Z students have the opportunity to engage in leadership that makes the world a better place.

Theme 2: Generation Z is social-change minded. Generation Z is more social change-minded than their Millennial counterparts (Euromonitor International, 2011). Because of the many issues that have occurred in their lifetimes (economic recession, war, post-911), Generation Z has experienced a loss of innocence that has made them resilient and pragmatic; rather than hide from their problems, they want to understand and confront them (Anatole, 2013). This problem-solving mentality is reflected in their desire to address root causes of social issues rather than only the symptoms. This is evident in that they indicate wanting to engage in work that is meaningful to them and will change the world (Sparks & Honey, 2014). With their distaste in and lack of interest in participating in the political process (Seemiller & Grace, 2016; Eagan, 2014), Generation Z will find other ways to address these complex issues. Many Generation Zers intend to start their own businesses (Northeastern, 2014) or develop inventions that will change the world (Gallup & Operation Hope, 2013). Offering hands-on learning experiences in the classroom, on campus, and in the community, entrepreneurship training, opportunities for innovation, as well as courses and programs that help build problem solving skills can greatly contribute to their preparedness to change the world.

Theme 3: Generation Z students are style-shifting leaders. Generation Z students see themselves as workhorses of projects and tasks as most favor a Doing style (executing a task) over other styles (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). This may come as no surprise since these students describe themselves as determined and responsible, characteristics that contribute to getting things done (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). After the Doing style, Generation Z students use Thinking (visioning, analyzing, and problem solving) and then Relating styles (collaborating and connecting with others) most frequently, leaving the Leading style (taking initiative of a situation) as the least frequently used (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). Even for those who envision leadership as using only the Leading style, more than 60 percent employ that style always or often (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). That seems to align well with the notion that 63 percent of Generation Z students identify as having higher leadership ability than their peers (Eagan, 2014). Whether they are simply confident engaging in leadership or actually truly effective leaders, Generation Z students will likely take the lead and take advantage of leadership opportunities offered and contribute using a variety of styles.

Theme 4: Generation Z loves information. Generation Z has access to more information than other generations did at their age, allowing them to easily seek out their own learning. Previous generations had to rely on authority figures for information, and now Generation Z can access information independently on their own time. This gives them the unique ability to learn foundational information about a leadership topic on their own rather than waiting until later on to have it presented in a workshop, class, or training. Their ability to self-educate on leadership with the vast array of online resources challenges leadership educators to provide opportunities that students would not otherwise get on their own, while maximizing the potential to see the vast online repository of information online as a co-educator rather than a competitor.

Theme 5: Good leaders are close to home. Generation Z can see through the superficial fairly quickly. They have grown up in an era of great political dysfunction and low approval ratings of politicians. Rather than looking to outsiders as role models, they tend to look to their parents (Euromonitor International, 2011). Sixty nine percent indicate that parents are their number one role models, over teachers, political leaders, celebrities, and athletes (Northeastern, 2014), a number considerably higher than the 54 percent of Millennials in 2012 who named their parents as their heroes and drastically higher from the 29 percent of Generation Xers in 1993 (Levine & Dean, 2012). Furthermore, 30 percent rated celebrities as their last choice of role model (Northeastern, 2014). This is likely because Generation Z students tend to look at people close to them as role models (Euromonitor International, 2011). Who Generation Z sees as their leaders influences who they believe are effective leaders and who they ultimately model their behavior on.

Participants

• Corey Seemiller, Wright State University

• Meghan Grace, Sigma Phi Epsilon