Should we follow the example of high-level sport with Generation Z to carry us to victory? Who are they, how can we integrate them into our company and how can we meet their expectations by adapting our management?
This French generation that has just triumphed at the most media-friendly sporting event on the planet is the one in their twenties. It is also the time of young people who enter the labour market as trainees or young workers.

How has our coach, this young transition manager in the making, recently managed this generation of players with such brilliance?

To begin with, like young people leaving school and with diplomas, the coach decides to trust his young athletes who have little or no experience but have all the qualities to perform.
Young people from Generation Z can’t stand hierarchy. The “orders” received aroused a form of hostility among them. Giving them a direction, objectives that are both precise and ambitious, trusting them and letting them work independently are the optimal conditions for success.

Then the coach associates his young Generation Z athletes with experienced athletes, to supervise and guide them. The Agile methodology applied to management in companies, the manager must play the role of coach and often expert, like an interim manager, by accompanying them to help them increase their skills. This involves simple and frequent exchanges while letting them think together about the projects. Generation Z is looking for proximity and participatory leadership.

Generation Z is also looking for feedback, in the continuity of the desired proximity, and not weekly or even monthly updates. She prefers less formal exchanges during which she needs to be reassured and encouraged. Even if the feedback is negative, she won’t get angry, she’s ready to hear everything in order to improve. It is also a generation that asks a lot of questions and does not know how to nod without discussion, so you have to take the time to listen to it and answer it.

The coach, rather than surrounding himself only with more experienced players, has found the recipe to empower his young nuggets by giving them “the keys to the truck”, by getting them involved and by encouraging them to put their audacity at the service of the whole team. To empower Generation Z in business, you have to challenge them. Otherwise, she gets bored very easily and will not hesitate to leave her job to bounce back elsewhere. She has less attachment to the company than previous generations. His perception of a company’s objectives is much more short-termist. It is therefore essential to find ways to stimulate it and thus retain it.

This ultra-connected generation feels the need to evolve in an environment equipped with the latest technologies. It will also be sensitive to work rhythms, which can be more flexible thanks to their connectivity, without reducing their productivity.

The triumph of audacity

Another strength of our World Cup heroes is their lack of fear of failure. They do not shy away from mistakes and do not hesitate to try again.
This applies to all of Generation Z, for whom it is normal to be wrong. But she is not staying on this failure and will seek to improve.
Finally, it is not afraid to say “I don’t know” because this generation does not tolerate deception and prefers trust and transparency.
Thank you blues.

Rémi Dessertine, Associate Director