Oh man, Gen Z is getting such a bad rap – especially out there in the office and corporate environment. Now, I am really attuned to this because my two youngest are Gen Z, and they’re both age-eligible to be out there in the workforce. A lot of companies who last year hired Gen Z, they’ve already been letting them go. We’re seeing a lot of complaints around lack of motivation, but really around this topic of communication, how is their office etiquette?
How are they interacting with their peers, and how are they receiving feedback? I want to narrow in on this. 63% of managers said that when they deliver feedback to their Gen Z employees, that they are easily offended. So now we’ve got some managers out there who do not even want to deliver the feedback to Gen Z. We have a massive challenge in organizations right now. It is critical to provide feedback.
It is critical on both ends to have this feedback – for leaders to deliver the feedback, and for employees, no matter what generation they are, to receive the feedback.
Now, I am not one to lump everyone together and say that all Gen Z employees are going to have a hard time with feedback. I hope I can proudly say that my children, if they are in the workforce, would be open to feedback. So we need to customize to the individual and not take this approach that every single Gen Z employee is going to be easily offended. But we do need to look at both ends of this feedback.
One is, who’s delivering the feedback? And on the other end, who’s receiving the feedback? While we may be quick, especially as formal leaders and managers to say, oh, this person is offended, or this person didn’t understand my feedback, or this person doesn’t care, they’re unmotivated – thinking only through the lens of the person on the other end, that is a huge mistake. Because that is only one aspect. The other aspect is you.
You, the person who is delivering the feedback. You as the leader, whether you’re the formal manager, a peer, you acting as a leader, delivering feedback, looking at how you are delivering that feedback. Are you crafting your communication in a way that will help the receiver understand exactly what you’re speaking about, and in a way that gets them to take accountability and actually move forward?
Now of course, this formula doesn’t work 100% of the time. There are times where you can craft the best communication and it can be delivered in exactly a textbook way, and still the receiver does not receive it. Then we know, okay, we need to be quick to move on. But I believe, I know in fact that there are so many leaders out there that are so quick to say it’s the receiver, it’s the person on the other end that is not willing to receive the feedback.
I’m here to challenge you today to go back and review with a very open mind. How are you crafting that feedback? Because you as a leader cannot step away from feedback. It is a vital piece for employees, teams, and organizations to advance and achieve results. We have to have that feedback. So I challenge you as leaders, go back and review with an open mind about what is that communication? Are you crafting it in a way that delivers the message so the receiver will actually hear it and act upon it?
And if you are unsure, that’s what I’m here for, is to take those intentions and turn them into outcomes. Please reach out! But again, I challenge you today, let’s take a look and not just place the blame on the receiver, but look inwardly – are we crafting the communication that’s going to reach them?