1st Edition
You Only Have to Ask! How to Realise the Full Potential of Gen Z at Work
The priorities and values of Gen Z are not always aligned with the priorities and values of earlier generations. Gen Z are viewed as fundamentally different from those who have gone before and by 2025, they will make up 30% of the workplace. Understanding the needs and expectations of Gen Z will highlight how today’s managers and leaders can support them performing to their full potential.
You Only Have to Ask!: How to Realise the Full Potential of Gen Z at Work explores the ever-evolving dynamic of the employer– employee relationship and provides guidance on how to navigate this successfully. The book highlights the need for today’s leaders to appreciate and adapt to the opportunities for increased levels of satisfaction, greater committed participation and fresh energy that Gen Z are able and willing to bring to the workplace. This means creating a culture that engages the minds and commitment of this new generation whose expectations and needs may not always conform to traditional management practice.
The book also provides a “pick and mix” framework to help elevate the communication between managers and teams that can be applied immediately. When using this framework, every performer can develop and measure the level of engagement—in both the team and themselves—thus creating the ultimate environment in which everyone is enabled to do their best work.
The eight questions in this book hold the key to a customised, dynamic, supportive environment for personal, team and business growth and future success.
About the Authors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
How to Use This Book
Working with Gen Z: The Expectations, the Challenge and the Collaboration
Question One. Do I Really Understand What Is Expected of Me…?
Question Two. Do I Know Why It Is Expected of Me…?
Question Three. Do I Agree…?
Question Four. Who Cares…?
Question Five. But Can I Do It…?
Question Six. Am I Confident in Doing What’s Expected of Me…?
Question Seven. How Am I Getting On…?
Question Eight. Am I Happy with What I’m Getting Out of This…?
And Finally
Questions by Chapter
Appendix I: Leader as Coach
Appendix II: The Evolving Generations
Appendix III: The Supplement
Biography
Anna Hislop
Anna Hislop is a Certified Professional Coach and Leadership Training & Development Facilitator who brings both experience and expertise to her clients. She has a special commitment and focus on supporting Emerging Leaders and Talents on their journey towards becoming a leader who others are inspired by and will want to follow. Her clients are based across EMEA, UK and US and work in a wide range of sectors and industries such as Media & Communication, Retail, Med Tech and Healthcare.
Before embarking on her career as a Professional Coach, Anna made significant contributions as a leader in the Private Education Sector in Sweden. She has extensive knowledge in the field of leadership, employee engagement, talent management, learning and development and she has a track record of guiding teams through challenges and change, leveraging her experience to foster engagement, resilience and success.
Anna has also spent 15 years working with, teaching and coaching Generation Z, during their formative years in higher education, which has enabled a deep knowledge about this generation’s perspective and characteristics as well as their challenges.
Peter Lightfoot
From 1989 Peter practised as a consultant coach to management leaders and their teams before the concept of a ‘business coach’ became mainstream. He worked for many years, with others, alongside Sir John Whitmore whose best-selling book ‘Performance Coaching’ promotes a coaching leadership style as the essence of company culture change. Formerly, as a sports performance coach, Peter’s experiences of developing the skills of skiers revolved around the concept of The Inner Game and are written up in his book, Skiing is Only a Game. These principles underpin his approach to unlocking the potential of all performers.
Clients for whom he has acted as executive or team coach include KPMG, Texaco, Scottish Life, Cornhill Insurance and Lloyds Bank.
Now retired he welcomes this opportunity to collaborate with Anna Hislop in sharing his experience with another generation of corporate team members and their leaders.
"Gen Z are taking up increasingly important roles in the companies and NGOs I work with. More than previous generations, they bring a strong sense of responsibility to address the challenges they see in the world around them. Peter and Anna have set out a clear and compelling roadmap which will guide any leader who wants their organisation to be truly successful."
Dr Adam Parr, Ex Chairman and Chief Executive
Williams Formula One Team
"You Only Have to Ask! is superb and easily readable. It debunks ill-informed myths about Gen Z. It also clearly sets out how we can help this talented generation to get the best out of themselves. I read it with equal interest both as a business leader wanting to create a work environment where everyone can thrive but also as a father of three Gen Zers".
Christer Stoyell, Managing Director
Severn Trent Green Power
"Essential reading! This insightful guide by seasoned management experts offers invaluable strategies for effectively leading Gen Z in today’s dynamic workplace."
Anne Miller, Director of TV & Film
Peermusic UK
"An excellent read! You Only Have to Ask! brings invaluable insight into the needs and motivations of Gen Z who are becoming the most prevailing demographic in the workforce. This book shows clearly how we can all take responsibility for driving the workplace evolution that will follow."
Peter Ondrejčák, HR Partner Senior Manager
Accenture
"A must read for any leader looking to unleash the potential of their organisation by bridging the generational gap between Gen Z employees and their managers. Full of practical strategies and actionable advice on how to engage and empower this generation of superheroes."
Natalie Frow, Managing Director Ecommerce & Retail
DHL Supply Chain UK
"A unique approach to setting out fundamental elements of leadership, indispensable to any manager challenged to fully engage the hearts and minds of a new, very different generation."
Fredrik Lavén, Assistant Professor and Management Consultant
School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg
"You Only Have to Ask! makes it easy for the committed leader to understand and successfully engage with the 30% who will make up our workforce by 2025. Knowing how we engage and motivate Generation Z into our workplace is today's leadership challenge."
Louise Henbest, HR Director Global Market Operations
Unilever
"I only wish I had this book available to me when leading diverse teams in my former career at Bosch! It provides a very clear framework on how anyone might best approach bringing Gen Z successfully into the workplace. It is perfectly pitched to assist organisations develop their future leaders."
Rajesh Darji, Ex Vice President Sales, Mobility
Bosch
"As a manager of a young and diverse team, it is great to find a source of insightful and practical advice for the new world of work that we live in. Asking the eight questions has opened up a stronger emotional connection with our colleagues, and we are starting to feel closer as a group as well as providing more individual motivation and fulfilment. I am very confident that this will also enhance business results, and very grateful for the inspiration You Only Have to Ask! has provided."
Richard Sadler, Customer & Ecommerce Director UK
Unilever
"In hospitality, recruitment and retention, particularly Gen Z, are key to our continued growth and success. You Only Have to Ask! offers structures and guidance that I know will help and support our leaders to inspire everyone in their teams."
Carolyn Armstrong, Director and Owner
The Headland Hotel and Spa, Cornwall, UK
"This book is essential reading for all managers. It helps to decode and unlock the enigma that is Generation Z. It is thought provoking and well researched and with 30% of the global workforce made up of Generation Z in 2025, it is research that no manager can afford to ignore. I recommend it wholeheartedly."
Jonathan Goodman, Head of Polestar UK and Ireland
