What Gen Z Wants: Core Values of Future Leaders

• To foster a sense of purpose, businesses can engage in intentional conversations about their values and strategic goals, their efforts to encourage diversity, and their support for employee well-being.
• Members of Gen Z are often ambitious and value the ability to be vocal about what matters to them. They are likely to seek roles that allow them to demonstrate these traits.
• Today’s graduates are looking at the reputation of potential employers, including a company’s structure and fairness in advancement opportunities.

Transcript

Allegra Baumanns: [00:15] Some of my core workplace values would be purpose. I want to work for a company that has some purpose.

[00:25] And also, I would say diversity. It's not only that you need to be able to work in diverse teams. It's also benefiting you, the project, and the company as a whole.

[00:35] Being in a diverse surrounding, learning from others, and bringing in your own experience is super valuable, I would say, and something I'm looking for when I work for a company.

Parker Laue: [00:46] Some of my core values at work would be meritocracy, equity, and clarity.

[00:56] One of the key things in these jobs is understanding, how do we see what companies are doing internally and how they treat their employees is fair, and is being communicated clearly?

If they can align that vision with some of my core values and ability to make an impact broader than just the profit line, that has a huge impact.

[01:07] So often, it feels like a black box. The companies who have done a great job of clearly communicating, what are we doing? What is our vision? Why are we doing it? How are we treating our employees?

[01:17] That is extremely powerful. If they can align that vision with some of my core values and ability to make an impact broader than just the profit line, that has a huge impact.

Baumanns: [01:30] Another core value would be ambition. Ambition to achieve certain goals that you have as a company, as a whole, or as a department, but also the ambition to improve the environment for your employees or the net externalities you have to the community you're located in.

Laue: [01:54] I think when you step back, the companies who do this really well do a great job of communicating in less of a command and control format and more of ability to make it relational, where the executive and leaders aren't just saying we're doing x, y, z, but feeling as though they're bringing us along for the journey and helping us understand why we're doing things.

[02:14] What's the impact? What is the real purpose of that? Making it feel that we have a voice to be heard, even if the voice isn't deciding what we do, but we're at least getting some input in the process.

You can tell if a company really has a purpose or is really interested in how the employees feel.

Baumanns: [02:23] One way I evaluate if a company has those values is probably just talking to them, like in an interview setting, but also at different events.

[02:37] You can tell if a company really has a purpose or is really interested in how the employees feel. I feel like I try to, at least, speak to many people from different departments, different levels in the organization to really understand what the company stands for. 

Laue: [02:59] The best way would be to talk to people and alumni of your institution who work there and ask them questions off the cuff.

[03:06] Talking to someone who's not the recruiter you're specifically working with can be an extremely helpful way to better understand the actual culture of these companies. How do they treat their peers? How do they talk about their coworkers?

[03:18] I think it's extremely important when you interact with employees of that company to read between the lines when they talk about the structure.

[03:27] So, an example could be how are they describing promotions and performance? Are they talking about it in a positive and very structured way, or is it something that's hinting toward less structure?

[03:39] These aren't necessarily good or bad things, but they can give clues to some of the company's culture.

Seeing their website gives you a first thought to help kind of sharpen conversations when you talk to people.

[03:44] In addition to talking with people, you can look at their company website, which can give you a bit of an idea of some of their values.

[03:50] Often, they'll publish their values, and this doesn't mean they live out what they put on their website, but it at least gives you a great place to start when you talk to people and to prod a little bit deeper, do they really care about the environment?

[04:03] Do they really care about sustainability? Are they actually caring about having meritocracy and treating people, regardless of their background, equally?

[04:10] Seeing their website gives you a first thought to help kind of sharpen conversations when you talk to people.