Maggie Phelps: Helping Gen Z grow into leadership, not retreat from it

The cycle continues. The latest punching bag is Gen Z.

Ten years ago, I wrote my first column for IBJ, titled “Millennials: Entitled, loyal, productive.” A young millennial myself, I was determined to offer a more positive view of a generation already branded as lazy and disloyal. I tried to highlight the value we brought, especially as we reimagined how work and life might fit together.

Now it’s Gen Z’s turn in the hot seat. This generation, deeply committed to mental health, autonomy and authenticity, is drawing criticism for everything from their “therapy-speak” to their hesitancy to do the grunt work. But what strikes me isn’t how different they are. It’s how familiar this all feels. We’ve been here before. And we’ll be here again.

Here is what we are seeing. Gen Z is rejecting the model of leadership that’s been modeled for them—one they see as a path to burnout. One study from Korn Ferry reports that 72% of Gen Zers would rather remain individual contributors than advance into management. They’re opting out of high-stress, high-stakes roles that promise prestige and power but often require the sacrifice of mental health, boundaries or authenticity.

However, what is discernment for some might be avoidance for others.

The risk for young people is retreat—not just from titles but from the discomfort that helps them grow.

As someone who works in leadership development, I believe deeply in emotional intelligence as a set of hard-earned, learned skills. And Gen Zers have a strong foundation. They have a depth of emotional language unseen in past generations, they’ve been taught healthy boundary-setting, and they understand the value of self-reflection. But those things alone don’t build a depth of emotional maturity. That comes with repeated exposure to complexity, uncomfortable feedback, messy interactions and perspective. As Daniel Goleman, the father of emotional intelligence, reminds us, EI is less about what you know and more about how you grow. It’s learned in the fires of human interaction.

So what happens when young people don’t stay in the room long enough to develop those deeper skills? What do they miss out on? And what do we?

We risk losing a generation of emotionally attuned, empathetic leaders who are integrating concepts like psychological safety and trauma-informed thinking into workplaces. People who could be extraordinary if given an evolved pathway to success.

Gen Z risks stepping away from the very experiences that will shape them. They are the focus of criticism and a source of generational friction because many haven’t yet translated their emotional literacy into practice. They’ve read the encyclopedia of EI but never left the library. They’re EI book-smart but not yet street-smart.

For some young people, opting out is self-preservation and emotional intelligence in action. It’s an intentional choice to opt out of a system they don’t believe in. Others are missing out on the benefits of hard learning—like an athlete who’s full of potential but unwilling to get off the bench.

They risk missing out on the opportunity to see what they can accomplish and to grow into influence.

Rather than judge those in this generation for their lack of time on Earth—just as we did with millennials and Gen X before them—it’s our job to hold them accountable to their potential and challenge them to grow into it.

Maybe the goal isn’t to push them toward the leadership model we’ve known but to help them grow into a new one altogether.•

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Phelps is a certified executive coach and founder of Anderson Phelps Consulting, specializing in leadership development that fosters authentic growth and systemic change.