8 January 2026
Why Gen Z Doesn’t Want Your Management Job (And What Women Leaders Can Do About It)
Gen Z is not rejecting leadership. They are rejecting what leadership has become in most organisations.
Something significant is happening in the leadership pipeline, and most organisations are not paying attention. Gen Z—the generation now entering mid-career—is less likely to pursue management roles than any generation before them. And if you are a senior leader who has spent years building a succession plan, this should concern you.
But not for the reasons you think.
Why They Are Saying No
The standard narrative is that Gen Z is lazy, entitled, or lacks ambition. This is wrong, and it is lazy analysis. When you actually talk to young professionals about why they are not pursuing management, the answers are far more interesting—and far more damning.
They look at management and see: longer hours with no proportional increase in compensation. Increased responsibility with decreased autonomy. Endless meetings that produce nothing. Performance reviews that feel performative. And—this is the one that should sting—they see their managers miserable.
Gen Z is not rejecting leadership. They are rejecting what leadership has become in most organisations: an administrative burden masquerading as a promotion.
“Gen Z is not rejecting leadership. They are rejecting what leadership has become in most organisations: an administrative burden masquerading as a promotion.”
What This Means for Organisations
If the most talented young professionals do not want to manage, you have a pipeline crisis. But you also have an opportunity—because this moment is forcing a long-overdue conversation about what management actually is and what it should be.
For decades, we have promoted people into management as a reward for individual performance, without asking whether they want to manage, whether they are equipped to manage, or whether the management role itself is designed in a way that is sustainable. Gen Z is simply the first generation to say out loud what many leaders have been thinking privately: the job, as currently designed, does not make sense.
What Women Leaders Can Do
Redesign the management role. Strip out the administrative burden. Automate the reporting. Reduce the meetings. Give managers what they actually need: time to coach, develop, and lead their people. The best managers I know spend 80% of their time on people. Most are forced to spend 80% of their time on process.
Invest in upskilling and reskilling. The biggest gap in most organisations is not a lack of management candidates. It is a lack of management development. Invest in building the skills that make management genuinely rewarding: coaching, facilitation, strategic thinking, difficult conversations. When management is a craft, not a chore, people want to do it.
Model what good leadership looks like. Gen Z learns by watching. If they see you in back-to-back meetings, drowning in email, and visibly stressed, they will draw the obvious conclusion. If they see you setting boundaries, making thoughtful decisions, and finding genuine meaning in your work, they will draw a different one.
“Gen Z’s reluctance to manage is not a failure of their generation. It is feedback about ours.”
The Opportunity in the Crisis
Gen Z’s reluctance to manage is not a failure of their generation. It is feedback about ours. They are telling us that the way we have structured management is broken. And they are right.
The organisations that listen—that take this feedback seriously, that redesign management roles to be sustainable and meaningful—will attract the best talent. The ones that complain about “kids these days” will lose them. And in a labour market that is tighter than ever, that is a competitive difference that matters.
Explore more leadership resources →
Ready to transform your leadership? Learn about the Lab →
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8 January 2026
Why Gen Z Doesn’t Want Your Management Job (And What Women Leaders Can Do About It)
Gen Z is not rejecting leadership. They are rejecting what leadership has become in most organisations.
Something significant is happening in the leadership pipeline, and most organisations are not paying attention. Gen Z—the generation now entering mid-career—is less likely to pursue management roles than any generation before them. And if you are a senior leader who has spent years building a succession plan, this should concern you.
But not for the reasons you think.
Why They Are Saying No
The standard narrative is that Gen Z is lazy, entitled, or lacks ambition. This is wrong, and it is lazy analysis. When you actually talk to young professionals about why they are not pursuing management, the answers are far more interesting—and far more damning.
They look at management and see: longer hours with no proportional increase in compensation. Increased responsibility with decreased autonomy. Endless meetings that produce nothing. Performance reviews that feel performative. And—this is the one that should sting—they see their managers miserable.
Gen Z is not rejecting leadership. They are rejecting what leadership has become in most organisations: an administrative burden masquerading as a promotion.
What This Means for Organisations
If the most talented young professionals do not want to manage, you have a pipeline crisis. But you also have an opportunity—because this moment is forcing a long-overdue conversation about what management actually is and what it should be.
For decades, we have promoted people into management as a reward for individual performance, without asking whether they want to manage, whether they are equipped to manage, or whether the management role itself is designed in a way that is sustainable. Gen Z is simply the first generation to say out loud what many leaders have been thinking privately: the job, as currently designed, does not make sense.
What Women Leaders Can Do
Redesign the management role. Strip out the administrative burden. Automate the reporting. Reduce the meetings. Give managers what they actually need: time to coach, develop, and lead their people. The best managers I know spend 80% of their time on people. Most are forced to spend 80% of their time on process.
Invest in upskilling and reskilling. The biggest gap in most organisations is not a lack of management candidates. It is a lack of management development. Invest in building the skills that make management genuinely rewarding: coaching, facilitation, strategic thinking, difficult conversations. When management is a craft, not a chore, people want to do it.
Model what good leadership looks like. Gen Z learns by watching. If they see you in back-to-back meetings, drowning in email, and visibly stressed, they will draw the obvious conclusion. If they see you setting boundaries, making thoughtful decisions, and finding genuine meaning in your work, they will draw a different one.
The Opportunity in the Crisis
Gen Z’s reluctance to manage is not a failure of their generation. It is feedback about ours. They are telling us that the way we have structured management is broken. And they are right.
The organisations that listen—that take this feedback seriously, that redesign management roles to be sustainable and meaningful—will attract the best talent. The ones that complain about “kids these days” will lose them. And in a labour market that is tighter than ever, that is a competitive difference that matters.
Explore more leadership resources →
Ready to transform your leadership? Learn about the Lab →
← Back to Commentary