Much has been written about Gen Z employees, who have been accused of everything from digital dependency to aggressive entitlement. The oldest members of Gen Z (those born in 1997) are just hitting their late 20s, and for the next decade, their slightly younger colleagues will be entering the workforce.
While the particularities of Gen Z, such as their “digital native” status, have gotten most of the attention, we believe a more fruitful lens is helping managers understand what’s always been true—and will always be true—of younger employees entering the workforce, based on established principles of developmental psychology.
Drawing on our experience as an academic researcher on the development of young adults (Alexis) and a corporate consultant and keynote speaker (Dorie), we’ve identified four key principles we believe managers should know about their employees in their early-to-mid-twenties, who are at a distinctive cognitive developmental stage, rife with both opportunities and pitfalls.
Leverage their neuroplasticity
The brain’s prefrontal cortex, or seat of executive-functioning skills (such as problem solving and pursuing long-term goals) typically reaches peak maturity in our mid-twenties. While it’s absolutely true that people of any age can learn new skills, once the brain’s plasticity begins to solidify—around age 25—it’s harder to do so. For managers who’d like to help develop their younger employees, giving them new tasks and challenges (whether it’s learning a new programming language, letting them research a new initiative, or rotating them into an overseas assignment) is both beneficial to their professional growth and a win for the company, as they’re predisposed to pick up the new assignment quickly.
Harness their innovation potential
The development of the prefrontal cortex has another benefit: the honing of our abstract thinking skills and the ability to envision multiple realities. That pairing enables us to step into our own as problem solvers, as we imagine possibilities, answers, and solutions that don’t yet exist. By embracing “grey areas” instead of just thinking in black and white (as is common in youth), we can imagine alternative ways of answering pressing problems and come up with creative solutions.
In our mid-twenties, we also stop experiencing the intensity of the “imaginary audience,” which makes us especially attuned to what other people think about us (think: all of high school) and can be inhibiting. As the imaginary audience quiets down, we feel more willing to deviate from groupthink or even to stand out from the crowd by innovating and taking strategic risks. This pivot may allow twentysomethings to harness their creative potential and generate new or overlooked ideas that may have value in the workplace.
Embrace their ethical insights
Another change in one’s mid-to-late-twenties is the growth of moral reasoning skills and the development of one’s own moral compass, which can be used to both evaluate and guide decision-making and encourage the development of our sense of political purpose. Gen Z is especially attuned to issues of structural racism, gun violence, and climate change and has also shown steep increases in political activism and voter turnout. For companies that share those values (and want to stay on the same page with Gen Z consumers), their own employees’ perspectives may be a valuable guidepost.
Recognize their strategic insights
Strategy is rarely the purview of younger employees; in fact, it’s almost always considered the province of a company’s most senior leaders. But as Dorie, author of The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, has argued, perhaps we should rethink that dichotomy. Cognitive research shows that professionals around age 25 may be especially good at strategic thinking and long-term planning. Like many cognitive skills, our strategic thinking abilities do decline with age, albeit subtly and slowly. And—as with all things related to brain development—individuals vary widely. But the fact that one’s mid-twenties are such a fruitful time cognitively suggests that we should rethink some of the standard prejudices around who is entitled to be a strategic thinker.
Generations do have some shared traits born of cultural commonalities; for instance, while not every member of Gen Z is on social media all the time, they’ve certainly been affected by its presence in society. But even more salient than what’s different between generations is what remains the same—how cognitive development processes unfold as we age into adulthood, and what that means for our ability to succeed and thrive at work. By keeping these fundamental principles in mind, managers can better understand their employees and ensure they’re deploying their talents fully.
Dorie Clark is a marketing strategy consultant who teaches at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50. Her newest book is The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, and you can receive her free Long Game strategic thinking self-assessment.
Alexis Redding is the faculty cochair of higher education and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a developmental psychologist and coauthor of The End of Adolescence: The Lost Art of Delaying Adulthood (Harvard University Press).
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