The Deloitte 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that only 6% of Gen Z say reaching a leadership position is their primary career goal.

Instead, work-life balance and “softer” incentives are becoming primary concerns. We’ve seen this trend everywhere especially in last year’s IC Index (IoIC), where values proved as important as pay for retention. They found employees who feel their organisation’s values align with their own are 20% more likely to stay over three years – on a par with pay.

This shift is inarguably driven by the new generation. Gen Z now make up 26% of the global workforce and, according to McKinsey’s The Gen Z Equation article, are the only generation who didn’t rank compensation in their top reasons for leaving a job.

Despite this seeming movement away from prioitising money and leadership progression, the same McKinsey report finds Gen Z is the only generation that ranks career development as the top reason for taking a job.

What’s happening here?

Gen Z doesn’t see career development in the traditional hierarchical way. It’s not about promotions and becoming a manager. As Kenin Blockx, Senior Manager at Robert Walters, puts it: “For many Gen Zers, growth is synonymous with developing their expertise, not leading teams.”

So, we may be heading toward a leadership gap. As Gen Z’s proportion of the workforce grows and other generations retire, who picks up the mantle?

Gen Z clearly prioritises interest, values, and personal growth over titles and earnings. So how do we navigate this?

To begin to answer this, a good first question to ask is: will this even be a problem?

Companies globally are already flattening. Middle management roles are being trimmed – this is known as ‘unbossing’. For example, a Korn Ferry report found 44% of US companies have sliced away managerial levels (CFO Dive).

So perhaps this will just be the new workplace makeup, fewer willing managers, but also fewer roles to fill.

That said, managers will still be needed.

So, how do you appeal to Gen Z?

It will be about re-selling, re-skinning and re-adapting management roles. Make them more facilitative rather than supervisory. Cut bureaucracy. Ensure Gen Zers don’t feel entrapped or limited.

Or, you could also lean entirely into the flatness, for instance, making people project managers as and when required, allowing flexibility.

However you approach it, one thing’s certain – it will need a rethink. The cultural landscape is changing, and the way your business operates and communicates needs to change accordingly, or you could risk having the pipeline rug pulled from beneath you.