Bossless: Managers of the Future Recognize They Cannot Fix Management or Themselves
January 17, 2025
A dinobaby-crafted post. I confess. I used smart software to create the heart wrenching scene of a farmer facing a tough 2025.
I have never heard of Robert Walters. Sure, I worked on projects in London for several years, but that outfit never hit my radar. Now it has, and I think its write up is quite interesting. “Conscious Unbossing – 52% of Gen-Z Professionals Don’t Want to Be Middle Managers” introduced me to a new bound phrase: Conscious unbossing. That is super and much more elegant than the coinage ensh*tification.
A conscious unbosser looks in the mirror and sees pain. He thinks, “I can’t make the decision to keep or fire Tameka. I can’t do the budget because I don’t have my MBA study group to help me. I can’t give that talk to the sales team because I have never sold a thing in my life. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. I figured out how to make you work again. Too bad about killing those scanners, right?
The write up reports:
Over half of Gen-Z professionals don’t want to take on a middle management role in their career.
Is there some analysis? Well, sort of. The Robert Walters outfit offers this:
The Robert Walters poll found that 72% of Gen-Z would actually opt for an individual route to advance their career – one which focuses on personal growth and skills accumulation over taking on a management role (28%). Lucy Bisset, Director of Robert Walters North comments: “Gen-Z are known for their entrepreneurial mindset – preferring to bring their ‘whole self’ to projects and spend time cultivating their own brand and approach, rather than spending time managing others. “However, this reluctance to take on middle management roles could spell trouble for employers later down the line.”
The entrepreneurial mindset and “whole self” desire are what the survey sample’s results suggest. The bigger issue, in my opinion, is, “What’s caused a big chunk of Gen-Z (whatever that is) to want to have a “brand” and avoid the responsibility of making decisions, dealing with consequences (good and bad) of those decisions, and working with people to build a process that outputs results?”
Robert Walters sidesteps this question. Let me take a whack at why the Gen-Z crowd (people who were 23 to 38 in 2019) are into what I call “soft” work and getting paid to have experiences work.
- This group grew up with awards for nothing. Run in a race, lose, and get a badge. Do this enough and the “losers” come to know that they are non-performers no matter what mommy, daddy, and the gym teacher told them.
- Gen-Z was a group who matured in a fantasy land with nifty computers, mobile phones, and social media. Certain life skills were not refined in the heat treating process of a competitive education.
- Affirmation and attention became more important as their social opportunities narrowed. The great tattooing craze grabbed hold of those in Gen-Z. When I see a 32 year old restaurant worker adorned with tattoos, I wonder, “What the heck was he/she/ze thinking? I know what I am thinking, “Insecurity. A desire to stand out. A permanent “also participated” badge which will look snappy when the tattooed person is 70 years old.
Net net: I think the data in the write up is suggestive. I have questions about the sample size, the method of selection, and the statistical approach taken to determine if a “result” is verifiable. One thing is certain. Outfits like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG will have to rework their standard slide decks for personnel planning and management techniques. However, I can overlook the sparse information in the write up and the shallow analysis. I love that “conscious unbossing” neologism. See, there is room for sociology and psychology majors in business. Not much. But some room.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2025
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