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Dr. Suzy Welch is a Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and Director of the school's Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing. In an article for CNBC, she cited research she conducted last year that pointed to a distinct issue affecting Gen Z employability:
"Gen Z’s top three values are self-care, authentic self-expression, and helping people. The people hiring them, on the other hand, are looking for employees who value achievement, learning, and hard work."
She noted that when she cross-referenced Gen Z values with a national survey of hiring managers, around 2% of Gen Z had goals that matched up with managers' priorities. That makes for a great deal of frustration on both sides.
Reading Welch's useful directives for Gen Z job seekers, I realized they might spark useful questions for academic coaches who seek to help students maintain their personhood while navigating preparation for the workplace. Here are her three stated advice points, with my thoughts for coaches:
1. "Come to terms with the value you place on wealth."
Even if coaches are not talking directly about money, they can ask learners to look honestly at what they want out of their studies and their working lives. A coach can ask how a given course, major, or planned career supports the student's most important values, especially when the student struggles with motivation.
2. "Join or start a company that accommodates your values."
When a student has a strong sense of purpose, that drives effort over time. Coaches can encourage students to pursue academic goals that connect to what they value — or, when students have to manage coursework they don't think is useful, coaches can invite them to consider how the experience, the skill-building, the networking, or the forming of useful habits might touch on personal values.
3. "Make a decade-long deal with yourself."
Success and growth take time — as a learner, as an employee, as a person. Welch encourages delayed gratification and long-term commitment to a goal, two exceptionally familiar concepts to coaches. This provides a great opportunity for a coach to emphasize to a student that the hard work, commitment, and time they put toward an academic goal is building that muscle for workplace persistence.
To be motivated to learn, students need to feel that their academics have purpose for their working lives. You can help them get there with a LifeBound training. A LifeBound certification will carry faculty and professionals to their next professional level of skill at helping learners connect actions in school to the ability to survive and thrive in today's unpredictable workplace.
Registration for the Fall Certification Cohort ends today — join us!
To learn more or explore which option is right for you, visit www.lifebound.com.
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