Careers coach Drew Povey shares his tips on how businesses can encourage leadership

/EIN News/ -- BOLTON, United Kingdom, May 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Businesses should “rebrand leadership as influencing” if they want to encourage a new generation of employees into senior roles, a top expert has said.

Careers coach and author Drew Povey, founder of Drew Povey Consultancy, spoke out after new statistics revealed 52% of Gen-Z professionals don’t want to be middle managers, risking a dearth of future leaders.

Responding to the report, Drew said: “What we need to be doing is asking, ‘Why should anyone want to lead?’ Too often Gen Z are told that they're lazy, they don't want it, they're not up for it: I don't think that's true. I just think they're looking for more meaning.

“If we can connect meaning and the impact of leadership and what it can actually do, I think they'll be more than up for it.” 

Another recent survey by Robert Walters found 69% of Gen-Zs say that middle management is too high stress and low reward. They would rather choose an individual route to profession over managing others, which means we could be missing that leadership generation of the future.

Drew said: “As a leadership expert, I’m not too worried about these numbers as long as we learn from them. We need to understand that leadership isn’t dying, but perhaps the old structure of it is. And to me, that can be a good thing.

“If Gen Z aren't rushing in to climb the corporate ladder what we should actually be doing is asking the question, ‘Why the hell would anyone want to lead?’”

Drew outlines his roadmap to how businesses can encourage Gen Z workers to embrace leadership roles.

1. Rebranding leadership

“We've got to move away from that idea of position and start to talk about purpose, which is going to resonate a lot more with Gen Z. This is a generation which wants a cause more than they want that corner office, and that's what they are seeing leadership as. For them, it's not just about the politics, the money or the prestige, but it's about impact and it's about making things better. For me, leadership is about influence and we need to start talking in that common language. Gen Z understands influencers – just look at the impact they have on social media. So let's use this language that they understand to engage them. They've already got the tools, because they already know what influence is.”

2. Work-Life balance

“Having balance in your life shouldn't just be a bonus and we don't have to sell our souls to do a job. Gen Z are looking up at these leadership jobs and rejecting them because of the stress, long hours and fear they will become part of some corporate machine where their own values become secondary. But a step up the leadership ladder does not have to be all-consuming, and we don't have to drop our morals and our values and our ethics. If we want this younger generation to lead we need to change from the boardroom and burnout mentality to one of opportunity and relationship building.

“To be at our best, we’ve got to rest. Gen Z gets that. Athletes get that. Businesses need to get on board with that ethos as well.”

3. Leadership now

“A term I like to use is ‘leadership now’, because we can’t sit around and wait for new leaders to appear oven-ready. So while the basics of leadership will stay the same, leadership now will be different. Our methods, expectations, the platforms we use are always evolving. We don't just want Generation Z to step up to leadership, we want them to help shape what it should be in the future and I think that's something they'll really be interested in.”

4. Rewriting the rules

“Leadership used to be about the loudest person in the room, the most dominant person, the person in the suit. But that’s not what it is now. Leadership should be quiet. Leadership should be creative. It should be tech driven, it should be emotionally intelligent, and it should be rooted in communities, and that type of leadership is very important actually in the world that we've got today.

“We must move away from this one size fits all approach to leadership and understand it's about diversity and valuing different strengths, which I believe Gen Z are going to connect with. We have to find new ways to lead.”

5. Build confidence by doing

“Often people don’t step up to lead because they don’t think they have the experience and they might lack the confidence to put themselves forward and make those decisions. But one of the biggest skills you learn from being a leader is confidence and learning what you are able to achieve when you are given the chance.

“Therefore, in order to lead, you need to start to lead. It is the doing which will encourage Gen Z to become leaders, building their own confidence and realising through watching peers that they can also be part of something.”

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8d7bedab-47f7-415f-a44e-5d4595f419eb

CONTACT Drew Povey
                    COMPANY: Drew Povey Consultancy
                    EMAIL: hello@magnifypr.co.uk
                    WEB: https://drewpovey.co.uk/