Welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast Reverb, a conversation designed to help leaders go even further faster by digging deeper into this month's podcast episode.

I'm your host, Susie Gray. Last week, Dr. Tillam Elmore joined Andy on the podcast to talk about Generation Z in the workplace.

And it sparked so many thoughts, especially as

someone with Gen Z kids of my own who are navigating work life right now. We covered a lot with Tim

last week, but there were two strategies from his book, The Future Begins with Z. We didn't get to.

So today, we're diving deeper into what actually motivates Gen Z and why soft skills and leadership

modeling matter more than ever.

So, Andy, let's start with motivation.

One of Tim's strategies is called awakening ambition.

And he points out that Gen Z isn't motivated by status or salary in the same way that previous

generations were. Instead, they're drawn to autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Tim opens the chapter

with this story about Josiah, a Gen Z who basically built a creative career without a degree

by just taking initiative, freelancing, and finding a sense of ownership.

And the line that struck me was, he works hard because he owns the work.

Andy, how do we lead when the old incentives don't work anymore?

Well, as I read that story, and of course, as I listened to Tim, I kept thinking, and I didn't

want to keep interrupting Tim because he was our guest, and everything he said, you know, struck me as true.

I'm just not convinced, and I think he would agree, that none of this is completely new, right?

Yeah.

I mean, these are new expressions of things that probably all of us felt, and part of it is I am constantly telling myself, because I feel like I live my life twice. I'm a preacher's kid. Now I'm the preacher. So so much of what I experience, it's easier, I think, in my case, to remember what it was like being the new person, the young guy that thought he had all the answers. So many ideas. And I didn't have all the answers,

but I had some really good ideas. And I was pushed down and pushed down because of budget,

and we don't do that and on and on and on. So I find myself identifying pretty easily with this group.

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