CURATED READS FOR GEN Z—AND THEIR Z-CURIOUS COLLEAGUES

first up

Welcome back! This week, we’re talking Gen Z’s C-suite ambitions.

We spend a lot of time in this newsletter talking about Gen Z’s experience entering the workforce, starting new jobs, and figuring out how to make the most of their early-career years. Is it possible that some of the most ambitious within this generation have bypassed those growing pains and leapfrogged all the way to the C-suite?
 
Sort of. It turns out there are at least a few companies tapping CEOs who are in their 20s and who aren’t part of a family succession plan (#teamshiv). Almost a third of newly appointed S&P 500 CEOs in 2022 were younger than 50, more than double the 2018 levels for this same cohort. To be sure, the average CEO age is still about 54.

What those young CEOs lack in career experience, they may make up for in moxie and a unique POV. Some also believe that the way the world has operated over the past, call it 50 years, is hardly an indication of how businesses will run in the next 50, when Gen Z’s digital prowess and comfort being perpetually online may be particularly advantageous. It’s also true that the pandemic brought with it a once-in-a-generation change in how CEOs operate.

Even if Gen Zers aren’t all C-suite-level execs today, plenty of them have expressed an interest in getting there one day. Gen Z is more than twice as likely to want to be CEO compared with Gen X (38 percent versus 18 percent, respectively). Meanwhile, 21 percent of boomers and 31 percent of millennials said they’d want to be head honcho. Gen Z also expects to be able to do the CEO job in a hybrid capacity, prioritizing work–life balance along the way.

For Gen Z, the playbook for becoming CEO will differ from that of previous generations. That’s both a good thing—traditional markers of experience and education may be less relevant in the future—and a challenge: navigating a corporation through today’s highly complex, interwoven business environment requires understanding topics that a previous generation of CEOs never had to master. (Hello, generative AI and the metaverse!)

McKinsey senior partner Celia Huber and her coauthors recently mined the perspectives of 300 leaders, 88 of whom are CEOs themselves, to figure out what skills aspiring CEOs need to be top dog: being comfortable with volatility and public scrutiny and having a good grasp of ESG issues are all newly important qualifications for the CEO position. If this sounds like you, you’ve also got to deliver a clear and detailed vision for how you will transform the company you want to lead, with a goal in mind (like doubling the firm’s market cap, for example). By the way, if your motivation for wanting to be CEO is money, power, or esteem alone, you might want to rethink things.
 
And what if you don’t want to be CEO but still have high aspirations? McKinsey senior partner Scott Keller, who literally wrote the book on the CEO role (with colleagues Carolyn Dewar and Vik Malhotra), notes that all the training and lessons to be learned from this high-power pursuit “probably apply in most of the other contexts,” too. 

VISUALIZE IT

Physical-wellness and peer support programs are two examples of mental-health resources employers can make available to reduce quit rates.

WAIT, DON’T SCROLL

More than a holiday. If you had the day off from work yesterday thanks to Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US, continue to celebrate by reading this guide to impact investing in Black economic mobility or some of our other insights about the Black experience.

Ive got it. Jony Ive, the illustrious former design head of Apple, talks to McKinsey about his creative process and the executives he enjoys working with most.

Activating Africa. Africa is home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. Developing skills and increasing access to digital tools could help this talent pool drive growth across the continent.

NOT US; STILL GREAT

Say chīzu. After ubiquitous mask wearing during the pandemic (and even before that), some Japanese students are taking lessons to learn how to smile once the masks come off. [Reuters]

FIRE fest. Is the so-called FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement for you? A nuanced look challenges the hold it may have on Gen Z. [Bloomberg]

CROSSWORD

— Edited by Alexandra Mondalek, editor, New York