Seven Must-Have Ingredients for Leadership Development of Gen Z
We’re grateful to have Leadership Pathway as a sponsor for the 2025 XP Summit and wanted them to share some of their wisdom with us.
Written by Dave and Kristen Miller
Residency is leadership development. The point of a two-year leadership residency is to actually help someone become a leader. Residency is a tool, when used properly, to ensure that this is happening. If you ask a leader, “Do you do leadership development?” you’ll get a variety of answers that typically begin with “Yes.” Then, you might hear them share a list of books or talk about community, training, or devotions, and even soul care.
We love books. We love community. Team devotions are important. We’ll get to all of this, but let’s be clear, these are ingredients but not leadership development.
If I asked you, “Do you like chocolate cake?” And you answered by saying, “Oh yeah, I love chocolate cake! I love the way it comes in a bag and is white, and if you accidentally spill it, you have quite a mess on your hands!” I think I’d know something was up, right? I would know that you are actually describing flour, a key ingredient but not chocolate cake.
If you began by saying, “Yes, I love chocolate cake! It comes in a container with a dozen of them, and when you crack them and they ooze; you can even fry them up for breakfast!” You’d reveal that you were describing eggs, yet another key ingredient when making chocolate cake but not clearly not chocolate cake.
Leadership development happens when the all of the necessary ingredients are blended together at the right time and space. There are seven of those ingredients that we believe are critical for young twenty-somethings in particular.
I believe that historically the church is really good at 2 of the 7, and we tend to elevate those two above all others. We emphasize education, and we do well at spiritual formation.
But flour and eggs do not a chocolate cake make.
All 20 to 25-year-olds are unique and require a different approach than those who came before them.
Generation Z is loaded with talent and desire to make this world a better place. I believe they’ll fix much of what my generation (Gen X) has left them. But it is vital to be equipped and ready for someone who shows up to work and internally be wondering if they even need a boss in the first place, according to Dr. Tim Elmore, author of the must-read for all leaders, Generation Z Unfiltered: Facing Nine Hidden Challenged of the Most Anxious Generation.
On one of our recent First Thursday Webinars, Tim reminded us all that “the age of authority is coming down, but the age of maturity is going up” Earlier generations have arrived and either honored (Boomers) their bosses or gritted their teeth (Gen Xers) at them, but Gen Z shows up, inquiring why they even need a boss in the first place! And according to Morning Consult, a global decision intelligence company, 1 in 8 Gen Zers are already monetizing social media, prior to entering the workforce post-college. They are already doing what many of us believed took several years of experience before we were allowed to think about such a thing; they are already influencing their peers.
This generation has exclusive needs, as well. If your team hasn’t onboarded someone from this generation yet, you’ll need to prepare and tool them properly. An article in Forbes in October of 2024 touted the number of Gen Z employees not making the transition to professional work environments very easily. A stunning 6 out of 10 employers had fired a Gen Zer in the workforce already.
Were those companies equipped and ready to onboard them in the first place? Were they expecting Gen Z to just show up and adapt like Boomers, Xers, and even Millennials?
While our coaching curriculum focuses on 20 Core soft skills, our process ensures that all seven of the following ingredients are present throughout a two-year Lp residency.
We present 7 ingredients within a picture that I believe helps frame up how we view each of them. The first three I view as the rails that all leaders run on, two or which are most familiar:
1. EDUCATION
Today’s leaders must be smarter than ever. The stakes are so high compared to a generation ago. A future youth pastor better know what is going on in the mind of a middle school student and his parents. They must understand the psychology of how children and students mature with the challenges they face.. A future worship leader must understand music and grasp the use of the arts in a context that makes sense and not just swing back and forth with only the latest trends to guide them. A future small group pastor must have an understanding of how to educate and develop disciples. Everyone must know how to do a spreadsheet, have a handle on A.I., and a contextual theology that works.
2. SPIRITUAL FORMATION
The second rail of Spiritual Formation comes naturally to a church. Now, I’m not necessarily proposing that all churches are excelling at this, as I know there’s all sorts of discussions among our friends if disciple-making is broken in the modern context. I would suggest that the great majority of the time, to join a staff as a resident means she will be in prayer with other staff leaders weekly, if not daily.
3. SOFT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
A quick etymological study of the phrase, The Third Rail and you’ll understand why we believe more focus and effort is needed here. The Third Rail is where the power is derived from for a new kind of train in the 1880s.
I acknowledge that our power is sourced from the Lord and the Holy Spirit. I’m not making a Biblical Exegesis argument; this is instead a metaphor. Like all great metaphors, it does have its limits. Let’s put it this way: any of these 3 rails are incomplete without the other. They work together. In terms of leading in today’s complicated world, one is not more important than the others. If one is missing, there is a problem, and the obvious one that is missing is the Soft Skill rail. We don’t know what they are, and surely we don’t know how to coach them into the lives of those we lead. Your young twenty-something resident’s success will rise and fall on your ability to coach him or her in this area.
4. OWNERSHIP
Gone are the days when the school of hard knocks could throw 1,000 college grads in the game and see how many are still doing well in 3 years. In all actuality, the school of hard knocks had a terrible graduation rate and worse attrition than any of us wanted to believe.
How many made it that far in ministry from your graduating class from a previous generation? I think it’s probably worse today than when you graduated. Young leaders today have more options than ever. The number one most attractive option is to quit, and when the going gets difficult, and if they are all alone, they’ll probably do something else, even if they have verbalized a calling to ministry.
5. BEST PRACTICES
Your church does not need to be the most cutting-edge place to have a resident. Residency isn’t “just a big church” or “just a mega-church” thing. Some of our favorite church partners are in churches much smaller than you would think.
When it comes to best practices we simply want to know if we are doing ministry like it’s 2024. We don’t just mean musical style/look/feel. We no longer communicate, do missions, sing songs, speak, market, or educate like it’s 1998. Today’s young leaders must be exposed to real time strategies and work, while holding on to the Gospel Truth which never changes. Perhaps you have one area of your church that is up to speed, but another which isn’t. Put the resident in proximity to the best.
For example, if your youngest staff leader is currently 34 years old, a 22- year-old is going to bring digital-native thinking to your communication strategies. Listen to them and give them opportunities of influence and see what happens. They view your digital comms just like the people you are trying to reach.
I’m sure every area of your church is not excelling and that’s ok, pick the strongest area to begin. Pick the best team builder to start (more on that later).
6. MENTAL WELLNESS PLAN
You don’t need me to refer to a library full of articles, news, and opinions on mental wellness for this generation. While it’s not necessary to have a counselor on staff, you will need a plan. What do you do if a teammate can’t get out of bed one day? Last week he was killing it, but this week not so much. Has this happened before on your team? If not, it’s going to as you engage young twenty-somethings into leadership.
Does your pastor mention his or her counselor from the platform? Is having counseling or being in therapy an accepted practice for those on your team? This is the new reality. I am pretty sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but these are points we talk through as we preboard a candidate onto the team. Having a plan and normalization of seeking professional help is essential.
DEVELOPMENTAL CONVERSATIONS
This is the critical one. It’s so big, in fact, we devote a whole chapter (chapter 9) to this later in the book. All six of the previous ingredients hang onto developmental conversations. We get asked frequently how residency scales. Education can scale. English 101is taught to 300 freshmen in a college classroom.
Dozens of adults can learn together about Scripture through Alpha. Even spiritual formation scales three or ten at a time. Leadership Development, with all of the 6 others ingredients hangs on a conversation. Those conversations exist in weekly one-on-ones. They involve lots of talking, listening, and hashing it out. Kristin, our Director of Resident Development, says that a young leaders’ success rises and falls on their supervisors’ ability to coach them.
If you’re still reading, it means you really care about this topic. My challenge is this: How many of those who didn’t make it could have succeeded if they had started in a place that wanted more FOR them than FROM them?
What if they were given even half of a plan, a little bit of breathing room, and a coach with the grit to ensure that all 7 of those elements were present in their life for two years between the ages of 20 and 25?
This article is an excerpt from the book “Who’s the Next You?” by Dave and Kristin Miller & the Lp Team. Click here to receive your copy.