Finding the Team Leaders of the Future

Gen Z may not want to take on leadership roles due in part to their focus on work-life balance and working from home desires.” If tech companies don’t adapt, they could face a real challenge in the next decade. Many current leaders are aging out, and if younger professionals aren’t stepping up, you end up with a gap that’s hard to fill. That affects innovation, continuity and, ultimately, performance.” David Kochanek- Thought leadership.

In many ways, this may remove them from consideration of team leadership, which is the next step in their career development. They need in-office time to train, coach, and support the new employees under their charge. The new employees may be best in a full-time office regime, thereby requiring their leaders to be available to them face-to-face.    

Inzenius, takes on the responsibility of developing the team leaders of the future from the ground up.

Inzenius employs the best university graduates in the initial role of support gurus for our customers to learn about the software we deliver, our customers’ needs, and how to deal with them. Our recruitment model has seen Inzenius employees learn the software capabilities and the process, using the Inzenius tools within 2-to-3 months. After the 3rd to 9th month, depending on their member’s career aspirations, we expose them to activities in their chosen career disciplines for an initial third of their work-time, with another third if their work-time is in a management discipline like project or design activities that incorporate the soft side skill development of the business processes.

We can deliver this apprenticeship-type onboarding and development because we undertake all of the processes in-house, from software design to architecture and full-stack development, in one business. We also undertake all software deployments and implementations for the clients directly.

Our software is a patented, award-winning enterprise-level application with over 2.5m lines of enterprise-level code for companies with medium and larger employees. Currently, the largest has more than 5,000 workers in Australia and New Zealand.

The company is an excellent extension from education to a dynamic, structured career pathway in a supportive team environment.   

If you are finishing your education and have a PR visa status, this type of role interests you register at: www.careers@inzenius.com  

The Full Thoughtworks article

So here’s the thing

 If GenZ is as reluctant as we are told it is to take on management roles, where does that leave organisational talent pipelines, and what does it mean for their leadership succession strategies? David Kochanek is Head of Thought Leadership Strategy and Personal Branding at ThoughtLeadership

If tech companies don’t adapt, they could face a real challenge in the next decade. Many current leaders are aging out, and if younger professionals aren’t stepping up, you end up with a gap that’s hard to fill. That affects innovation, continuity and, ultimately, performance.

Some organisations are “genuinely concerned about succession planning and the growing leadership vacuum”, he adds. But others are still trying to fit younger employees into outdated promotion models. A key challenge with the latter approach though, is that:

We can’t rely on traditional succession models that assume high performers will naturally want to step into management. Instead, we need to build pathways that offer influence and impact without tying them exclusively to leadership titles or headcount responsibility.

In practice, that means expanding specialist roles, creating dual-track career paths, and making sure leadership doesn’t look like a 60-hour-a-week job, with constant context-switching and limited autonomy. If the perception of leadership is that it comes at the cost of wellbeing, we’ve got to redesign the role itself, not just try to convince people it’s worth it. That’s especially important in tech, where the workforce skews younger, and the pace of change is relentless.

Creating new leadership models

As a result, Kochanek says, smart companies are now creating more flexible, collaborative and less hierarchical leadership tracks. They are also investing in coaching, mental health support, and skills-building approaches that reflect what emerging leaders actually want. This, in his opinion, is:

The chance to make an impact without losing themselves in the process…If we want them to step into leadership, we need to reframe what that looks like. That means rethinking job design, promoting emotionally intelligent leadership, and creating structures that reward mentorship and collaboration, not just output and control.

The solution isn’t about forcing leadership on anyone. It’s about creating new models that make leadership feel energizing and sustainable. Employers who do this well by offering hybrid leadership roles, peer-based management, and clearer growth paths are the ones who’ll be best positioned to attract and retain top talent.

Alari Aho, Chief Executive of recruitment software provider Toggl Hire, agrees:

To stay competitive, companies will need to rethink what leadership looks like. That might mean offering more flexible, distributed leadership models or redefining leadership success around coaching, collaboration, and wellbeing, not just upward mobility and ownership.

Nirit Peled-Muntz is Chief People Officer at HR software provider HiBob. She believes that supporting employees in developing non-linear careers is an important consideration in this context:

The idea of non-linear careers isn’t everywhere yet, but it is growing. If we as organizations allow people to build on their skills rather than job titles, everyone will gain more and be successful. It’s about looking at things in a less regimented way and being clear that it’s fine not to be a manager, but it’s also fine to leave leadership for a while and maybe come back to it or not. The idea that it’s not a one-way ticket gives people more freedom.

Adopting a mindset shift

But embracing this kind of approach does require a mindset shift, Peled-Muntz says:

It’s not necessarily about thinking the leadership pipeline will shrink but more that it’ll look different. In the past, there was strong linear career growth and people either became leaders or they didn’t. But with this approach, traditional succession planning becomes less effective. You have to think about how to create a more agile talent development strategy because whether people are leaders or non-leaders becomes less black and white. It’s about allowing people to shift between the two modes.

Part of the process here though involves creating a psychologically safe enough environment for employees to express their preferences and priorities without feeling judged or as if they are doing something wrong. As Peled-Muntz points out:

The discussion becomes ‘how can you develop your career here and what are the skills you need to be successful in that?’ So, someone might say ‘my goal is to become x’ and their line manager might point them to where they can find courses or job-shadow others. We also ask people to share the things they learn and what they liked about it so they can become influencers in the learning area. If they share that something’s been beneficial, others are more likely to follow them, which helps create more of a learning culture.

But making this type of mindset shift is not just about undertaking potentially difficult change. It also creates positive opportunities, believes Aho:

The tech sector thrives on rapid change but change also requires people who want to lead that charge. If fewer young professionals are stepping into those roles, the risk is stagnation, especially in areas like team leadership, scaling, and strategy. However, this also creates an opportunity: companies that embrace flatter org structures, decentralized decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration can unlock innovation at every level – not just the C-suite. Gen Z might not want to be the ‘boss’, but they absolutely want to contribute in meaningful ways. Companies just need to meet them halfway.

My take

If GenZ opt sout of taking on traditional leadership roles and also abandon entrepreneurship, the tech industry could find itself in a tight spot, particularly into the long-term. So, I agree with Kochanek when he says:

Innovation relies on new perspectives and fresh leadership. Without a clear talent pipeline, companies could struggle to evolve. But I don’t think this generation is disengaging. They’re just looking for leadership on their terms. The opportunity lies in meeting them there with trust, flexibility, and a re-defined idea of what it means to lead well in a changing world.