What Gen-Z needs is a new kind of mentoring
Boomers, gen-x and even millennials all shared largely the same employment experience. Keep in mind that millennials entered the workforce in large numbers starting around 2003 — more than two decades ago.
For these three generations, a natural relationship existed between the corporate ladder and an in-person workplace — creating a pool of accessible mentors. There was always someone a few rungs up the ladder above you — it was easy to grab a colleague down the hallway or in the cafeteria for lunch or coffee. Senior executives hosted town halls to give advice or offer expertise.
All of this changed as soon as gen-z started to enter the workforce as a cohort in 2019. First, Covid institutionalized remote or hybrid work, isolating people from each other physically more so than ever before. Second, AI arrived not long after Covid and started dismantling the first few steps of the corporate ladder exactly as gen-z began to apply for entry-level jobs.
In short order, the traditional mentor experience blew up. Completely.
Another factor is forever changing the nature of mentoring: gen-z grew up digital. Connections and followers are different than the natural networking ecosystem that boomer, gen-x and millennials enjoyed. An astounding 60 percent of gen-z actively avoid traditional in-person networking events. And I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that 72 percent of gen-z feel disconnected from their career network.
It’s easy to assume recent college graduates are better “connected” than boomers.
In my interview with Rene Siegel last year, she told me that “networking” turns out to be intimidating for this current generation. “As socially adept as college grads are online, our biggest mentoring challenge is students ghosting professionals.”
If I’ve learned anything as a professional, it’s hard to change behavior. It is simply too late for traditional mentoring to work with gen-z.
Right here, right now, let’s turn mentoring upside-down and start over — with what gen-z really needs.
The New Face of Mentoring
So I did my research, and did the boomer thing: I tapped into my network. I talked to recent grads, employers and innovators looking directly at the needs of mentoring for gen-z. Amazingly, I met three organizations already developing solutions. (I’ll be profiling these organizations in the coming weeks.)
I came away from these conversations with a fresh perspective on the revolution needed in mentoring for gen-z. I write this newsletter to help first-time managers navigate the changes in the workplace, from AI to the generational changes. I’m proposing this New Mentoring Framework to reinvent mentoring for gen-z — and help managers be more successful with their people:
It’s asynchronous: Removes the real-time performance anxiety and gives them time to gather thoughts (just like Slack).
It’s situational: Tailored to the exact operational challenge they are facing right now rather than generic career ladder climbing.
It’s personal: Built around who they are as individuals rather than a one-size-fits-all corporate playbook.
It’s credible: From sources who’ve been there and know the exact situation someone is in — not a title.
It’s a workflow: Not a special meeting, a scheduled lunch or offsite. It’s embedded directly into the daily workflow and communication tools someone already uses.
We need a new mandate
Workflow integration is a big deal. It means mentoring is real-time, when it’s needed. It has to be an expectation, not a nice to have.
This kind of mandate only works if managers and leaders literally lead from the top. By embedding mentorship into daily operations, we stop treating guidance as an “event” and start making it an organic part of how work gets done. Meeting people where they are is the ultimate way of walking in someone’s shoes.
Let’s walk in the shoes of gen-z.
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The corporate ladder has been dismantled rung by rung by AI. For millennials and gen-z, the predictable career path has vaporized — and most managers are navigating it alone, without any formal training.
I’ve managed about 5,000 people in my career, and I was consistently ranked in the top quartile of all managers at Cisco, one of the world’s best places to work. I’ve walked in your shoes as a manager.
I left Cisco to answer one question with research and evidence: what does the manager of the future look like?
My research — conducted with thousands of young people at companies like Amazon, Google, Disney, and DoorDash — identified Six Drivers of Consistency that separate great managers from the rest, with a 95% confidence interval.
That research became The Culture Platform: a complete learning and development system — Framework, Feedback, and Tools — purpose-built for first-time managers who want to separate themselves and be a great manager of high-performance teams.
ManagerMentor • All Rights Reserved • The Culture Platform, Inc. • 2026