The Isolation Factor

Gen Z is the loneliest generation on record. This development challenge for 20-something emerging leaders goes beneath the skills gap to a deeper human challenge. In a recent survey 55% of adults aged 18–24 reported receiving a diagnosis or treatment for a mental illness, compared to 31% of those aged 55–64.* Research also found a direct relationship between social isolation and reduced quality of life among Gen Z employees, partially caused by loneliness.**

During the 2008 recession support groups for the unemployed sprang up along the Colorado front range. These job seeker forums drew people who were committed to meeting in person weekly and helping each other find new employment by sharing the contacts and connections they had with each other. This not only put many seekers in the express lane for future employment but improved their mental and emotional well-being through the in-person social support they received. Group facilitators also provided teaching, training, and skills for one of the biggest deficits in younger professionals and aspiring leaders — networking and relationship building.

Networking — the deliberate cultivation of professional relationships that generates opportunity, visibility, and support — is identified by Gen Z themselves as their biggest self-perceived skills gap. A survey of 14,000 Gen Z students and recent graduates found that while 7 in 10 feel prepared for work overall, networking remains the area of greatest insecurity.

This matters enormously for leadership development. Advancement in organizations is rarely driven by technical merit alone. The ability to build a reputation, influence without authority, create allies, and develop a professional identity across peer and senior networks is what distinguishes those who grow into leaders from those who plateau. For a generation entering the workforce with thin in-person networks and discomfort in unstructured social settings, this gap has compounding career consequences.

The ability to build and sustain trust is foundational to any healthy relationship. In his book Trust Me, Discovering Trust in a Culture of Distrust, Joseph Myers takes trust a step further by including the way we distrust others, connecting the way we experience Trust and Distrust to the latest research in neuroscience. Discerning the difference between how I distrust someone (which comes from the amygdala) and how I innately trust someone else (from the pre-frontal cortex) provides invaluable awareness for building healthy relationships and networks going forward.

Distrust’s purpose is to guide us to safety, while Trust’s goal is to build relational connection. The question we might ask ourselves is not how to build more trust, but first, how to lower distrust. Myers’ TrustFinders appraisal uses the top 5 talents from one’s CliftonStrengths to surface another layer of insight and awareness to how talent dynamics shape the way we build trust and experience distrust with others, key components of relationship building and networking with others.

By using this assessment and processing it interpersonally with others, our Inpowered Leaders process helps emerging leaders identify their own Trust and Distrust tendencies, accelerating their ability to lower distrust and build trusting relationships. Through this process they experience three key things for any age of emerging leaders:

• A structured program that creates the in-person relational experiences the pandemic denied them
• Personalized, identity-affirming approaches in a safe environment instead of generic competency checklists
• Frameworks that give them a language for understanding themselves and others

 The greater win is that this is an investment that not only meets the felt needs of younger (and older) emerging professionals but addresses real needs that will carry over into their personal life and connections for a lifetime.

* McKinsey's 2022 American Opportunity Survey
** Tandfonline (2024)

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