The Perfect Storm Part 3: The Empty Pipeline

If CEOs are squeezing out Boomers and Gen X while writing off Gen Z, who’s left to lead tomorrow?

In Part 1 of this series, I unpacked The Great Flattening. In Part 2, we looked at Quiet Cracking. Now, the third and final weather system in the Perfect Storm: the empty pipeline.

Let’s be honest. Managers today are facing situations that sound absurd. We’ve heard the stories of Gen Z employees expecting their birthday off or skipping work after a bad night breaking up with a partner, or parents attending the interview with their child.  For leaders raised in a different era, these moments confirm every stereotype.

But here’s the trap: building your hiring strategy around extremes. Every generation had its outliers, the slackers, the entitled, the disengaged. The difference today is that these stories go viral and become the headline. Leaders who design policies around caricatures risk dismissing an entire generation of talent, and with it, their future workforce.

Gen Z and soon Gen Z aren’t fragile. They’re pragmatic. They’ve grown up through recessions, political volatility, and a pandemic. They’ve watched their parents navigate through companies that didn’t value them. So they don’t mistake slogans for culture.

They work differently. They value flexibility as currency. They’re entrepreneurial, often with side hustles or multiple income streams. They’re digitally native and fast learners.

Label them as disloyalty and you’ll miss the point.  They’re unwilling to mortgage their lives for companies that don’t live their own promises.

I’ve managed Gen Z employees. One of the hardest-working team members I had operated in bursts. He would crush out communications, get things organized, then take a walk or talk with coworkers. If you weren’t paying attention, it looked like he was wasting time.

But the truth was in the output. He accomplished just as much, if not more, than the woman in the cubicle next to him who stayed glued to her desk all day.

Before I left, she was on a performance improvement plan. After I left, he was written up and told he needed to stay at his desk. He quickly left the company. She was promoted. I’m told she still produces the same amount of work she always did.

This is what happens when leaders cling to outdated measures of “professionalism.” They reward the appearance of effort instead of actual results. And in the process, they drive away the very talent that could carry the company forward.

So, how should leaders respond? Not by coddling but by rethinking.

We already know one-size-fits-all communication doesn’t work. You wouldn’t blast the same message to everyone, regardless of relevance. You tailor the right message to the right people at the right time—and cut the noise everywhere else. Why assume one definition of “professional” should apply across five generations in the workplace?

This doesn’t mean giving in to every request. It means being intentional.

Onboarding

Onboarding has to be more than a handbook. It should be the first signal of what the employee experience will actually feel like. Not just a “be here, do this,” but here’s how we work, here’s what matters, and here’s how you can grow here.

It’s also the place to set up the networks employees need to succeed. Pair younger employees with seasoned colleagues so knowledge flows down, while also creating co-exchange or think-tank opportunities where Gen Z can transfer skills back—digital fluency, influencer social media tools, and fresh approaches.

When onboarding is designed this way, it begins to build the pipeline… and will bring in more people.

Redefining Output and Development

If companies want to hold on to their future leaders, they have to get clear on what productivity really means. Output has to matter more than optics. Sitting at a desk all day doesn’t equal contribution. Innovation doesn’ always happen between 9 and 5.

Younger generations know this intuitively because they’ve grown up in an era where peers became millionaires through YouTube channels, TikTok stores, or app ideas. They’ve seen what happens when entrepreneurial energy gets space to run. If that energy isn’t nurtured inside the company, it will go outside.

Smart companies harness that spirit, they harness it. They define the outcome and give employees the space to figure out how and when to deliver them. That’s how you convert entrepreneurial drive to innovation that benefits the business.

Teaching Managers to Manage

The empty pipeline isn’t only about the employees coming in. It’s also about the managers already in place. Many were promoted for their technical expertise or tenure but never trained to lead people. When faced with new expectations from younger employees, they often default to outdated measures of control—staying at desks, checking boxes, enforcing rules—instead of developing talent.

Part of that gap shows up in communication. Gen Z may prefer texting or chat to live conversations, and managers can’t dismiss that as “unprofessional.” They need to model when a real conversation matters most, while also flexing to meet employees in the channels where they already work.

If companies want to retain and grow their next generation of leaders, they have to invest in managers today. Equip them with the skills, tools, and accountability to coach, set boundaries, and translate organizational strategy into meaningful team experiences. Without that, even the best onboarding and most entrepreneurial employees won’t reach their full potential. And without strong managers, you lose the ability to grow future leaders at all.

The Perfect Storm isn’t about one bad policy or one difficult generation. It’s about the convergence of trends: flattening structures, employees cracking under pressure, and dismissing the very employees who must carry the company forward.

The question isn’t whether the storm is coming. It’s this: who are you growing for the future?