Reinvent Or Fail: The Real Cost Of One-Size-Fits-All Leadership (Episode 177)

Tired of doing more and getting less from your team? We unpack a flexible leadership system that actually works across generations by combining four practical modes with three essential traits. Instead of chasing labels or management fads, we focus on real-world scenarios you face with Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers—and how to switch styles without losing your center.

We start by mapping the four modes of effective leadership. The Astronomer paints a clear, motivating vision that makes effort feel meaningful. The Captain creates alignment, sets roles, and drives execution so goals convert into results. The Coach develops people in the flow of work, building judgment and confidence. The Engineer jumps into the weeds to unblock, model quality, and restore flow. Each mode solves a different problem; overused, each one backfires. You’ll learn how to balance them during launches, stabilizations, and turnarounds, and how to adjust for generational differences in tools, tempo, and expectations.

Then we get to the heart: passion, trust, and communication. Passion is the renewable energy that teams can feel; without it, leaders drift and burnout follows. Trust cannot coexist with micromanagement—set clear expectations, equip the team, and inspect outcomes rather than hovering over every move. Communication ties it together with context, clarity, and empathy, turning disagreements into design choices and keeping feedback loops tight. We share a candid contrast from interview rooms—strategy-heavy senior leaders versus tool-savvy younger candidates—and show how both can thrive when guided by the same core traits.

If you’ve been promoted and feel stuck in the weeds, this conversation gives you a blueprint to climb out: teach frameworks, create interfaces, and reserve your hands-on time for true blockers. Use vision to aim effort, structure to sustain it, coaching to scale capability, and selective dives to protect momentum. Subscribe, share with a manager who needs a reset, and leave a review telling us which mode you plan to practice this week.

Chapters

• 0:23 Setting The Stage
• 0:55 Generations And Workplace Context
• 2:11 Four Leadership Modes Overview
• 4:19 Visionary Astronomer And Its Limits
• 4:57 Captain Versus Dictator
• 6:25 Mentor Coach And Engineer
• 7:46 Matching Styles To Generations
• 8:06 Three Core Traits Introduced
• 8:26 Passion: Burnout Or Fuel
• 10:57 Trust Without Micromanaging
• 12:46 Communication And Empathy
• 13:54 Interview Contrast: Boomers Vs Gen Z
• 15:28 Reinventing Leadership As You Rise
• 18:06 Pulling Out Of The Weeds
• 19:06 Coach As Primary Mode
• 19:45 Final Motivation And Next Steps
• 19:53 Subscribe And Contact Details

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Hello, friends. Welcome to your motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert. I am your host. My name is Dr. Jason Wiggins, and it is absolutely fantastic to be here today. I hope everybody is doing great. And thank you for visiting our episode. We are almost 200 episodes live. So if you haven't had a chance to watch our previous videos, please feel free to go into the library and you'll be able to see all the videos coming starting back from five years ago. So thank you again very much for listening. Today I would like to talk about the difference between leadership for Gen Z and Millennials and that of maybe the baby boomers and Generation X. As mentioned before, Generation Z was born between the years of 1997 and 2012. Meaning right now, the oldest Gen Z right now is 28 years old. So 1997 to 28 years old. And then our youngest Generation Z is currently 13. So we have a 15-year gap. And with millennials, the youngest was born in 1981 to 1996, depending on what platform you use to determine the generation. That means our millennial, who was the one that was so young and causing so much trouble, is now 44 years old. So again, this podcast and video cast is for those that are interested in learning and becoming more aware of Gen Z and millennials and their interaction in the workplace within the workforce and how they interact with all the other generations. So today's episode is going to be really dialing in into the four types of leadership that we are going to talk about. And then we are going to really go in detail about what I consider the three most important characteristics of leadership. Now, of course, they will be debatable, and many of you may agree or disagree, and have a full laundry list of additional ones after that. But let's start talking about leadership. There's many books, there's many podcasts, there's so much about what leadership is. So I'm not going to dig into the roots of transformational, transactional, like those sorts of leaderships. I'm not going to go talking about Aristotle and all the beginnings of Socrates and all those philosophers. What I'm going to talk about is real life scenarios about what a good leader will be able to do. And there's four types of leaderships that are an important part of your organization. And remember, one size leadership does not fit all. This is the end goal. This is the prosperity of where I see your opportunity, your opportunity for success within the organization. This is somebody that is painting the beautiful Picasso picture. Now, a visualization is not going to be always the perfect aspect because an astronomer is one that would go around painting beautiful pictures all the time, but then they're painted and acknowledged as somebody that is not realistic. So an astronomer cannot be an astronomer as a leader at all times. An astronomer may be an astronomer to get the team motivated, to get them excited and moving in the right direction. But sometimes you need a captain. A captain is another sense of leadership attribute. So you have the astronomer. The astronomer is the person that puts that visualization. They're the able to kind of see the future. They're the astronomer. But the captain, they are the ones that will get things done. They will put people in the right place. They will demand excellence. They will be the forefront of getting you where you need to go. Now, the problem, if you're a captain at all times, then you're also known as a dictator. A dictator is one who continually always pushes you to be better, move forward at whatever cost. So we have two sides of the spectrum. An astronomer will show you all the beautiful things that are within your reach. A captain will grill you and get you to where you need to be. Now, a mentor, a mentor is somebody who is going to help guide you. This is synonymous with a coach. Coach and mentor are two of the same. Why? They will guide you to where you need to go, they will listen to you, they will help you improve, they will find a way for you to succeed. That is exactly what a mentor will help you with, as well as a coach. And the engineer. The engineer is somebody that is in the weeds. They are a soldier, they are the ones that will get in the weeds and get things done. They will work side by side their counterparts. But is this truly effective leadership if you can never get out of the weeds? No. So what we've seen today is four sides of the spectrum of leadership: the astronomer, the visionary, the captain, the dictator, the engineer get in the weeds and be a soldier and get things done. And the coach slash mentor, one that will help you gain the tools you need to succeed. What this really wraps up into is four distinct attributes of leadership that one must possess to find ways to get each and every employee motivated. This can work with a baby mower, Generation X, Gen Z, and millennials. But depending on the usage, the timing, the process will determine when and where each one of these will be used. Now we've talked about the attributes of a great leader and being able to utilize them during the times that are needed. But there are three characteristics that every good leader must possess. From the research and everything that I've seen, from being in the management for 25 years and speaking upon this about Gen Z's and millennials and what the expectations are for them in the workforce and what employers are expecting? These are the three things that will set somebody up for success as a key point of being a great leader. Number one is passion. Have you ever known somebody that's in a leadership position and is just going through the, you know, they're just going through uh, I'm even really thinking about it. They're just kind of going through the motions. They're going through the motions because they don't have a sense of direction or a passion. At one point, they probably did have a passion. They had something that sparked them to get to work every day and to be the best that they could be. Passion is unforgiving. Passion is something that is instilled in us, but it can be captured and recaptured again. If you possess passion for what you do, you will be able to lead your team far, take the hits as they come, but keep getting back up and taking more hits. Passion will push you through the difficult times. Passion will help you celebrate when things are good. And passion will ultimately fuel your success or be a detriment and be a demise to your leadership career. So if you're listening right now and you're going, I like what you said about the four attributes of leadership. I love the astronomer, captain, engineer, and coach. But passion, I don't have the spark anymore. When you don't have the spark, two things are gonna happen. One is you're gonna get burnt out. You're gonna say, maybe this just isn't for me anymore. Or you're just going to go through the motions as mentioned, and somebody else might make that decision for you. And that's is one because for the fact that you no longer have the desire, the effort to put forward to, and guess what? If you'll if you feel that way, your employees also feel that way. The strongest attribute somebody can possess is a passion to get better, a passion to improve. So if you're 099, you have the opportunity, whatever age you are, to demonstrate improvement, have the desire to learn, be able to take something and make it better. So the next one on the characteristics of every great leader is trust. Have you ever heard of a leader saying they trust their employees? They will say, I trust my employees, I know they will do the right thing, trust but verify, yes. But that same person that acknowledges that they trust will also micromanage. You cannot have trust and have micromanagement in the same sentence as in a leader, therefore you have to set your team up for success, and then from that success, you can inspect but verify. So you trust but verify, you inspect and verify. So whatever you think within you, and you feel that they are bringing to the table from trust, that will ultimately make your employer, excuse me, your employee and you successful. Trust is something that as adolescents we learn from others. We learn to trust others and we learn to be trusted. So trust, passion are must-haves to be a great leader. Now, I'm not forgetting all the other characteristics of transparency, honesty, things like that. Those go hand in hand. But passion feels what you do, trust makes you a credible leader. And then the third, the necessary and required characteristic is communication. Communication is the ability to talk to somebody, to find out what is wrong, to find out how you can solve a problem, to find out how you can collaborate, finding the ability to create that ability to talk with each other, to have agreements, to have disagreements, to connect, connect with someone via communication. It could be a disagreement, it could be something you agree upon, it could be coaching, it could be dictating as a captain, it could be sharing a visionary as an astronomer, and it could be talking side by side with somebody in the field as an engineer. And those are those attributes I mentioned about leadership, depending on the leadership scenario. So now we can see how these go hand in hand. Communication is also part of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand somebody's concerns and make them your own. Let's talk about a recent interview I had. I interviewed a baby boomer for a senior manager level position. And this individual was very talkative on the surface. They were very credible in what they were discussing. But there was a difference when I'm talking to that baby boomer senior leader than when I'm talking to a Gen Z or millennial, someone that doesn't have as much experience, but has the technology know-how. So what I heard from the baby boomer was all about strategy. What I do in a day, how long I work in a day, and all the success I had. What I hear from a Gen Z and millennial is this is how I utilize my time. This is the resource I use. This is how I close the loop and was able to get things done. So there's two different principles and scenarios in play. There's the senior leaders that have been around for a long time, and they utilize their, I guess, their knowledge that they have over the years. While millennials and Gen Z are utilizing the tools that are in place to make their job easier, but to try to get to that same resolution of saving time while being a good leader. There's no right or wrong answer. So I know I have millennials, Gen Z, Baby Boomers, and Generation X all listen to this. But today I want you to take away the characteristics that are required: passion, trust, communication. And then those attributes and those scenarios and being a great leader, we have to utilize them at different times. We are not all the same. We can't be managed the same. And that's why a lot of once effective leaders become ineffective leaders. So they start their career out by doing things the same way. They line everything up and they knock them down the exact same way in order. But as times change, people evolve, ways of doing things revolve, we have to find different ways of doing things. So when I talk to people, then they'll also tell me, but now I've been promoted, and it seems like my leadership seems to be ineffective. I don't know what to do. And I ask them, have you changed the way you do things? And the constant answer I get is no, it's worked before. I've been doing it. Why will it not continue to work? And that's where I express to them every way of doing things, the way you used to do them, is not always going to work. So you have to reinvent yourself. You have to step outside the comfort zone and find ways to analyze the situation and attack it in a different way. And that is why you have the astronomer, somebody that can paint that visionary picture and get the most out of somebody. Captain, they will dictate the situation. They will get you where you need to go, but it can't be something that happens all the time because you will drive people to the ground and they won't want to work with you. And an engineer will work side by side, they'll get their hands dirty. But over time, an engineer can't get their work done, they can't lead effectively, and then they find themselves in the weeds. And that goes for a lot of individuals that get promoted. They get promoted based on their hard work, but then they can't pull themselves out of the weeds. So they get promoted to senior leaders when they were engineers, when they were people at the ground level, and they can't get to that next level because they are still grounded in what they were doing before. Why? Because they were successful. But to be a leader, you've got to pull yourself out, reinvent yourself, and make sure people see you as a leader. And then the last but not least is the coach. The coach is the one that you'll find the attribute you'll use the most. The coach is helping you alongside of you, guiding you, helping you when you don't understand what to do. So today we've learned some vital lessons. If you're ineffective as a leader, then change the way you're doing things. Jump into being one of these four attributes, depending on what situation arises, and then use those three characteristics passion, trust, communication. Those will lead into honesty, transparency, empathy, and really getting you where you need to be. And I want to leave everybody with this last motivational concept. When I was younger, I was too small, too slow, and too unintelligent to understand what was in front of me. I made many wrong decisions growing up, but the one thing that continued to guide me, no matter what, if I was wrong, right, or indifferent, was my ability to always rise above the situation. And that is that internal motivation. That internal motivation will fuel your passion. So if you're looking and searching for that passion, then find something that you can connect with. Find that mentor, find that person that has your best interest and always continues to bring you out and brings that successful you. I want to thank everybody for listening and watching. Please feel free to like, subscribe, and review the previous episodes via any podcast platform you listen to or via YouTube and our online library. Again, you can also reach us out to us at jwigginsconsulting.com or your Gen Z and MillennialeExpert.com. And I'm more than happy to engage, and I look forward to talking to you and potentially seeing you at one of your nearby conferences. My name is Dr. Jason Wiggins and I am your Gen Z and Millennial Expert. Thank you. Take care. Goodbye.