What Younger Generations Need Before They Engage
Why trust—not comfort—is the foundation for learning, accountability, and staying power.
January almost took me out.
This term, I returned to the classroom to teach a course I hadn’t quite taught before—hoping to reconnect with my love of theatre history while better understanding Gen Z students preparing to transition from college to career.
What I didn’t expect was how much intention it would take—not to teach content, but to earn trust.
And I’m realizing this may be the single most important thing younger generations need before they engage—whether in a classroom or a workplace.
So instead of starting with the syllabus, I started with a question:
How do you build trust with people you’ve never met—before asking anything of them?
Day One: Before the Syllabus
Before we talked about assignments or expectations, I asked my students:
Think about the classes that made you want to be there.
The ones that kept you coming back.
What made those classes work?
From that conversation, they created this:
Our Class Agreement
If you are in the room, you belong.
We respect one another.
We seek to understand and be understood.
We do not judge or shame.
We co-create learning that is clear, challenging, reflective, and flexible.
Our non-negotiables:
We show up.
We arrive on time.
We are ready to participate.
That last part was my addition.
But by then, something important had already happened. We had established mutual respect. They understood why those expectations mattered—not because I said so, but because they wanted the kind of learning environment those expectations made possible.
Once trust was established, reciprocity followed.
Five Weeks Later: When Trust Becomes Behavior
Showing up on time and ready to participate is rarely an issue.
I was transparent with students about why this mattered to me—how constant lateness or half-attention makes it hard to concentrate and feels disrespectful to the work I’ve done to prepare for them. Since we agreed to respect one another, this became one clear way they could respect me.
What I’m seeing isn’t unique to this classroom.
When younger generations understand the why and trust the container, accountability stops feeling imposed—and starts feeling shared.
“We don’t need learning to be easy.
We need it to be honest.”
— What younger generations keep showing me
“Be Careful What You Ask For”
A week later, we began a read-through of The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom (1858), written by William Wells Brown after his escape from slavery.
I knew the language would be difficult. What I hadn’t done was pause to name just how difficult.
When a student instinctively altered a word in the script, we stopped.
What followed wasn’t a lecture or a debate. We stayed in the room. Students spoke honestly about respect, fear, history, and responsibility—without trying to persuade one another.
Discomfort did some of the teaching.
We made less progress through Act I than planned. But we made real progress in understanding what the playwright was asking of us—and what learning sometimes demands.
At the end of class, students said,
“Thank you for not skipping over that. Other professors would.”
What Leaders Often Get Wrong About Psychological Safety
Psychological safety doesn’t mean:
• Avoiding discomfort
• Lowering expectations
• Making everything feel easy
It does mean:
• Naming hard moments instead of skipping over them
• Holding people accountable with respect
• Building a container strong enough to hold disagreement
Younger generations aren’t asking for fewer standards.
They’re asking for sincerity, clarity, and trust.
The Leadership Lesson
Creating these containers isn’t easy. It takes experience, humility, and the willingness to slow down—knowing that sometimes slowing down actually saves time.
Accountability still matters. In my classroom, it shows up through participation, writing, deadlines, and consequences. Respect and rigor are not opposites; they reinforce one another.
As one student said to me last week on her way out the door:
“I’ve learned more in the last few weeks than I have all semester in some other classes.”
That’s when I thought: Okay. This month has been worth it.
Why This Matters Beyond the Classroom
I know not every leader has the luxury to slow down the way I can in this classroom.
But the principle still holds.
When younger generations feel trusted, they stay.
They engage.
They rise.
That’s how Generation IQ supports younger generations—by helping leaders build the trust and clarity people need before they can truly engage, learn, and stay.
If this resonates, we’re continuing the conversation at our February 19 Generation IQ Roundtable, where we’ll explore what trust and accountability really look like across generations—especially in moments of tension and change.
I’ll be there. I hope you’ll join us.
And yes… I’ve got three more months to go.
I’m staying.
With gratitude and presence,
Mary