Leading Gen Z: How to Communicate, Motivate & Manage (Udemy.com)
Practical strategies to build trust, reduce friction, and support Gen Z’s growth at work.
Created by: Deborah Grayson Riegel
Last updated September 2026
What you will learn
- Understand Gen Z’s values and communication preferences
- Lead Gen Z with clarity and empathy
- Provide feedback Gen Z can hear and act on
- Build psychological safety across generations
- Avoid common cross‑generational misunderstandings
- Strengthen collaboration between Gen Z and other team members
- Support Gen Z’s development and motivation
How it compares
Against the other 1,210 rated Udemy courses in Business on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.4 out of 5higher than 27% of them
- Reviews640#580 of 1,211 by number of reviews
- Length1.5 hoursshorter than 77% of them
- Last updatedSeptember 2026more recently than 92% of them
Course Description
Gen Z is reshaping the workplace with new expectations around communication, leadership, flexibility, feedback, purpose, and psychological safety. As more Gen Z employees enter and advance in the workforce, managers are discovering that leadership approaches that worked with previous generations don’t always translate.
But effectively leading Gen Z isn’t about memorizing generational stereotypes or completely changing your management style. It’s about understanding the experiences and expectations that influence how Gen Z approaches work — and developing practical communication and leadership skills that help people across generations work better together.
In this course, you’ll learn practical, research-backed strategies for leading, managing, and collaborating with Gen Z employees with greater confidence and empathy. You’ll explore what Gen Z values at work, how they tend to approach communication and feedback, what motivates them, and what they need from managers and colleagues to do their best work.
You’ll learn how to:
• Understand the experiences, values, and expectations shaping Gen Z at work
• Communicate more effectively with Gen Z employees and colleagues
• Build trust across generational differences
• Give clear, constructive feedback
• Set expectations and create accountability
• Understand and support psychological safety
• Encourage employees to contribute ideas and ask questions
• Recognize common cross-generational misunderstandings
• Adapt your leadership approach without compromising expectations
• Support Gen Z employees as they develop confidence and professional judgment
• Create stronger multigenerational working relationships
You’ll also learn how to move beyond stereotypes. Generational trends can provide useful context, but they should never replace curiosity about the individual employee in front of you.
While this course focuses on Gen Z, the skills you’ll develop extend far beyond one generation. Clear expectations, thoughtful feedback, psychological safety, effective communication, empathy, and trust are essential leadership skills for managing employees of any age.
By the end of the course, you’ll be better equipped to lead Gen Z with clarity and confidence, reduce unnecessary cross-generational friction, support employee growth, and create an environment where people of every generation can do their best work.
Instructor Details
- 4.4 Rating
640 Reviews
Deborah Grayson Riegel
Deborah Grayson Riegel is a keynote speaker, executive coach, author, and leadership communication expert who helps professionals communicate more effectively, lead with confidence, and navigate the everyday challenges of working with people. She teaches at Wharton, Duke, Columbia, and Peking University and has worked with leaders and teams at organizations including Google, Amazon, BlackRock, and NASA.
Deb is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, Fast Company, and Forbes, where she writes about leadership, communication, workplace relationships, and professional development.
Throughout her career, Deb has helped professionals at every level build the practical people skills that make work better—from communicating clearly and confidently to giving feedback, managing teams, navigating difficult conversations, facilitating effective meetings, presenting ideas, and adapting to an evolving workplace.
Her teaching combines research-backed insights with practical tools, relatable examples, and strategies learners can put to use immediately. Whether you're a new manager, an experienced leader, or simply looking to become a stronger communicator and colleague, Deb's courses are designed to help you build skills you can use in real conversations, real meetings, and real workplace situations.
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Reviews
By Isil Altintas on 4/17/2026
This course was a great learning for me. It made me see things that I never noticed before about how to lead people. For me the content was very easily applicable to other generations as well.
By Anonymized User on 12/12/2025
The instruction and presentation were great. The overall premise though is difficult to accept. There was great emphasis on adapting to a group of people that are insecure, self-absorbed and believe they are entitled. But little emphasis on the responsibility this group should have to perform without being catered to. Experience tells us business exists only to make the owners money and not to make sure the individual feels good about themselves. It is a hard thing to shift out of this paradigm and see it differently. But it should make the workplace quite "interesting" across the next few years. With that said, it is greatly appreciated to have tools to try and bridge the gap.
By Anonymized User on 1/1/2025
Surprised to see some things mentioned that I already do out of intuition (I am not a leader by career path) and some new things I will have to try to improve.
By Anonymized User on 12/16/2024
It's a lovely course, led by two engaging speakers, who provide information and context for you to understand your young employees better. Although from my millennial perspective, all those tips and techniques to manage gen Z employees sound natural and I'd assume they work for any generation, if you are an older/old-school manager, this course is definitely worth taking to see fresh perspectives on leading your employees.
By Clara Suka on 11/27/2024
This is timely as I just got off with someone who training a Gen-Z'r on holding fort selling at her cosmetic shop for a week and she was appalled at the trainee's difficulty. Now I know it's not difficulty but difference.
By Loretta Gaul on 11/4/2024
Concrete information from a knowledgeable, professional Gen Z presenter. Enjoyable presentation and reflective on what terms mean to this generation.
By Anonymized User on 5/28/2024
it is very good session but if we can have some photo or other kinds of resources would help to make it see the examples.
By Jaymar Espiritu on 5/28/2024
Different Genz personalities should talk and explain what they are interested in. An example job interview with Gen Z and feedback of employers about Genz
By PRAJATNA MAHUNTA on 2/21/2024
Good to know the different psycology aspect of genZ. It helps me understand the WHY behind each of the behaviour.
By Agnieszka Żak-Al-Mousfi on 1/26/2024
Great idea to have such learning provided by Gen-Z and Gen-X together. Being Gen-X manager, I find it useful to hear Gen-Z's point of view coming from it's representative.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 88 / 100












