by Brad Bass
Motivating people at any age can be a tall task, and especially when the focus is on the Gen-Z, 20-something crowd. As a coach and teacher for nearly 20 years, I’ve witnessed the evolution of communication styles in younger generations. The old-school dictator style of leadership has given way to a new, “autonomous supportive” style—also called the Power of Choice (POC) leadership—and it’s the future of leadership.
The goal of POC leadership is to help individuals build relationships strong enough to move from levels of external motivation toward more internal, self-determined motivation. This type of leadership aligns well with Gen-Zers who have grown up in a world of access, transparency, and personalization, and who value autonomy, purpose, and having a voice. POC leadership values input, encourages reflection, and builds shared accountability. Unlike previous generations raised in more hierarchical, top-down environments, Gen-Z was raised on interactive platforms—social media, streaming, gaming, and crowd-sourced feedback. They expect participation, not just direction.
POC leadership also resonates well with Service Members by cultivating internal ownership rather than forced compliance. Gen-Z Service Members are certainly able to follow orders, but they perform at their highest level when they believe in “the why” behind those orders. When leaders use POC leadership to offer rationale, feedback, and ownership when possible, it strengthens morale, initiative, and commitment—all key to a high-performing unit.
Here’s my playbook on how to use POC leadership to motivate your team.
Play 1: Offer choice (within reason). Offering reasonable choices when you announce training regimens and individual roles while allowing feedback (within reason) can empower trainees to actively engage in the process while upholding unit goals and team culture. Providing choice also allows you to nurture responsibility, commitment, and a supportive team atmosphere while respecting individual preferences and driving collective success.
Play 2: Provide a meaningful rationale for activities. Offering “the why” helps build trust among teammates, which can help nurture a sense of purpose and inner drive when things get tough. It empowers individuals to understand the importance of an activity or skill and how it will affect the group's success.
Play 3: Ask and acknowledge people’s feelings. Acknowledging and validating emotions within the leadership setting helps build trust. When you establish a supportive motivational climate, people are more willing to communicate their feelings, which allows leaders to teach resilience. This can also help develop grit.
Play 4. Provide opportunities for initiative. Encouraging people to take initiative and inviting their input in team decisions helps make them aware of and value their leadership abilities. By making opportunities for ownership available, you can also nurture people's confidence, leadership skills, and overall group commitment. As the saying goes, “A player-led team is always the most dangerous.”
Play 5. Give technical feedback. Focus on detailed, constructive criticism, emphasizing strengths while addressing opportunities to improve. Video is a great tool to enhance understanding, promote self-reflection, and help teammates see what you want them to do—the physical techniques you’re teaching.
Play 6. Avoid using guilt as a motivator. Use language that builds confidence and pride. Steer clear of language that might lead to guilt or shame—they’re not successful motivators. You may see results in the short term, but your job as a leader is to teach people how to win in life, even at the price of a short-term victory along the way. A good leader doesn’t trade long-term strength for short-term wins. In the words of a fellow coach, “I'd rather lose a game than a player.”
Play 7. Fight ego involvement. In today's landscape of social media popularity, ego involvement—the way people focus on proving themselves—is on a steady rise. Emphasize and prioritize group goals over individual success. Celebrate great attitudes and effort rather than talent and skill. Teach humility and sportsmanship to help team members stay focused on the overall group success. Positive leadership helps shift the focus from ego to mastery—valuing effort, learning, and connection—so individuals stay motivated and open to improvement. Great teams don’t play for attention, they play for each other. Unity over self!
To borrow a quote from a colleague, a leader needs to focus more on being a “guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage.” Leadership is about relationships, building trust to enhance mental toughness as well as physical toughness, and helping people build the confidence in themselves to dare to chase greatness. As a leader, I strive to make sure I’m aware of the real scoreboard: winning the trust of our next generation’s leaders. Leadership is about making a difference…one person at a time.
