You may have heard it from a colleagues or been thinking it yourself: ‘Young people just don’t have the work ethic we did’ or ‘They’re not committed to their jobs.’ But what if the problem isn’t their work ethic—it’s that we’re leading them the way we were led, in a totally different world? The truth is, young professionals in dental practices are often more dedicated, purposeful, and ambitious than any generation before them. They’re just asking for something different. And here’s the good news: when you understand what they need, you can unlock extraordinary potential in your team.

The majority of young people currently working in your dental practice are classed as Gen Z. At the date of writing this article Gen Z are aged between 18-28.

 

6 key characteristics of Gen Z dental team members

Before I talk about key characteristics of Gen Z, I want to make clear that when talking about anything like overall characteristics of a population, a generation a personality type, there is a real risk that we start to pigeonhole people as to how they are or how they behave. I will actually talk about this later in that this is the one one of the key things we have to be really careful not to do when we are engaging with anyone and specifically with younger dental professionals. That said it’s useful to understand, as an overall group, what this generation is typically like.

1. Preference for Purpose and Values

Gen Z have a preference for purpose and shared values in their work alongside pay. Unlike previous generations, pay is not the only important thing to this generation, but rather having a real purpose to their work and working in a place that shares similar values. Within a dental practice or orthodontic practice, you offer a service that has a real impact on people. Yet this is often overlooked or taken for granted. It is really important to constantly remind yourself and your team about the impact and the purpose of what they’re doing. You also have to work on and clarify your values.

2. Desire for Feedback, Growth, Coaching, and Development

I suspect this may surprise some of you. Gen Z want and expect regular feedback and coaching, along with opportunities to grow and develop in their roles. This is extremely important to them, and without it, they will look elsewhere. They also want to see a pathway for growth.

3. Technological Fluency

I suspect this one is not a surprise to you. This generation grew up with tech and so they are extremely fluent with tech. They like it and want it. They expect dental practices to use tech for systems and communication.

4. Focus on Well-being and work-life balance

Gen Z places a high value on mental health, wellbeing, and flexible working patterns, advocating for practices that safeguard balance and personal development. They want a balance and real time off from work.

5. Demand for Inclusivity and Diversity

This generation expects workplaces to be diverse and inclusive, and is more likely to support organisations and leaders that champion equality and social responsibility.

6. Authenticity, Transparency, and Trust

Authenticity and transparency are foundational to earning Gen Z’s trust and engagement. Gen Z values transparency and authenticity more than previous generations, seeking genuine interactions and openness about you and what you are doing as a dental practice.

1 regular misconception about Gen Z Dental team members

Gen Z are lazy. 

This is simply not the case. There are many Gen Z who are willing to work extremely hard. Research shows that while many managers think Gen Z lacks strong work ethic, this perception often reflects leadership failures rather than generational deficiencies. Gen Z is considered the hardest-working generation when in work environments matching their ethics and values.

Their shorter job tenures are rational responses to leadership failures rather than evidence of disloyalty or entitlement.

Gen Z are not lazy.

6 recommendations for leading Gen Z Dental team members 

1. Mindset/Approach/Cognitive Bias

It is really important that you try to change your mindset in terms of how you see Gen Z dental team members. When I have spoken to dentists, orthodontists or practice managers about leading these people, it’s almost as if they cannot do anything about it and these people are just the way they are. This is simply not the case and actually you have to understand that it is your responsibility as leaders to find ways to motivate engage and inspire, the young team members to contribute to your dental practice. You can have an impact on this. You have agency, and it is within your control to have an impact on these people.

Alongside this, you have to be very aware of confirmation bias when leading younger people in your practice. Confirmation bias is when you see what you want to see. You will notice behaviours from the younger generation that will reinforce your review and beliefs around the younger team members. If you believe they are all lazy this is what you will see. At the same time you will ignore behaviours from younger dental team members that actually go contrary to your beliefs about Gen Z people. If a Gen Z is working extremely hard you may not even notice it. You therefore have to be dispel these previous beliefs and approach every conversation and interaction with a fresh perspective. This will enable you to start seeing them as a group of people that you can motivate and inspire.

2. Coach, Feedback & Develop your Young People

The younger people want to have regular feedback and they want to be coached. Just having an appraisal once a year is not good enough for the younger generation. See the recent article I wrote around doing appraisals. They want to be given feedback consistently and they want that feedback to be balanced. This means that only giving them difficult feedback and not noticing when they do something great is also unlikely to be effective.

Coaching them means giving them time to ask how they want to do it. It doesn’t mean telling them what to do all the time. Make the most of their technological fluency and ask them how they would do it. Give them ownership to take responsibility for more tasks and keep giving them feedback. There are many benefits to really coaching as I wrote about in a previous article.

Create a pathway for development. This is extremely lacking in many dental practices. Yes, there are a relatively small number of positions, but be creative. For example, provide a pathway for a nurse to move into a Lead Nurse, followed by being a TCO and then a Practice Manager.

3. Values & Purpose

Take time to really establish your values as a dental practice. Involve the team in those discussions if you haven’t already established a clear set of values.

See my previous article on this topic. Come back to your values consistently and check in to see if they are really being lived and communicated within the group. This will give people a strong understanding of what your values are as a dental practice. It is if they are genuinely being lived.

You can also encourage individuals to think about what their own values are and how they relate to the values of your practice. You may think but what happens if they’re not the same. There will always be a level of tension but if they are genuinely wildly different then it’s probably best that that person isn’t working at your dental practice both for you and for them. Having them think about it can often allow them to see how they are really matched to the values of your practice, which will further the sense of belonging and motivation.

Purpose is something that you can take time to work on as well as a team. To actually give some space and time to think about what is your contribution as a dental practice. What is your impact on the local community of your dental practice. Get the team involved and then get them to start thinking about how can they further their contribution to that purpose.

This will allow them to feel like they are contributing to something bigger and not just earning a pay check.

4. Boundaries for you and them

Create clear boundaries both for you and for them. You can use the values you created together to help you create those boundaries and to refer back to when either recognising great behaviours or pulling people up on inappropriate behaviours. This allows both of you to be clear on boundaries.

I think that because you may have pre-conceived ideas that young people will have more mental health challenges, this makes you scared to have difficult conversations. You must continue to have these conversations when things are not up to expectations and also recognise really great behaviours.

You also need to have discussions with these younger people about areas such as work/life balance and expectations about working hours. They don’t want to be spending hours outside of their normal working hours on work. If you expect this then I think you have to draw up clear boundaries with the individual. Once the boundaries have been drawn up, you have to respect them. Otherwise, this will cause the individual to seek employment elsewhere.

5. Be honest & open

Be open with them and share with them what is going on in the practice.Don’t make up stuff. Be open and honest. Not just about the practice but also about you. Demonstrate a level of vulnerability. This is definitely linked into the next point about giving them time. Give them time and this will allow you to have a genuine connection with them.

6. Give them time

Give your young people time. In a dental practice, it can be easy to carry on at pace and not to separate out time for your people. What I mean by this is not just time to talk about work and the work that they do, but also to really talk about them and how they are. This will help you really understand them and also will help with giving them a space to express any frustrations that they may have and any feelings they also may have. Really listen to them. This will have immense benefits in terms of making them feel valued and is also really likely to help with their mental health and well-being. If you really listen to them and really value their opinions, they can really contribute to the growth of your dental practice.

Conclusion

Old school leadership is out!

My one overriding observation about Gen Z and their expectations is that old-school leadership just will not work with this group of team members. You cannot be dictatorial, aggressive, or micromanaging. You have to be able to connect with and empathise with these team members. You have to be able to give consistent and effective feedback. Spend time with these people about them and their lives.

In summary, you cannot be an old-school leader any more. It doesn’t work on the younger team members. They won’t accept it and will leave. You need to be a modern-day leader who can adapt their leadership style to different situations.

Do you want to learn how to do this? Join the Certificate or Diploma in Dental Practice Leadership.