31yo boss reveals why she feels so ‘old’ around her Gen Z staff
Laura Henshaw has amassed an empire as a trendy influencer, but she’s revealed why working with Gen Z has still left her feeling “old”.
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Influencer Laura Henshaw has revealed the reality of being a Millennial boss in a very Gen Z world, saying it makes her feel “old”.
Henshaw, 31, is the ultimate Millennial influencer. She became famous in the 2000s when active wear and complicated juices reigned supreme.
The Melbourne local teamed up with her best mate, model and influencer Steph Claire Smith, and the two launched Kic, a health business that boasts over two million members. The business has become so successful that it has even spawned a podcast.
Henshaw’s a fully-fledged businesswoman, and Kic has amassed over 1.9 million likes on TikTok.
The business has now employed smart and savvy Gen Zers, and Henshaw can feel the generational gap.
“I genuinely have never felt so old in my life, and I’m only 31. The slang is what gets me; sometimes I have no idea what they’re talking about,” she told news.com.au.
“There aren’t that many years between us, but there’s a generation gap. The positive is that you get such a diverse perspective.”
Henshaw and Smith play into the generational divide between them as bosses and employers on social media.
The pair were recently quizzed by their Gen Z employee on what certain slang words meant. Neither had heard of the terms rizz, which is slang for charisma, or chat, which is now slang for “help me out”.
“Construct it in a sentence, please,” Henshaw, at one point, desperately pleaded as she tried to make sense of the word rizz.
She might have failed that test but Henshaw doesn’t buy into the idea that Gen Zers are that different from Millennials. Their socks might be longer, but she finds them reasonable. The harder stuff for her is learning how to be a leader.
Millennials aren’t Gen X or Boomers who are often caught up in hierarchal structures, but she needed to learn that being a boss isn’t the same as being someone’s friend.
“One of the biggest learnings I’ve found is that leadership isn’t about being liked, it’s about being respected. When you first step into management, it’s only natural for you to want everyone to like you,” she explained.
“You create an open space but there’s a difference between vulnerability and oversharing.”
She’s also had to learn how to have “tough” conversations with her best friend, who is now her business partner, and she’s the first to admit that it didn’t come naturally.
“I’d be lying if I said that everything is perfect and we never disagree. Having tough conversations is really hard.”
She explained that there have been times in their working relationship when they’ve “avoided” having particular conversations and instead made assumptions about what the other wanted.
“We made assumptions around what the other person was thinking. Which impacted our relationship at the time, and we’ve now learnt we should never do that. Communication is so important.”
Henshaw explained that there was a time when she felt she shared only 95 per cent with her business partner and “held back” the other 5 per cent, which was the stuff that was hard to talk about or the conversations she worried would upset her.
“When you don’t voice something, it builds up inside you. You’re also making an assumption that the other person won’t be in a place to take on that information and making that decision for them,” she said.
“Remember that it’s not an argument, it’s a conversation. For me, I’ve reframed feedback as a gift. It is up to you to share it. Especially if you are leading a team. If you don’t give feedback, you don’t give people the opportunity to grow and evolve, and no one is honest. They aren’t growing in their role.”
Henshaw has a good handle on being a boss these days, but occasionally, she finds herself still fighting to be respected.
“I still feel as a woman, in some instances, I will dress up much more in a suit, and I feel like that is something I’m taking more seriously. I wish I didn’t lean into that belief system. I do notice the difference in a corporate male and how people perceive me.”
Originally published as 31yo boss reveals why she feels so ‘old’ around her Gen Z staff
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