NBAA Summer Series Webinar: Building Trust with Gen Z and Millennial Employees

July 15, 2026

With millennials and Gen Z now making up most of the labor pool, business aviation leaders may need to challenge some long-held assumptions about generational differences while also better understanding how this critical workforce defines career success.

That was a central message from the latest NBAA Business Aviation Management Committee’s (BAMC’s) Summer Learning Series webinar, “Secrets to Leading, Engaging, and Retaining Gen Z & Millennials,” featuring bestselling author and keynote speaker Paul Angone and moderator Jeff Poeppelman, chief pilot with Nationwide Insurance.

In this follow-up webinar to his 2026 NBAA Leadership Conference session, Angone noted that many criticisms directed at Gen Z and millennial employees – often centered on a perceived sense of entitlement and impatience – mirror language used in the 1970s to describe Baby Boomers, when Boomers themselves were young adults.

“This is not just a generational thing. It’s an age thing,” Angone explained, noting that this perception is often based on behavior typical of people in their 20s, an age when they are often focused on major life decisions about where they will work, where they will live and what kind of life they want to build.
For aviation leaders, these stereotypes can get in the way of the meaningful relationships that today’s workers prioritize.

Instead, Angone encouraged leaders to focus on areas of shared understanding, particularly on younger workers’ definition of career success. “Each generation defines success differently,” he said. “If there is a disconnect between how success is defined at your organization and what is expected of your employees, you will see an impact on retention.”

That initial understanding about success and expectations can be the catalyst for a deeper conversation that articulates a leader’s values, which millennial and Gen Z employees increasingly cite as a critical aspect of job satisfaction, and builds trust in a leader’s decisions.

“This has to go beyond the process and protocols of mandated or calendar meetings,” said Angone. “Take the time to be available, whether it is with informal drop-ins at work or virtual meetings with remote workers.”
This less formal approach to relationship-building can also help leaders counter a common concern among younger workers that they do not matter or that their work is invisible, Angone noted.

That engagement can also be a powerful retention tool in today’s social environment, where many workers are reaching traditional adult milestones such as marriage, homeownership and starting a family later than previous generations, or not at all.

Without these anchors, employees may be more willing to leave roles where they feel disconnected, undervalued or unclear about their future, Angone warned.

For leaders trying to apply these approaches, Angone emphasized grace, clarity and honesty. Leaders are not expected to be perfect, he said, but today’s workers see the acknowledgment of challenges and apologies not as a vulnerability like previous generations but as a strength that builds confidence in a leader’s decision-making process.

Angone also urged leaders to practice what he called the “triple As” of leadership: accessibility, availability and authenticity.

“Authenticity comes from showing that what you say and what you do align with who you are as a person,” explained Angone. “For leaders, that means you must understand your core values. I encourage every leader to write those core values down, so you have a guiding point from which to lead.”