"I just need to do something that makes me feel like the world is a better place…even if it's just the thing I am doing right now in front of me. A big part of throwing myself in wholeheartedly to the work was actually coming from a dark place…a feeling of desperation and depression. I couldn't find goodness in the world, so I was trying to make it. Over time that changed into optimism…I can see solutions, I can see other people working, and I believe my community can be better."
"It was just sort of this north star of chasing that feeling of loving other people…because if I could love and serve, then that means it's possible that I could be loved too."

— Woman, BIPOC, public leader

These words, spoken with startling vulnerability, capture what I heard repeatedly across conversations with Millennial leaders: to lead is to care. Not every leader expressed their North Star with such raw intensity, but nearly all described care as central to why they step up. For this generation, care is not peripheral—it defines their approach to authority and leadership itself.

By care, I mean the intentional act of supporting people—both as individuals and as communities—to meet their human needs for well-being and growth. This includes care for people, for community, for values, and for the future. What distinguishes Millennial leaders is how this ethic of care saturates every aspect of their leadership journey: from the initial calling to serve, through daily management practices, to long-term institutional planning. Their leadership is not merely about oversight or strategy—it is a deliberate effort to nurture, protect, and repair the world around them, rooted in both deep empathy and fierce responsibility.

According to Glassdoor Economic Research (using Bureau of Labor Statistics data), Millennials now officially make up the largest share of managers in the U.S. workforce, surpassing both Gen X and Baby Boomers. As they take on these roles, understanding what drives them—and finding ways to support them—becomes crucial for organizations, communities, and the future of leadership.

Millennial leaders’ care orientation is not accidental. It reflects what life course scholars describe as the powerful intersection of history, structure, and biography. Their approach has been forged by systemic failures, strengthened by unprecedented diversity, and sustained by psychological dispositions toward responsibility. Together, these forces have created a generation of leaders with dual awareness: a clear-eyed recognition of our systems’ fragility paired with an equally strong conviction about the urgent necessity of care-driven, purpose-centered work.

Forged by Crisis: When Systems Fail, Care Becomes Essential

Millennials came of age amid cascading disruptions that shattered assumptions about stability and progress. They are the first internet generation, the cohort who experienced 9/11 as a defining childhood trauma, and those who entered the workforce during or shortly after the devastating 2008 financial crisis. Their formative years unfolded against a backdrop of systemic breakdown: widening inequality, political polarization, the COVID-19 pandemic, an epidemic of loneliness, crushing student debt, and climate crisis.

Half of the leaders I interviewed described their peers with words like "tired" and "hopeless." One reflected with weary clarity: "My generation had to be really resilient and really scrappy…sludging through the mess that baby boomers have given us. We didn't have the federal support they did. We've had to make do."

These repeated disruptions instilled both resilience and urgency. Millennials understand viscerally that systems can fail—and that purpose-driven leadership is essential to repair, adapt, and rebuild. Unlike previous generations who could assume institutional stability, Millennials lead with the knowledge that neglect leads to collapse. Care, for them, is not optional—it is the antidote to systemic fragility.

Shaped by Diversity: The Practice of Inclusive Care

If crisis taught Millennials that care is essential for survival, diversity taught them that care is strongest when practiced across difference. Having seen firsthand how fragile institutions can be, Millennials turn to the human and social dimensions of leadership. Their early immersion in diverse communities shapes not only their empathy but the very architecture of how they practice care.

Millennials represent the first truly multiracial and multicultural generation in U.S. history, with roughly 44% identifying as people of color. Many grew up in diverse schools and neighborhoods, forming cross-cultural friendships from an early age. This immersion shaped their practice of care in profound ways:

Normalized Difference: A white male leader who attended a 70% Hispanic high school explained how this experience normalized difference early and seeded a lifelong commitment to bridging divides. As his county shifted to a minority-majority population, he views this commitment as more urgent than ever. For leaders like him, diversity isn't something to manage—it's the foundation of authentic community.

Collectivist Cultural Integration: Millennials widely incorporate non-dominant cultural practices into leadership approaches. A Latina leader articulated this philosophy simply: "What is good about my success if my community is not doing well? True success is success shared by all." A Japanese-American leader described maintaining a "social bank"—depositing trust and connection to strengthen relationships before withdrawals become necessary. Others built belonging through shared meals, storytelling, and family-inspired practices of mutual care.

Marginalization as Empathy Bridge: Painful encounters with exclusion also deepened their commitment to inclusive care. An Asian woman raised in Europe recalled always being "the only one," sharpening her determination to ensure others never felt that isolation. A biracial woman cited her mother's resilience amid discrimination as the driving force behind her racial justice work. A queer white male leader reflected that his own experiences of exclusion created profound empathy for colleagues from other marginalized groups.

Across these stories, Millennials don't merely value diversity—they practice inclusion as care. Their leadership emphasizes reciprocity, relationship-building, and cultural wisdom that consistently foregrounds collective well-being over individual advancement.

Driven by Disposition: The Psychology of Called Leadership

Care is reinforced by both innate tendencies and cultivated dispositions. Research suggests that many leaders possess heightened sensitivity to others’ needs, a strong internal locus of control, and a readiness to assume responsibility for collective outcomes. Six of the eight leaders I interviewed described leadership as "always in them"—an early-emerging, almost instinctive gravitation toward responsibility. One queer public leader captured this reluctant but necessary call with characteristic directness: "If you're going to complain about something, you need to do something about it." At the same time, half of the leaders acknowledged ambitions for higher authority, seeing leadership as a path to greater impact alongside personal growth.

For these Millennial leaders, care is more than a value—it is a disposition. Shaped by both temperament and necessity, they step into leadership not solely for status or authority, but because they feel compelled to act when responsibility demands it.

A Generation Defined by Care

The life course story of Millennial leaders reveals a powerful through-line: they matured amid cascading systemic failures, within a generation shaped by unprecedented diversity and collectivist practices, while carrying psychological dispositions that naturally orient them toward responsibility and service. Their commitment to care is simultaneously personal and political, professional and existential.

These leaders understand something previous generations could take for granted: the absence of care is precisely what brought the world to its current state of fragility. Systems built without care collapse. Communities led without care fragment. Organizations managed without care burn out their people and lose their purpose.

When Millennials lead, they place care at the center not merely to manage more effectively, but to heal historical wounds, repair broken systems, and interrupt destructive cycles of neglect. They lead as if the future depends on it—because they know it does.

This generation’s approach to leadership offers more than new management techniques or organizational practices. It is less about exercising power over others than cultivating the conditions in which individuals and communities can flourish. In a world hungry for healing, Millennial leaders offer something revolutionary in its simplicity—the radical act of leading with care.