How to Motivate Younger Employees, with David Yeager

March 23, 2026·39 min·2 clips

David Yeager argues that high standards and high support resolve the mentor’s dilemma.

1. Coaching for Leaders examines motivating younger employees through David Yeager’s research and book, 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People. 2. Host Dave Stachowiak interviews Yeager, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-founder of the Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute. 3. Yeager’s central thesis is that managers should replace the “kids these days” narrative with high standards, high support, and explicit respect. 4. Dan Gilbert and a graduate student found that every generation in U.S. surveys has viewed the next generation as worse for roughly 70 years. 5. Yeager says young people are often attuned to new cultural incentives, such as changing labor markets, podcasting, TikTok, and emerging paths to success. 6. The mentor’s dilemma arises because criticism can demotivate, while withholding criticism can fail to teach; the proposed alternative is the mentor mindset. 7. Yeager’s research on “wise feedback” pairs critical guidance with statements that the manager has high standards and believes the recipient can meet them. 8. He describes three styles: the enforcer has high demand and low support, the protector has low demand and high support, and the mentor combines both. 9. Yeager says status and respect can become as urgent for adolescents as food and sleep are for infants, influencing risk, attention, and workplace behavior. 10. Managers, teachers, coaches, parents, and leaders working with younger people.

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