Aaron and Spencer apply our framework to leadership in business, government, and the field.
Aaron and Spencer talk with COL(R) Mike Yankovich, a vice president at Ramapo College and a former West Point economics and mathematics professor, about public goods, the value of a college education, and the cost of leaning too hard on a team's best performers.
Aaron and Spencer talk with COL(R) Jay Powers, former commander of 5th Special Forces Group and now a Scaling Up coach and high school wrestling coach, about why leadership is simple but difficult and why a leader's priorities so rarely reach the last person in the organization.
Aaron and Spencer ask A. Todd Howard, MetLife Investment Management's Head of Fixed Income - EMEA and a former Army Black Hawk pilot, whether an AI could ever be a good leader. His answer turns on accountability, soft information, and why commitment only counts when it costs something.
Aaron and Spencer draw the line between uncertainty, which the brain treats like a game, and ambiguity, which it treats like a threat, then introduce DICAO, the five failure modes ambiguity can produce in leaders and teams.
Ben Summers, head of Vanguard UK and one of the original authors of the economic ideas behind this show, on shutting down a business without abandoning the people in it, what a booby-trapped weapons cache taught him about letting success validate your own decisions, and why leadership comes down to how others feel when you're in the room.
Rob Shaw, founding President and CEO of Echelon Bank and a 27-year Tampa Bay banker, on the soft information behind every good loan, the culture of a brand-new bank, and why character is the only hard no.
West Point economist Dean Dudley on how the best leaders reduce ambiguity, shape who their people become, and turn conflict into a problem disciplined thinking can actually solve.
Aaron and Spencer explore Andrew "Drew" Barnes's path from the job site to the classroom within the Leadership Economics framework, from why his students are paid from the neck up to negotiation as a master skill and why your unit of reward shifts from dollars to minutes.
Aaron and Spencer explore LTC (R) Josh Richardson's experiences and leadership lessons within the Leadership Economics framework, from the pace of trust to knowing when to stay the course or pivot, and why great is just good over time.
Aaron and Spencer turn the AIME framework into a working playbook, walking through the six economic principles every leader actually uses: opportunity cost, marginal thinking, incentives, trade and trust, information, and command and control.
In the pilot, Aaron and Spencer argue that great leaders are quietly good economists, and introduce AIME (Allocation, Information, Motivation, Execution) as the four focal points of a leader's job.
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