Leadership Economics
Leadership Economics is a podcast that rethinks leadership through the lens of economics, focusing on scarce resources, incomplete information, and decision-making under uncertainty. Hosts Aaron Phipps, an economist at West Point, and Spencer Clouatre, a retired Army Colonel and Special Operations aviator, explore how people actually decide and lead. They also interview leaders from various sectors to gain insights into their approaches. The show aims to provide a sharper way to diagnose problems rather than offering simple hacks or formulas.
Episodes
Decisions Under Pressure, with BG(R) Geoff Kent
Aaron and Spencer talk with BG(R) Geoff Kent, a retired Army brigadier general and the founder of ShockPoint and EXCEED, about how leaders make decisions under pressure, how Geoff teaches decision-making to college students and executives, and why leaders who have been responsible for others for a long time need time to recover.
Geoff Kent and Spencer first met in the 160th Special Opera
Leadership and Public Goods, with COL(R) Mike Yankovich
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.
Mike Yankovich and Spencer taught economics together in West Point's Department of Social Sciences in the mid-2000s and won a c
Leadership Is Simple But Difficult, with COL(R) Jay Powers
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.
Jay Powers and Spencer were West Point classmates. Jay went into the infantry, then Special Forces, and spent
Could AI Be a Good Leader?
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.
Spencer opens this episode with thirty years of history. He and Todd Howard met as cadets, colliding on
Uncertainty vs. Ambiguity and the Five Ways They Derail Leaders
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.
In this episode, Spencer and Aaron expand on the Leadership Economics framework. Spencer opens by reviewing the show so far: scarcity, the production function, the AI
How Others Feel When You're in the Room
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.
Ben Summers is Head of Vanguard UK. He served nea
The Only Deal Breaker Is Character
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.
Rob Shaw has spent 27 years in Tampa Bay banking, from AmSouth's management training program through leadership roles at Northern Trust, Signature Bank, USAmeriBank, NorthStar Bank, and
The Person You're Trying to Become
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.
Dr. Dean Dudley retires from West Point this month after 33 years teaching economics and game theory to more than 33,000 cadets. He returns to the show to trace one thread from identity to game theory to the be
Your Unit of Reward Will Change
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.
Most construction management programs are built around contracts, scheduling, and cost control. Drew Barnes built his
Great Is Good Over Time
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.Episode three of Leadership Economics, and our first guest. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Josh Richardson is a West Point graduate, a Ranger, and a 75th R
The 6 Principles of the Economic Leader
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.
Episode two of Leadership Economics. Aaron and Spencer build on the AIME framework from the pilot and lay out the six economic principles that turn
How we got here and why leadership is an economics problem
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.The pilot episode of Leadership Economics. Aaron and Spencer trace how the framework took shape. Spencer brings the operational side, a career flying assault helicopters and teaching at West Poi
Recommended
The Church of What's Happening Now: The New Testament
Busted Open
Deadline: White House
Crickets Corner
History of the Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco
Fox news
K-Drama Obsessed Mamas | Beyond “Just One More Episode!”
True Crime Classics
The Healer Revolution
Becoming: HER with Nikki Spoelstra
Booked, Blonde & Busy w/ Olivia Ponton
McKinsey on Consumer and Retail
