Aaron Phipps and Spencer Clouatre

Leadership Economics

Business EN ↓ 5 episodes

Most leadership advice is a collection of motivational stories or checklists pulled from someone else's company. Leadership Economics starts from a different premise: that leadership is an economic problem at its core, a question of scarce resources, incomplete information, and choices made under uncertainty. Aaron Phipps, an economist at West Point, and Spencer Clouatre, a retired Army Colonel and former Special Operations aviator, work through new ideas about how people actually decide, lead, and create, and they sit down with leaders from across sectors to hear how those leaders think about...

Author

Aaron Phipps and Spencer Clouatre

Episodes

The Person You're Trying to Become 30.06.2026 1:19:22

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 beaches of N...

Your Unit of Reward Will Change 16.06.2026 1:24:55

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 around ne...

Great Is Good Over Time 02.06.2026 1:04:38

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 Ranger Re...

The 6 Principles of the Economic Leader 19.05.2026 1:05:58

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 it into a...

How we got here and why leadership is an economics problem 28.04.2026 49:44

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 Point. Aaro...