Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five oh nine. Today we're going to step
Speaker 2: into a world that most leaders never connect to leadership economics.
Speaker 2: But I'm not talking about stock markets, inflation rates, or
Speaker 2: Wall Street. I'm talking about the basic principles of supply
Speaker 2: and demand and how those same rules shape how you
Speaker 2: lead your people, your time, and your priorities. You don't
Speaker 2: have to be an economist to understand this lesson. You
Speaker 2: just have to understand that leadership runs on the same
Speaker 2: invisible forces that drive every economy scarcity, value, and choice.
Speaker 2: So let's start here. Every economy in the world is
Speaker 2: based on one simple truth. Resources are limited, in Choices matter.
Speaker 2: Guess what so is leadership. You only have so much time, energy, attention,
Speaker 2: and patience to spend every day. Your team only has
Speaker 2: so much motivation, trust, and bandwidth to give. When demand
Speaker 2: exceeds supply, when too many problems, people or priorities compete
Speaker 2: for the same limited resources, something breaks that's not poor management,
Speaker 2: that's leadership economics. So here's an example. Imagine that you
Speaker 2: have ten employees and each of them needs your time
Speaker 2: for different things training, feedback, scheduling, performance reviews, advice, or
Speaker 2: even just a moment to vent. But you, as the leader,
Speaker 2: only have two free hours a day for one on
Speaker 2: one time. That means your time is the scarce resource.
Speaker 2: And when that happens. In economics, when something is scarce,
Speaker 2: its value goes up. That's why how you allocate your
Speaker 2: time becomes one of the most important leadership decisions you'll
Speaker 2: ever make. Every yes you give comes at the cost
Speaker 2: of something else you can't do. That's opportunity cost, one
Speaker 2: of the most fundamental economic principles there is. Let's talk
Speaker 2: about the demand side of leadership. Your team's demand is
Speaker 2: their need for attention, guidance, resources, and clarity. When demand
Speaker 2: is high and supply is low, pressure builds, people get frustrated,
Speaker 2: confusion spreads. But when supply meets demand, when leaders deliver
Speaker 2: the right amount of attention, support, and accountability, this system balances.
Speaker 2: This is why consistent communication matters. If you don't actively
Speaker 2: manage the demand for your leadership, your people will start
Speaker 2: going elsewhere for answers, gossip chains, other managers, or social media.
Speaker 2: And once that happens, your leadership economy experiences inflation. Too
Speaker 2: many voices competing for authority, and your value as a
Speaker 2: leader starts to drop. So now let's flip it. If
Speaker 2: you constantly oversupply, meaning you micromanage, over communicate, or try
Speaker 2: to do everything yourself, you create dependency. Your team stops
Speaker 2: solving problems, stops thinking creatively, and waits for you to
Speaker 2: make every decision. That's the equivalent of printing too much
Speaker 2: money in an economy. It feels good at first everyone's
Speaker 2: getting what they want, but soon the value of your
Speaker 2: leadership decreases because your influence is spread too thin. So
Speaker 2: how do you keep your leadership economy stable? Here are
Speaker 2: three lessons that every leader can borrow straight from economics
Speaker 2: one oh one. The first one, balance supply and demand.
Speaker 2: Don't over commit your time or under deliver your presence.
Speaker 2: Create systems that help distribute leadership. Empower your team to
Speaker 2: handle routine decisions so you can focus on the ones
Speaker 2: that truly need you. Think of delegation as your leadership's
Speaker 2: market correction. It keeps the system from overheating. Number two,
Speaker 2: understand opportunity cost. Every time you say yes to one thing,
Speaker 2: you're saying no to something else. Leaders who forget that
Speaker 2: end up overworked and ineffective. When you spend an hour
Speaker 2: putting out small fires, that's an hour you didn't spend
Speaker 2: developing strategy, or coaching talent or building relationships. The best
Speaker 2: leaders don't just manage time. They invest in where it
Speaker 2: brings the highest return. In number three, create value, don't
Speaker 2: just distribute it. In a real economy, wealth grows when
Speaker 2: new value is created, not just when money changes hands.
Speaker 2: The same is true for leadership. Don't just move tasks
Speaker 2: around or manage existing processes. Create value by improving systems,
Speaker 2: empowering people, and innovating how your team works. When your
Speaker 2: people grow under your leadership, you're increasing the value of
Speaker 2: your organization's currency, which is trust. And here's something else
Speaker 2: worth thinking about. In every economy, there's a concept called
Speaker 2: supply elasticity, how easily something can expand or contract to
Speaker 2: meet demand. Leadership has elasticity too. Some leaders are rigid.
Speaker 2: They have one leadership style, one communication method, and one speed.
Speaker 2: When demand increases, they break under pressure. Other leaders are flexible,
Speaker 2: they can adjust their tone, their focus, or their priorities
Speaker 2: to match what the team needs most that week. Elastic
Speaker 2: leaders survive market swings, the highs and lows of team morale, workload,
Speaker 2: and crisis. Rigid leaders collapse because they're too busy protecting
Speaker 2: their comfort zone instead of serving the moment every day.
Speaker 2: As a leader, you're operating in a living, breathing economy
Speaker 2: one build on trust, time, and energy. Your people are
Speaker 2: your investors, Your priorities are your currency, and your decisions
Speaker 2: determine whether your leadership stays in balance or slides into chaos.
Speaker 2: So take a moment to check your balance sheet. Where
Speaker 2: is demand outpacing supply? Where are you over spending your time?
Speaker 2: And what opportunities are you leaving on the table because
Speaker 2: you're too busy paying for the wrong ones. The leaders
Speaker 2: who master those questions are the ones who stay solvent,
Speaker 2: not just financially, but mentally and operationally. Because in the
Speaker 2: leadership economy, your decisions are the currency. Make sure you
Speaker 2: spend them wisely, And if you haven't done so, please
Speaker 2: check out the free stuff section of my new website.
Speaker 2: I have over twenty five free leadership PDFs for you
Speaker 2: to download to help you build or reinforce your leadership library.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast. I thank
Speaker 2: you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com