Good leadership has always been defined by what worked yesterday, yet no formal discipline exists to teach you principles for dealing with unanticipated challenges and uncertainty. As you'll learn, leadership is the act of choosing to shape the world, shifting it from its current path. However, there is no single leadership formula precisely because the innovations of leaders are new creations. Instead, we will construct a framework of human action that rests on decades of research in behavioral economics and neuroscience, formalized with the mathematical tools of microeconomics. With this framework, we assess the role and appropriate application of autonomy, character and honor, humility, empathy, resilience, and more. We will also read and consider how the latest self-help and business movements fit within this framework, including "psychological capital" (PsyCap), "Immunity to Change," "Grit," and others. The key takeaway of the course will be a formalization of what it means to be people of action.
