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 around negotiation, communication, and the soft skills that firms say they need most. Drew is an Assistant Professor of Construction Management at the University of North Florida. Before academia, he spent five years with Dan Ryan Builders, where he developed a complete curriculum for preparing new hires to operate and lead well. We follow Drew's path from the job site to the classroom and explore the ideas he teaches: why construction management is a management degree and his students are paid from the neck up, why Getting to Yes anchors his graduate labor course, how your unit of reward shifts from dollars to minutes, what the scroll is really costing his students, and why the leaders who perform best have mastered their inner experience. What we cover The lumber-gopher origin: from carrying boards for a framing crew at 16 to a Ph.D. in construction management Mentorship that moves you forward: Edwin, and "how long do I have with you?" The missing curriculum: why soft skills, not just technical skills, decide who leads What even counts as a soft skill, and the trouble with teaching it at scale Reputation, fair prices, and trade partners: trust as the real currency of a job site Negotiation as a master skill, and why Getting to Yes anchors his graduate course The unit of reward: how it shifts from dollars to minutes, and what that shift costs Social media and scarce minutes: the brushing-teeth math and what the scroll really costs Everything is created twice: the blueprint, and controlling your inner experience Mentioned Getting to Yes, Roger Fisher and William Ury Harvard Business Review on Negotiation The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Garth Brooks, "Unanswered Prayers" David Hume and Adam Smith (Spencer's founding-philosophers aside) Featured guest: Andrew "Drew" Barnes — Andrew Barnes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Construction Management at the University of North Florida (UNF). After receiving his bachelor's degree in Construction Management from Brigham Young University in 2013, he spent five years working in Raleigh, North Carolina for the mid-Atlantic homebuilder, Dan Ryan Builders (now DRB Group) as a senior purchasing agent and later as the corporate instructional designer. In 2018, he left the workforce to attend graduate school at Virginia Tech where he received his Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning. Drew loves teaching young men and women how to build homes, bridges, buildings, hospitals, roads, and, most of all, themselves. His research focuses on construction management education, managerial workforce development, and residential construction with an emphasis on offsite delivery methods. (UNF Faculty Profile, LinkedIn) Subscribe to the newsletter — one short essay every other Tuesday: leadershipeconomics.com