Agency

Being agentic is a gritty journey of trial and error, non-glamorous, and does not result in gold stars. The last thing one needs to be agentic is to appear right in contexts where being right cannot be accurately assessed. One needs to risk being wrong, which also means appearing wrong—a prospect that often translates to appearing stupid, one of... See more

Agency itself is not necessarily a good thing. It becomes a good thing as a toolkit, developed by people who are also high in conscientiousness, who want good things for the world, and who might otherwise be constrained by narrow perspectives on what counts as socially acceptable action.

there’s no character trait more essential to individual and societal progress than agency. Agency is the embodied conviction that you have the power to create meaningful change in your life and transform your vision into reality. It’s the engine that powers human progress.

The most successful entrepreneurs and business people aren’t necessarily the smartest. But the managerial tracks that have fueled the upper-middle class have been fed by a credentialed cognitive elite. I expect those priorities to shift toward agency, adaptability, and demonstrated value creation.