Conscious leadership: Unlocking vision, strategy and purpose | JM Nickels (Uber, Waymo, DoorDash)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Pendo and the Enterprise Ready Conference, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with J.M. Nickels, product leader across Uber, DoorDash and Waymo who built the first Uber Pool and later led Uber's mobility product, about conscious leadership. Nickels defines leadership simply as having influence in the world - which makes everyone a leader - and the conscious part as waking up to your interior world, the inherited belief systems that go unquestioned, and then taking responsibility for the influence you have. He describes his own evolution from needing to be the loudest, rightest voice in the room to making space for others, mindful of the power dynamics his seniority creates, and the objective-function test: five years from now he will not care about a slightly better presentation, but he will care about his relationship with his daughters - so mortality should punctuate priorities. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the philosophy; the tactical product sections are not covered. These are Nickels's own views and experiences, not independently verified.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Pendo and the Enterprise Ready Conference, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with J.M. Nickels, product leader across Uber, DoorDash and Waymo who built the first Uber Pool and later led Uber's mobility product, about conscious leadership. Nickels defines leadership simply as having influence in the world - which makes everyone a leader - and the conscious part as waking up to your interior world, the inherited belief systems that go unquestioned, and then taking responsibility for the influence you have. He describes his own evolution from needing to be the loudest, rightest voice in the room to making space for others, mindful of the power dynamics his seniority creates, and the objective-function test: five years from now he will not care about a slightly better presentation, but he will care about his relationship with his daughters - so mortality should punctuate priorities. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the philosophy; the tactical product sections are not covered. These are Nickels's own views and experiences, not independently verified.