Becoming a conscious leader: Leading without fear, finding your life’s objective function, and getting better at vision and strategy | John Mark Nickels (Uber, Waymo, DoorDash)
JM Nickels is a Senior Director of Product Management at Uber. Previously, he was Head of Product for Commercialization at Waymo and led product teams at DoorDash. JM is also a coach and advisor focused on conscious leadership. In our conversation, we discuss:
- How to sharpen your vision and strategy skills
- What “conscious leadership” means and how to practice it
- Practical techniques for managing stress
- The power of soft skills and emotional intelligence in product leadership
- Lessons from working at Uber, Waymo, and DoorDash
- Keys to living a successful and fulfilling life
- Much more
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Brought to you by:
- Pendo—The only all-in-one product experience platform for any type of application
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/becoming-a-conscious-leader-john-mark-nickels
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Where to find John Mark Nickels:
- X: https://x.com/nickelsjm
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmnickels/
- Website: https://www.rhythmofbeing.com/
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Where to find Lenny:
- Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
- X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to JM
(02:02) Conscious leadership explained
(03:41) The power of soft skills
(07:34) Navigating Uber’s evolution
(12:41) Embracing emotions and inner work
(21:46) Crafting strategy and vision
(41:16) Balancing vision and execution
(46:13) Lessons from DoorDash, Uber, and Waymo
(52:32) The future of autonomous ride-hailing
(55:18) Contrarian corner: Embracing emotions in the workplace
(59:47) Keys to a fulfilling life
(01:04:45) Taking responsibility and agency
(01:07:29) Lightning round and final thoughts
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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