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 — Brought to you by: • Pendo—The only all-in-one product experience platform for any type of application • The Enterprise Ready Conference — For B2B leaders building enterprise SaaS • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security — Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/becoming-a-conscious-leader-john-mark-nickels — Where to find John Mark Nickels: • X: https://x.com/nickelsjm • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmnickels/ • Website: https://www.rhythmofbeing.com/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — 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 — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe