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 Nichols, a product leader at Waymo, DoorDash, and Uber, discusses conscious leadership, soft skills, strategy development, and balancing vision with execution, offering insights on emotional intelligence and life purpose.
Deep Dive Analysis
13 Topic Outline
Defining Conscious Leadership and Its Importance
The Power of Soft Skills in Leadership
Navigating Uber's Evolution and Culture Shifts
Embracing Emotions and Inner Work in the Workplace
Strategies for Sharpening Vision and Product Strategy
Balancing Visionary Thinking with Execution
Lessons from DoorDash, Uber, and Waymo
The Future of Autonomous Ride-Hailing and Uber's Role
Contrarian View: The Value of Emotions in the Workplace
Keys to a Successful, Impactful, and Fulfilling Life
Cultivating Responsibility and Agency
Lightning Round: Book Recommendations and Life Motto
Memorable Travis Kalanick Anecdote
5 Key Concepts
Conscious Leadership
Conscious leadership is about becoming more aware of one's interior world, including biases and inherited belief systems, and taking responsibility for the influence one has in the world. It extends beyond formal management roles to anyone who impacts others, from family to community.
What You Resist Will Persist
This concept suggests that trying to suppress or fight against thoughts and emotions often makes them stronger or more persistent. Instead, allowing thoughts and feelings to arise without judgment can help break negative cognitive-emotive loops and provide more agency over one's experience.
First Principles Thinking
This mental model involves questioning fundamental assumptions about why things are the way they are, rather than reasoning by analogy. By breaking down problems to their core truths, it can reveal inefficiencies and open doors to innovative solutions, such as rethinking transportation needs.
Whole Body Intelligence
This idea posits that intelligence isn't solely in the head (logic and data) but also encompasses wisdom from the heart and gut, expressed through emotions. Recognizing and understanding these emotional signals can provide valuable insights and guide decision-making.
Objective Function for Life
Similar to how algorithms are designed with an objective function, individuals have an implicit objective function for their lives, often driven by inherited values or societal expectations. Becoming conscious of and intentionally defining this objective function, by considering 'future self,' helps align daily actions with long-term priorities and fulfillment.
8 Questions Answered
Conscious leadership means becoming more aware of your internal world, including biases and beliefs, and taking responsibility for your influence on others, whether in formal roles or personal interactions.
Soft skills like creating space for others, listening, and not needing to 'win' arguments become more crucial as one gains seniority, helping to foster co-creation and collaboration rather than relying on power dynamics or being the 'loudest voice'.
Instead of fighting or suppressing stressful emotions, allow them to arise without judgment. Recognize that external approval is not necessary for your well-being and view challenges as opportunities for feedback and learning, rather than threats.
Improve strategy and vision by working on a mission you're passionate about, deeply immersing yourself in a specific domain for an extended period, applying first principles thinking to question assumptions, and visualizing the future (5-10 years out) to identify potential trajectories and opportunities.
The key is dynamic balance; avoid deliberating too long without action (too much vision) or executing blindly without clear direction (too much execution). Adjust focus between vision-setting and execution based on the current needs, recognizing that both extremes have drawbacks.
Uber's DNA was initially very rider-centric, focused on providing the best consumer experience, while DoorDash was merchant-centric from its inception, aiming to help small businesses succeed, with delivery being a means to that end.
A contrarian belief is that emotions should be welcomed and even discussed in the workplace, rather than left at home. Emotions provide 'whole body intelligence' and wisdom, signaling what needs attention (fear), what needs to be let go (sadness), what needs to change (anger), or what should be celebrated (joy).
The primary key is to consciously define your 'objective function' for life, rather than passively inheriting values. This involves thinking from the perspective of your 'future self' and being mindful that life will end, which helps prioritize what truly matters over short-term distractions.
18 Actionable Insights
1. Break Victim Consciousness
Commit to shifting from feeling like life is happening to you to taking responsibility for how you see the world. This empowers you to choose your response to circumstances and view challenges as growth opportunities, rather than feeling at the effect of external factors.
2. Get Clear on Life’s Objective
Define your life’s objective function by considering “future me” (e.g., five years from now). This helps prioritize daily actions based on long-term values, like relationships, over short-term gains, like a slightly better presentation.
3. Practice Mindfulness of Mortality
Cultivate an awareness that life will end to re-evaluate daily priorities. This perspective helps you stop wasting time on things that don’t matter and focus on what truly counts, like relationships and impactful work.
4. Cultivate Self-Worth from Within
Stop seeking external approval, control, or security to complete something internally. Relying on internal self-worth prevents a “hungry ghost” cycle where external achievements are never enough, fostering genuine self-love.
5. Allow Emotions to Arise
Instead of fighting or suppressing stressful thoughts and emotions, simply allow them to be present. This breaks negative feedback loops, as “what you resist will persist,” and allows for a more open and curious state.
6. Welcome Emotions in the Workplace
Recognize that emotions carry wisdom and can be valuable signals in professional settings. Pay attention to how emotions manifest in your body (e.g., fear, sadness, anger, joy, creative energy) and consider voicing them to shift the tone of conversations and foster deeper understanding.
7. Practice Conscious Leadership
Become more aware of your interior world, biases, and inherited belief systems, then take responsibility for your influence in the world. This approach recognizes that everyone is a leader through their impact on others, regardless of formal title.
8. Prioritize Product Impact Over Optics
Focus primarily on building an “awesome product” and manifesting great work, rather than solely on presentation optics or how you are perceived. Paradoxically, this dedication to genuine impact often leads to greater recognition and career advancement.
9. Develop Strategy Through Passion
Choose to work in product areas where you have a tremendous amount of passion, as this serves as the fuel and motivation for breaking through challenges and developing effective strategies. Personal excitement for the mission is a precursor to strategic success.
10. Deeply Immerse in Your Domain
Spend significant time (e.g., years) deeply immersed in a specific product area to develop a strong strategy. It’s challenging to create innovative strategies with only short-term experience, as nuance and long-term trends require sustained focus.
11. Apply First Principles Thinking
Question why things are the way they are, identifying inefficiencies or non-optimal aspects from a fundamental level. This approach, exemplified by asking “why” about vehicle weight or rocket costs, often reveals doorways to new opportunities and innovative solutions.
12. Visualize the Future for Vision
Close your eyes and imagine a salient picture of the future (5-10 years out) in your domain. This exercise helps develop a compelling vision by considering how cities, transportation, or other aspects might evolve, inspiring action and guiding strategy.
13. Carve Out Contemplative Time
Regularly schedule dedicated time (e.g., a couple of hours) away from back-to-back meetings and daily distractions to engage in deep, contemplative thinking. Activities like running, hiking, or driving without media can help you access a different headspace for strategic ideation.
14. Foster Co-Creative “Brain Trust” Sessions
Organize extended, laptop-free sessions with your team to brainstorm and riff on ideas, similar to Pixar’s “brain trust.” This collaborative environment, free of judgment and attachment to being right, fosters co-exploration and generates innovative solutions.
15. Balance Vision and Execution
Avoid extremes of either excessive theorizing without action or “ready, fire, aim” execution without sufficient strategy. Dynamically adjust your focus between deep strategic thinking and pedal-to-the-metal execution, learning from both approaches.
16. Prioritize 1-3 High-Leverage Tasks
Limit your daily or weekly to-do list to the one to three most important, highest-leverage items. This practice helps maintain focus, ensures significant impact, and prevents getting overwhelmed by a long list of less critical tasks.
17. Empty Your Mind by Writing Things Down
Get all your to-dos, ideas, and reminders out of your head and onto paper or a digital system. An “empty mind” is crucial for creativity and focus, as trying to remember everything while also being productive is a recipe for disaster.
18. Create Space for Junior Voices
As a senior leader, consciously sit back and create space for more junior colleagues to speak up in meetings. Be mindful of power dynamics and avoid needing to “win the argument,” allowing others to contribute their perspectives first.
4 Key Quotes
What you resist will persist and what you fear will appear.
JM Nickels (quoting his first coach)
Don't mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon.
JM Nickels (quoting the Buddha)
The only people that'll remember you working late every night is your kids.
JM Nickels (quoting an unnamed source)
Beyond all polarities, I am. Let the judgments and opinions of the mind be the judgments and opinions of the mind, and you exist behind that.
JM Nickels (quoting Ram Dass)
1 Protocols
Allowing Emotions in High-Stakes Situations
JM Nickels- Allow whatever thoughts and emotions are arising without trying to stop or fight them.
- Take a breath and relax, coming home to the fact that your well-being is not dependent on external approval (e.g., a manager's opinion of your presentation).
- Recognize that emotions and situations are transient, not permanent, and view the situation as an opportunity for feedback and learning rather than a threat.