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Cutler: The stages of the leadership self-awareness pyramid

John Cutler · What differentiates the highest-performing product teams | John Cutler (The Beautiful Mess) · Jan 15, 2023 · at 1:24:51

Product thinker and newsletter author John Cutler discusses frameworks for leadership and organizational self-awareness with Lenny Rachitsky.

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“The idea is that at first we know nothing about ourselves. And then the next level is that we start become self-aware, but believe the whole world is wired, just like we're wired. And then you go up to the next level and you believe that the world thinks different things, but you still think your way is the best way. To be able to do that. So an example is I remember talking to executive and they're like, people only say because of their managers and because of their money, that's it. And I said, everyone, they said, yes. Do you believe that? Yes. Because everyone believes that it's a physical law of life. And here I am like, oh my God, I joined a company because the mission of the company or whatever. Like, so they're kind of stuck down like second level, you know, where they believe that like, yeah, the world thinks different things, but I'm absolutely right. And then as you get up to the top, you become like a little bit more aware that there's other valid views. And then at the top, you're sort of like, no, you don't like dishonor yourself and throw away who you are, but you realize that this is a huge asset in the world, that there's diverse views that you can bring together to do really, really amazing things.”

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