Dara Khosrowshahi

Introduction

Dara Khosrowshahi has served as CEO of Uber since 2017.   He joined the company in a period of reputational and operational turmoil and has guided it toward greater stability, profitability, and a redesigned culture. This report assesses his leadership through the lens of the Big Love Leadership Framework (Purpose, Presence, People, Processes, Performance), noting where he aligns well and where opportunities for growth remain.

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💚 Purpose

Khosrowshahi demonstrates meaningful alignment with the Purpose dimension of Big Love Leadership.

Evidence & behaviors:

• He took the helm of Uber when its culture and reputation were significantly damaged, with the goal of restoring integrity and sustainable growth.  

• His background (immigrant family, engineering & finance) shapes a personal narrative of contribution and transformation—suggesting a service orientation to broader community and systems.  

• He has articulated that Uber is evolving into a broader mobility, delivery and logistics platform, pointing to long-term systems thinking, not merely short-term disruption.  

Result:

Under his leadership Uber has moved toward profitability and cultural renewal, indicating that purpose is being operationalised.  

✅ High alignment with Big Love Leadership Purpose

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💚 Presence

On the Presence dimension—showing up with care, integrity, awareness and relational strength—Khosrowshahi shows strong behaviors, though with room for deeper relational modelling.

Evidence & behaviors:

• Many commentators describe his style as calm, diplomatic and inclusive— a contrast to his predecessor’s more combative approach.  

• He emphasises listening, collaboration and empathy, signaling shift toward more human-centred leadership at Uber.  

• He has publicly engaged in conversations about culture, ethics and transformation—demonstrating awareness of the interconnectedness of people, business and community.  

Considerations / gap areas:

• While his public presence is strong, less is clearly documented about how consistently he practices vulnerability, deep listening, and emotional regulation at all levels of the organisation.

• The explicit use of the word “love” in his communications as a principle of leadership appears less frequent (though his actions demonstrate many of the underlying values).

🟢 Strong alignment with Presence; opportunity to deepen relational vulnerability and explicit “love”-in-communication across all levels

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💚 People

In the People dimension—treating all stakeholders with dignity, care and belonging—Khosrowshahi demonstrates notable strengths.

Evidence & behaviors:

• After taking over Uber, he emphasised culture change, accountability and rebuilding trust internally and externally.  

• His leadership style is described as collaborative and inclusive, encouraging open dialogue and empowerment of teams.  

• Employee and stakeholder trust have improved under his leadership, signaling stronger people-orientation.  

Result:

The shift toward more inclusive culture and empowerment of stakeholders marks meaningful progress.

✅ Fully aligned with Big Love Leadership People dimension

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💚 Processes

For the Processes dimension—building fair, transparent, and sustainable systems—Khosrowshahi shows meaningful alignment, though scaling these remains a challenge.

Evidence & behaviors:

• He has overseen Uber’s shift from an aggressive “move fast and break things” model to one emphasising ethics, governance, accountability and operational discipline.  

• Emphasis on transparency, stakeholder engagement, and process redesign (especially culture and decision‐making) are part of his strategy.  

Considerations / gap areas:

• As Uber continues to scale globally across many markets, embedding fairness, transparency and stakeholder co-design in every region and supply chain is an ongoing challenge.

• More visible metrics and stakeholder-co-designed system improvements could enhance alignment.

🟢 Strong alignment with Processes; opportunity to deepen co-design, transparency and systemic robustness at global scale

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💚 Performance

In the Performance dimension—achieving results with compassion, renewal and sustainability—Khosrowshahi shows strong alignment.

Evidence & behaviors:

• He guided Uber from heavy losses toward its first annual operating profit (in 2023) and improved cash-flow discipline.  

• His leadership has diversified Uber’s business into mobility, delivery, logistics and future mobility, supporting long-term value creation rather than short-term hype.  

• He communicates a performance mindset that includes purpose, culture and people alongside financials.

Result:

Uber’s improved performance under his leadership shows that pursuing results and caring for system, people and purpose are not mutually exclusive.

✅ High alignment with Big Love Leadership Performance

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Conclusion

Dara Khosrowshahi is a strong example of Big Love Leadership in action—particularly in a complex, high-stakes business and transformation environment. He aligns well with purpose, presence (with growing depth), people, processes and performance. His leadership shows that even a giant disruptor like Uber can shift toward more ethical, inclusive and sustainable models.

That said, as with any leader in a very large enterprise with complex global operations, there remain opportunities: deeper relational vulnerability, explicit use of “love” as a leadership principle, broader co-design of systems with stakeholders, and transparent metrics beyond finance.

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Suggestions for Continued Growth

• Amplify explicit relational language of “love” (or its synonyms) in leadership communication to reinforce the Big Love ethos across the organisation.

• Strengthen mechanisms for deep listening, feedback loops and vulnerability across all levels of the organisation and across global markets, making relational presence tangible everywhere.

• Expand stakeholder-co-design in process/system redesign (drivers, local communities, global supply chains) so that fairness, transparency and belonging are embedded widely.

• Publicly track and report people- and planet-centred metrics alongside financials—so performance is multidimensional and visible at scale.

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References

• “Dara Khosrowshahi | Leadership – Uber.” Uber Technologies, Inc.  

• “Dara Khosrowshahi: The Visionary CEO Transforming Uber.” Quartr insight.  

• “The Turnaround Artist: How Dara Khosrowshahi Transformed Uber’s Culture and Bottom Line.” Leaders The Podcast blog.  

• “What Leadership Style Does Uber Use: Transformational Lessons.” Quarterdeck.  

• “Uber’s Collaborative Leadership to Employee Empowerment.” Quantic blog.  

This analysis was conducted by ChatGPT using the Big Love Leadership criteria provided by Calocedrus Partners.