Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles via Jeff Bezos

00:00 1. Customer obsession: start with the customer and work backwards; work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust; pay attention to competitors, but keep obsessing over customers
2. Ownership: think like an owner, long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results; act on behalf of the entire company, not just for your own team; never say “that’s not my job"
3. Invent and simplify: expect and require innovation and invention from your team and always find ways to simplify; be externally aware, always look for new ideas from everywhere, and don’t be limited by “not invented here"
4. Leaders are right a lot 1:52 : you have strong judgment and good instincts; you seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm your beliefs
5. Frugality 3:50 : accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense
6. Hire and develop the best 5:01 : raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion; recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization; develop leaders and take seriously your role in coaching others
7. Earn trust 5:05 : listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. Be vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing; leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume; benchmark yourself and your team against the best.
8. Insist on the highest standards 7:42 : you have relentlessly high standards - many may think these standards are unreasonably high; you are continually raising the bar and driving your team to deliver high quality products, services and processes; defects do not get sent down the line and problems are fixed so they stay fixed
9. Bias for action 11:34 : speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.
10. Learn and be curious 11:34 : you are never done learning and you always seek to improve; you are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them
11. Have backbone. Disagree and commit 13:26 : respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting; have conviction and be tenacious; do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion; once a decision is determined, commit to it.
12. Dive deep 13:26 : operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and be skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath you.
13. Think big 16:04 : thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. Think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.
14. Deliver results 16:04 : focus on the key inputs for your business and deliver with the right quality and in a timely fashion; despite setbacks, rise to the occasion and never settle

[jerryyang]

If you are never used coaching service. I recommended you book a session with dan. I booked 2 and it helped me land a job from amazon. The technical rounds wasn’t perfect, so I think it’s the behavior rounds gave me the job.
I thought i was good before booking the sessions but it turns out I learnt a lot from the sessions.

[ProfessionalTycoons]

1. Customer-centric company
2. long term, customer, and innovation
3. Write and learn a lot (change your mind - be open-minded) -no two pizza team - do not have a large team
4. hire smart people (who want to be the part of the mission) - listen to the customer and INNOVATE (Amazon's job)

[RBNrocks]

I had come here to learn about the LP for interview with Amazon, But after watching this video, I realized one thing. We should understand the needs of these principles for any Organization and the impact they can create. Whether or not I am clearing the interview, but these principles are going to stay in my head and heart from today. Thank you Mr. Bezos

[dareales]

I have an interview with Amazon today and honestly, I didn't care for Bezos at 1st but now it seems like he really believes in the vision of Amazon and I think it's amazing.

[yangerrai]

I am already an Amazonian, watching this video in preparation of my upcoming internal interview. Very helpful!

[rambalram]

I emphatically agree on principle no 2. Ownership. From my Day-1 as an employee I always felt employees should be loyal only to the organization and not to manager they report to. But in practice I have seen manager wants 100% loyalty from their subordinates. Employee also follow the suit because their promotion, bonus, recognition and performance are under one person authority whom they report. .I always have friction with management because I hold that counter view. Suffered layoffs and no promotion in my entire career spanning 16 years except one occasion where I joined as a fresher and was promoted to next band. We were taught very early in our career, "To succeed held each other accountable!" But in practice I have not seen anybody saying no to the manager they report to or asks question why project is going the way it is going. Those lines only stays in paper not practiced. I also firmly believe these are some of the reasons why many great organization disappeared from Silicon Valley.

[ProfessionalTycoons]

1. people want to do something meaningful
2. Embrace change (amazon - tech and retail)
3. Be bold and experiment (AWS kindle and much more) (make failures here and there)
4. Focus on fundamental stuff
5. Did not focus on stock price -

[abcd]

He had me at "We banned powerpoint"!

[brandacus]

I'm studying the leadership principles for an Amazon interview, and this is very helpful. Thank you!

[fqyptob]

Dan, just wanted to thank you a lot. Through your videos and examples I could prepare and clear the screening and the loop and landed job at Amazon. You are the greatest and probably the only resource one needs to clear FAANG interviews. The interview went so well, that I was offered a job before noon the next day !!!

[notthispunk]

Dan, thank you so much for these videos. Following your advice I landed a position with AWS. Can confirm that the behavioral interviews matter more than one's technical skills since Amazon will train you anyway.

[mikdav]

When your local stores go out of business and leaves the unemployment high and people looking for work, blame amazon and eBay and like internet sales. Go to you local store. Use online for info and price comparison and then drive to your local store.

[itsIs]

1.thinking long term, Put customer in the center of the universe and passion for invention.
2. Leaders right alot, listen a lot, Change a lot and challenge the evidence, disconfirm their bbelif. your change mind alot.. reanalyse the situation.
4.no team should fit 10 people perfect team seems natural communication.Like two pizza should
5.Hire smart people, Single people cant take can of plethora of things
Earth most customer centric company.
Interested in amazon mission.
5 . New example for customer sevice and customer centricity
6. Proud of cuulture. Gold standard for innovation.
Work life harmony.
Doing something intereting. Becuase of challenges we have choose they work in future and it is so exciting to work in future
7.Enbracing change, Always changing.
8. Encourage people to be bold . Open to experiments. Big sucess compesate for things that doesnt work. Continuing for experiment.
9. best service and lowest prices

[hellowill]

The "you are right one" is my favorite. It is often misunderstood.

It doesn't mean you assert your (potentially wrong) opinions. It means you seek the truth, listen to others, and admit when you are wrong.

[Dremekeks]

Love the bit about good leaders being right a lot and how it connects to being willing to change your mind. Sort of confirms what I've already been doing for a long time.

[rickkemp]

These 14 leadership principles are right on and share a good amount with the United States Marine Corps Infantry and special ops marines.

[jamesburrows]

The biggest problem with software/solutions based companies today, is nobody is a Customer Champion. Sure, solutions get sold but PM and Delivery are so behind the dial. No wonder why MS closes the doors to their non-preforming re-seller network. If you fail to delight the customer, you're a failure. Keep one very important point in mind, the customer is not always right. It's you're job as a selling organization to coach and direct the customer to resonable expectations, however for the most part innovations are born when a customer and a solution provider can discuss not only "what is" but "what could be". Seldom are home runs developed in a board room or a puzzle factory.

[xiawang]

Anytime and anywhere I need amazon to make my purchase right they have delivered each and every time.

[orapelengmadea]

Thanks for this. this what I needed to prepare for my interview for graduate cloud Support. #am shaking already 😬 #South Africa 🇿🇦

[rauloctavio]

Hi all, just letting you know i received and offer letter from Amazon and im starting on my new role soon.
Thanks Dan for the great tips and support.