"[Leaders] Are Right, A Lot"
How is this even a principle ?
Just "be right", a lot ?
Amazon's Leadership Principles
81–90 of 196 posts
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#82This isn't a jibe at Amazon, but I wouldn't call it Principles. Principles is something you adhere to when there's no financial gain involved. When defense contractors use the terms Values, Excellence, Honesty etc - it just undermines the effort. There should be a better word to describe this, perhaps Weights and Constraints when making decisions at Amazon. It's difficult to come up with something as good as Azimov's…
I don't quite understand - what is it about financial gain that makes it incompatible with principles?
Principles is something that you keep regardless if there is money on the table. If money plays any role in the decision process - it's called a contract.
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Leaders are willing to take a 100x salary compared to their line employees because they know they can hustle hard enough to live up to the expectations. There are several reasons for the salary differential. But, fundamentally, one issue is that some things don't scale linearly. To use a simpler example: Richard and Maurice McDonald created a hamburger stand in 1948. They created the original recipes, came up with…
> When it comes time to divvy up the revenue, how do you reflect the fact that companies don't necessarily scale linearly based on the effort and contributions of their founders and executives? Do I even have to spell it out? There shouldn't be a 100x factor between the lowest and highest salary. There's no degree of merit that should guarantee that privilege. Merit doesn't scale linearly, if I wanted to use your lan…
I'm not saying that a large income gap is desirable. I'm saying it's not obviously wrong to me. And it's somewhat understandable.
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#84Some of these are contradictory - in addition, some of these aren't really even leadership principles of much merit outside the company they're created for. Here is an example of a proven set of leadership principles that is a worthwhile read: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/leadership.htm . Someone who can embody all of these principles that the Marine Corps espouses is someone I can respect immensely regar…
>> Ensure the task is understood, supervised, and accomplished
This might be a good idea for running a military unit but fails miserably in IT. As a leader I hardly ever supervise my engineers, they have to understand the tasks and only come to me if there something that they do not understand. Giving them as much freedom as possible is one reason they like to work with us, feedback we got from 90% of them. Sometimes if the task is impossible to be done we expect them to come back, explain why and also provide an alternative. This happens a lot too.
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#85Do these leadership or company principles ever truly have any effect on employees or products? I've seen them thrown around at my company on a few occasions, but they never feel like they drive much beyond trying to be one of those gaudy motivational posters.
At Amazon they are like a religion. I don't know if every group is like that, but someone very close to me works there and they tell me those leadership principles are a part of daily work and are explicitly mentioned in day-to-day activities. Amazon's leadership principles are also used during performance reviews, and to evaluate candidates in interviews.
That applies to Google more. Amazon folks tend to understand that it is just a job and do not spend most of their life on campus. There is definitely pride attached to working for Amazon but there are very few people sticking to working there over 5 years (not unheard of though).
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#86"[Leaders] Are Right, A Lot" How is this even a principle ? Just "be right", a lot ?
"They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs."
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#87I know a lot of companies have ancronyms, bullet points, or a list of company culture principals. What's everyone's reaction to all of this? Do you take it seriously? Pretend to? Roll your eyes? Find value in them?
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#88"[Leaders] Are Right, A Lot" How is this even a principle ? Just "be right", a lot ?
It's a characteristic ("good judgement") rather than a principal, agree it makes no sense whatsoever being on this list.
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#89The emphasis on "customer obsession" is clearly working, since it has topped the polls for best corporate reputation two years in a row. http://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-tops-harris-poll-corpora... I work for Amazon, and I personally am a huge fan of the "LPs" . I consistently find myself mentally consulting them when I'm not sure what to do in a particular situation. I also think it really helps to work in an env…
How could that be? I stopped buying from Amazon after reading about how they treat their warehouse employees. To me, Amazon just represents monopolistic corporate greed, with no aspiration of caring even just a little bit about anything else.
I spent four years writing software for those warehouse associates. Spent a lot of time inside those behemoth buildings, met a lot of good people and worked pretty much every job for at least a few hours.
The thing to remember is that warehouse jobs suck everywhere. Amazon just happens to be a large employer. And overall, if I had to work in a warehouse I'd prefer to work in an Amazon one.
Now, if you want to hate on how Amazon treats human beings, go read up on the delivery drivers. A year on developing that software led me to quit.
Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles
#90The emphasis on "customer obsession" is clearly working, since it has topped the polls for best corporate reputation two years in a row. http://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-tops-harris-poll-corpora... I work for Amazon, and I personally am a huge fan of the "LPs" . I consistently find myself mentally consulting them when I'm not sure what to do in a particular situation. I also think it really helps to work in an env…
How could that be? I stopped buying from Amazon after reading about how they treat their warehouse employees. To me, Amazon just represents monopolistic corporate greed, with no aspiration of caring even just a little bit about anything else.
Part of the reason Amazon is so successful and highly regarded is the degree to which they exploit their warehouse employees. This exploitation results in customer orders being stocked and shipped quickly and in costs being reduced. Amazon is obsessed with the customer, remember, not the employee.