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Amazon's Leadership Principles

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Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#141

Post by ckozlowski »

Zombieball wrote: post #37
ktRolster wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on how they're implemented. At my previous company, there was a small list of principles posted on the wall, such as, "make each other better," "show integrity." I was astonished one day when I realized that I had seen several people at different levels of the company actually try to make each other better. It inspired me, personally, and made me glad to work at that company. Famously, IBM used to have the…

Just to clarify, as others have pointed out, the leadership principles at Amazon are in no way a new experiment. I don't know their origins but I wouldn't be surprised to learn they are nearly as old as the company itself (probably a few years younger). They are deeply engrained in Amazon culture. They are brought up frequently. They are used as the basis for both hiring and promotion decisions. Regardless of whether…

We can. =)

I credit HR to sharing them and making sure people hear about them on the way in, but I think a lot of their success has to do with the fact that they're easy to relate to and understand. They're not meaningless platitudes. Lots of companies have "values" like "integrity" and "commitment". But what does that mean? In what context? It's vague.

Customer Obsession is pretty obvious. Earn Trust. These are simple. And while the descriptions of them can get pretty wordy, everyone can tell you what they mean because they're easy to identify with.

I also thing that what they do is give people a lot of empowerment to make decisions, and that makes them attractive. 14 principles that are easy to understand and appeal to people's good will. If you're acting with the principles in mind, you cannot go wrong.

(Disclaimer: I work for AWS.)

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#142

Post by icefox »

adtac wrote: post #66

I interned there last year. They really want to get this point across. Like, I had to sit through an entire day of orientation repeatedly telling me this in different ways. We even had "fun" games to re-inforce the principles lol. I was going to be there for a maximum of 2 months, but nope. But hey, the tech was really cool. My team was amazing, we went on multiple team outings during my short stay. Office hours were…

> My manager gave me full ownership of my task.

So the million dollar question, given what they tried to teach you did you change anything about your task or did you just did what you would have done anyway?

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#144

Post by jhall1468 »

ex_amazon_sde wrote: post #105
felixgallo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for Amazon, and my management line all the way up to Jeff is sensible, comprehensible, and human; I have good work-life balance and am able to offer that to my reports; my compensation is fair; and I would escalate immediately if I ever saw anyone abused, mistreated, or cheated. Amazon's a big company and I'm sure there's terrible managers out there and true harrowing stories. And there are problems, here and…

> But if there was a pervasive, total cultural failure at Amazon, I'd have seen it by now. Ex Amazon SDE here. Did you fail to notice the incredible turnover rate among engineers? Most stay less than 18 months. (I've seen the real numbers from tools that mine employee IDs and join date).

Actually, average tenure at Amazon is closer to 12 months. Google is pretty close to that. Tech sector is notorious for it's low tenure. It's easier to get paid bt job hopping then promotions.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#146

Post by beastcoast »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #91
Denki86 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs."

Which is very sensible, but then the principle would be "[Our leaders] Do not assume they are always right".

We used to have "vocally self critical"

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#147

Post by yoandy »

andrewguenther wrote: post #143
yoandy wrote: post #136

I find a lot of arrogance in this Principles, at some point of view it is even evil. Have anybody knows of another company that throws their leadership principles to your face?

What about them do you find evil?

Because in general the principles are centered in make a more profitable enterprise while not taking care of many important human values. I don't think raising the bar is more important than having a team in harmony where everybody cares about everybody while at the same time is highly motivated for the project success.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#148

Post by Leires »

Nikhil_teja wrote: post #130
adtac wrote: post #66

I interned there last year. They really want to get this point across. Like, I had to sit through an entire day of orientation repeatedly telling me this in different ways. We even had "fun" games to re-inforce the principles lol. I was going to be there for a maximum of 2 months, but nope. But hey, the tech was really cool. My team was amazing, we went on multiple team outings during my short stay. Office hours were…

Ditto! Same experience :D Realized you used "Ownership" in that comment? ;p

Not sure if you know, but "ownership" isn't a word or concept that Amazon invented. I'd like to add that Amazon isn't the first company to have leadership principles. From my experience, the only people that actually believe this crap are people that haven't been exposed to this sort of corporate propaganda in the past. Taking responsibility for a project, seeing it to completion, and following a standard is the right thing to do; not just an Amazonian thing to do.
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