My Unfiltered Thoughts on Amazon's Leadership Principles (Part Two)

Amazon takes great pride in cultivating a safe and client-centric corporate environment. Much of its success is attributed to the Amazon Leadership Principles. These rules dictate how employees, especially those in managerial positions, must lead teams.

The work ethic and mindful decision-making process sets the eCommerce business apart from other online ventures.  The question for the ages though is whether you should apply these rules or make ones that fit your organizational operations.

But let’s backtrack for a second and consider what  Amazon leadership principles teach you.   

These corporate values focus on cultivating interpersonal relationships in an organization. Effective communication, a value-adding training system, and authentic leadership are some ways to achieve this outcome. Additionally, you need to take on challenges and strive for excellence by ensuring that you participate actively.

Besides, lean management and scalable strategies are excellent ways to promote resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and innovation.

This article highlights eight out of sixteen leadership goals set by Amazon. We discuss their viability and compatibility for your organization.

Recap: Read our article My Unfiltered Thoughts on Amazon's Leadership Principles (Part One) [1]  to get an overview of eight other leadership goals followed by the global eCommerce platform.

The Other Eight: What Are Amazon’s Leadership Principles?

Amazon delivers impactful results based on leadership goals set by Jeff Bezos. These golden rules focus on teamwork, accountability, lean management, scalability, and the determination to break the market mold. As a leader, you’re responsible for your subordinates. Teach them how to thrive and feel empowered by ensuring each day inspires them to perform well.

Amazon certainly has cracked the code for building a high-performing team from scratch. Can you follow suit?

These are my unfiltered thoughts on Amazon’s Leadership Principles. The following subsections will highlight the benefits. It also pinpoints setbacks created during the practical application of these corporate values.

Here’s what you should know:

1. Recruit & Mentor: How to Hire and Train the Best Teams? 

The success of your company lies in how well your team performs. Developing effective screening strategies and recognizing talent play a significant role.  Amazon takes things a step further. The company hones each employee’s leadership capabilities through specialized training.

Finding the right person for the job can be a daunting task. It’s especially true for competitive fields where several candidates eagerly await your verdict. The boom of personality assessments and AI recruitment might pique your interest.

However, in the article “What Do Personality Tests Really Reveal?” SHRM shares some exciting insights on the effectiveness of these assessments. According to experts, while these tests are “improving the odds,” employers often lose focus.

One must set specific goals and ensure the test results align with those objectives. Also, consider other work-related traits. These include technical skills, industry knowledge, and situational judgment to make your decision. Each factor predicts how well a candidate will perform in your corporate environment.

If they are a great fit and show potential, hire them. Then develop onboard training and skill-based workshops to promote professional growth. Helping them achieve professional development goals can maximize employee satisfaction.

Consequently, these steps improve productivity and team morale at work.

How to Train and Mentor Your Employees?

Recruitment remains part of the organizational equation. The things your employees learn at work influence their growth. It, in turn, impacts the company’s growth in the long run. Good mentorship requires effective communication, easy-to-follow instructions, and employee input. Sharing training tools and resources and following up on progress generates the best outcomes.

Here are the key factors of a functional and advantageous training model:

1.    Clear and Comprehensive Instructions

Whether explaining a new hire's position in the company or conducting training to adopt a new tool, train smartly. Ensure your target audience understands you. Use easy language or jargon, depending on the situation. 

Also, ensure that participants have a clear idea of the training objectives.

2.    Conduct Live Demos

Don’t just tell your employees what they need to do. Show them. Real-time demonstrations make it easier for people to learn. That simplifies the adoption of new protocols and technologies.

3.    Encourage Feedback & Follow Up on Progress

Great leaders don’t hesitate to interact with their employees. If you’ve got a new training session or workshop, end it with a Q & A round. Ask for feedback and implement it in the next round of training.

More importantly, stay in touch with the trainees. Find out how they are fulfilling their duties or struggling to meet deadlines. Use that information to adapt and improvise your training techniques to achieve better outcomes.

Lastly, remember that influential leaders step in to guide and assist employees whenever the opportunity arises. Ensure you are there for yours by answering their industry-related queries.

2. Earn Trust: How to Build Better Relationships with Employees?

Authentic leadership focuses on uplifting the people one works with and the end-users. Nurture long-lasting relationships through honest and transparent conduct. Treat everyone respectfully, listen attentively, and act on employee feedback.

When employees trust leaders, they start going the extra mile to seek approval from the employers. You need to invest quality time in team bonding to achieve this feat. Practice what you preach and say what you mean.

These behavioral traits mark you as a trustworthy person.

In addition to this, leaders must accept mistakes and be self-critical. Otherwise, you risk building a narcissistic image of yourself.

How to Maintain Trust?

Be consistent. Aim to promote a transparent and accessible work culture. Include employees in the decision-making process. It makes them feel valued and easier for them to accept organizational changes.

Here are quick tips on maintaining transparency:

1.    Don’t hide facts.

Honesty remains the best corporate policy. You should share factual information in real-time, even if it means sharing bad news. Keeping teams well-informed builds trust. They are more responsive to stressful situations when they know the problem.

2.    Accept mistakes.

Encourage accountability by owning up to your failures. Brainstorm ideas to rectify those mistakes and start anew. You’ll seem more approachable when you practice this strategy.

3.    Promote knowledge-sharing.

Share techniques, resources, and tools to increase employee engagement. Your openness creates a chain reaction. Senior employees might start helping junior staff members after you lend a hand. 

Hubstaff delves deeper by explaining how transparent leadership works, resulting in effective communication and empowering teams.

3. Dive Deep: What Does It Mean to Work in the Trenches?

Finding in the trenches means working alongside your team. Amazon Leadership Principles encourage leaders to “operate on all levels.” They must stay engaged in firefighting activities by auditing, rechecking metrics, and tracking performances. Focus on safeguarding company and employee interests.

Thinking that “no task is beneath them” keeps leaders grounded. Employees appreciate the extra effort managers put in when challenges arise. Plus, they feel a sense of security when someone from the higher up deals with data.

Nevertheless, there’s a difference between diving deep and doing everything yourself. Once the lines blur, you may take on too many tasks. Sometimes this isn’t feasible for you or the team.

Setbacks might arise when you take on too many roles.

According to Forbes, leaders can unwittingly cause a “bottleneck” when teams require their approval for everything. It can reduce corporate autonomy and causes problems in the long run.

More importantly, firefighting day and night can take a toll on leaders. Therefore, you should adopt a more balanced approach to this concept. Also, learn to delegate tasks whenever possible to prevent burnout.

When to Delegate Tasks?

Supervisors who delegate tasks effectively manage their time judiciously. It promotes employee autonomy and allows you to handle priority needs. You can do this when you require extra help to complete some activities on time.

Use this checklist to decide whether you should delegate a specific task or not:

1.    Do you have enough time to complete the task?

2.    Is this urgent and important enough to be on your priority list?

3.    Can someone else handle this activity?

4.    Are other employees better equipped to perform this task?

5.    Could this responsibility give your employees more autonomy and agency?

Despite popular assumptions, asking for assistance isn’t a sign of weakness. It only shows that you know how to use your resources efficiently. It also allows you to invest your time and energy in high-priority projects.

4. Be Frugal: What Is Lean Management? 

Amazon Leadership Principles uses frugality to spark self-sufficiency and resourcefulness. They don’t expand business ventures for the sake of growth. Instead, they cut down activities and resources that add no value to the bottom line.

Lean management is a derivative of lean manufacturing. 

The Balance SMB calls “reducing waste” one of the ultimate leadership goals of this strategy. Forward-thinking leaders assess organizational operations from this perspective. Then use acquired data to eliminate processes that don’t benefit end-users.

Is Lean Management Worth It?

Lean management comes with its pros and cons. It depends on how much you plan to change and how you convey information. A sudden change can create chaos as the team adapts to new processes and protocols. You should also consider the cost of carrying out the new plan.

Lean management can be a hit or a miss. Managers must have the foresight to counter potential challenges when integrating frugality into their operational strategy.

Here are some drawbacks that you might experience:

1.    Limited resources can create disruptions if consumer demand increases.

2.    The learning curve might inhibit progress when your company begins to learn the new and efficiently reduced processes.

3.    Training teams and purchasing advanced equipment to execute your lean strategies require a significant monetary investment.

Aside from this, leaders can get carried away when reducing expenses. You might cut down on valuable assets this way. Avoid this by going over your lean management plan with the team. Create a collective agenda and budget scheme that supports resourcefulness without significant loss.

5. Grow a Backbone: What It Takes to Challenge & Commit?

Amazon expects employees to bring their unique perspectives to the table. They want individuals that challenge the norm to reach the correct answers for customers. That’s because compromises can lead to subpar results.

Leaders who ask you to challenge and commit to your opinions don’t want conflicts. Instead, they expect fact-based debates that add value to the decision-making process. Once the organization concludes, everyone needs to fulfill their duty.

It’s easier said than done. Team members might take your disagreements personally. 

Therefore, one should learn to tackle these situations with tact.

How to Respectfully Disagree with Someone?

You have the right to express yourself, whether you’re a leader or subordinate. The key lies in staying professional and composed. Share facts and avoid using backhanded insults as a defense.

Here are some pointers to remember:

1.    Never belittle the opposing party by undermining their opinions.

2.    Support your arguments with factual evidence.

3.    Use “I” statements to convey your point instead of bringing the word “you” into the argument.

4.    Stay calm and collected to prevent the discussion from turning into a heated argument.

You can better convince teams to do something your way by presenting your opinion with logic and reasoning. It shows that you have no hidden agenda. Instead, you have the company and clients' interests at heart. The mutual goals bring teams together regardless of their diverse opinions.

Need more insight? Watch an Amazon employee explain the principle in this video.

6. Strive for Excellence: How to Deliver Quality Results? 

Amazon Leadership Principles deliver quality results by assessing key inputs before tracking outputs. They want to ensure they have everything in place to achieve desired outcomes.

Unlike other companies, the eCommerce business doesn’t chase sales. On the contrary, they let their work attract the audience's attention. For instance, the Fast Track feature gets more subscriptions on Amazon Prime because it adds value to the consumer relationship. Also, employees at Amazon ensure that they have the supplies required to meet those demands.

As far as leadership goals go, it’s an excellent strategy.

However, you might have trouble achieving it if you don’t have a viable plan.

How to Create a Realistic Plan?

Set SMART goals to maximize the chances of accomplishing your objectives. It means setting specific targets that are measurable, achievable, relevant to your company's growth, and controlled by an attainable deadline.

Whenever you’re creating a plan, ask yourself:

1.    Are your goals well-defined?

2.    Can you keep track of these objectives?

3.    Do you have the resources to achieve these goals?

4.    Are your objectives relevant to your company? Will they add any value to the end-user?

5.    How much time do you need to complete the task? Is this timeframe achievable considering team resources and progress?

Use the set criteria to adjust your plan. Always return and review objectives mid-way through the project to ensure that you’re working in the right direction. If things aren't working out, you can restructure the plan to maximize efficiency.

Would you like more guidance?  Read this excellent guide on Atlassian to understand smart goals better.

7. Be Earth’s Best Employer: How to Lead Empowered Teams? 

It might sound idealistic, but every corporation needs an empathetic and cooperative leader. Focus on your employees' personal and professional growth when you set assignments. Your care and attention towards their career trajectory motivate them to work better.

Leadership goals have changed post-pandemic. Employers realize the importance of encouraging a healthy work-life balance to support team productivity. Create a corporate culture that nurtures talent and rewards it. These actions boost team morale.

You won’t know what your team needs until you talk to them. Building trust isn’t enough in these instances. You must practice empathy to validate your employees’ struggles and then take steps towards resolution.

How to Become an Empathetic Leader?

An empathetic leader focuses on building human connections. They consider the emotional and mental well-being of an employee and its impact on performance. These aspects provide employees with tools and resources to overcome these challenges.

CCI considers empathy as a tool for effective leadership in the workplace. They ask leaders to step up and tackle these sensitive issues to promote a safer environment.

You can do this by:

1.    Looking for signs of burnout and addressing the issue before the problem escalates.

2.    Introducing employee benefits programs (like a personal day off, team building workshop, and group therapy sessions) that support wellness.

3.    Encourage employees to share personal problems and be flexible enough to adjust their workload accordingly.

Lastly, show genuine interest when team members share their aspirations and goals. Alternatively, offer help when they undergo a personal loss. Your continuous support and care cultivate a culture of loyalty.

It also makes it easier for teams to thrive regardless of the challenges they face at home.

8. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility: How to Do Good?

Amazon Leadership Principles encourage enterprises to adopt a community-centric business approach. They take on the responsibility to support local, national and global communities through thoughtful initiatives. 

Entrepreneurs and corporations are making a conscious effort to adopt environmentally-friendly organizational strategies. They are also looking for ways to uplift under-resourced communities.

Amazon does this on a global scale considering its incredible growth. The Climate Change Fund and the purchase of renewable energy are some of these efforts. They also have partnerships with Feeding America, In Kind Direct, and Good 360. Each supports communities in incredible ways.

How Can Your Company Give Back to the Community?

Take small steps to support your community. You can organize fundraiser events independently or collaborate with established charities.

Here are some ideas:

1.    Organize a charity event to raise funds for a good cause.

2.    Ask employees to volunteer in community centers monthly or yearly.

3.    Run a blood drive to support local healthcare facilities.

4.    Give discounts to healthcare heroes, educators, and other community members.

5.    Donate services and products to shelters and under-resourced communities if you have the resources to support them.

In addition, you can collaborate with logical non-government organizations and charities.

Your Success Story Begins Today

What are Amazon Leadership Principles?  These leadership goals teach businesses to build empowered teams. Mentorship, transparent and empathetic leadership qualities cultivate better organizational relationships.

Managers must recognize opportunities for delegation and instances where they need to assist their teams. Develop SMART goals to take the company forward while giving back to end-users and local communities.

The main takeaway for businesses interested in these principles is to create a personalized adoption strategy. Assess your resources before investing your time and energy into this plan. It all comes down to whether these principles add value to your organization or only add to the noise.

Good luck!