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In praise of Amazon's Leadership Principles

More workplaces should have these

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Everyone loves life advice. Self-help books are wildly popular, to the point where titles like Atomic Habits or Rich Dad, Poor Dad are household names. Diary of a CEO and Huberman Lab, often a source of tips for business and personal realms, are among the world’s most popular podcasts.

One unexpected source of good advice I came across recently: Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

They list them out on their website, and even have CEO Andy Jassy explaining them in a neat video format.

I’ll list them out in full then go over my favourites.

Amazon’s Leadership Principles

Link here

  1. Customer Obsession

  2. Ownership

  3. Invent and Simplify

  4. Are Right, A Lot

  5. Learn and Be Curious

  6. Hire and Develop the Best

  7. Insist on the Highest Standards

  8. Think Big

  9. Bias for Action

  10. Frugality

  11. Earn Trust

  12. Dive Deep

  13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

  14. Deliver Results

  15. Strive to Be Earth’s Best Employer (added July 2021)

  16. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility (added July 2021)

Personally, I love 13 - Disagree and commit. The idea is that you need to be vocal about your ideas, but once the group decides in a direction, you act with complete conviction. No “I told you so” if anything goes wrong.

Number 5 is a classic, “Learn and be curious”. It applies everywhere. At work, I think it feels great to keep advancing, keep reading around. Personally, having hobbies and having a sense of growth is a big part of living a fulfilled life.

Bias for Action, Number 9, is also cool for a ship-and-build mindset. This kind of reminded something I saw say last week, write bad stuff [quicky], then write good stuff later. Good advice.

Why I’m a fan of Amazon’s Leadership Principles

Generally, I am really happy with businesses that post their mantras online. With any workplace, knowing the culture from the outside lets us to know where we will fit in. It gives us an idea of what kind of colleagues to expect, and what behaviour is normal, and what should be challenged.

If you run a business, or even manage a team, consider writing one! As principle number 9 says, if you end up not liking it, most decisions are reversible anyway :)