Jeff Bezos 14 Leadership Principles: Are These The Secret To Amazon's Success?

The page stumbled across shares Amazon’s Leadership Principles. The page is all about Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, giving 14 leadership principles, which Kev states, “In my opinion, it reveals Amazon’s secret to success.”

The 14 leadership principles may just be the key to success.

While you are reading through the 14 leadership principles, you should think about how it applies to your business. Think about how you could take these principles, from Jeff, the richest man in the world, and arguably the man who has built the most successful company in history and implement them in your business 

14 leadership principles

Deliver Results

14 – “Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.”

Delivering results is the name of the game.

In your business, if you have a goal or mission, a big part as the owner of the company, you have got to instil emotion, motivation and inspiration, and share that with your team.

You are going to have lots of setbacks and lots of challenges, but it is about arising on the occasion.

Never say no for an answer, there is always a solution, you have just got to find it.

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

“Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the fake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.”

A big part of business is brainstorming. You must think about what your targets are, what your goals are, and what your mission is. There are going to be different ideas and mindsets, and this is a valuable asset. There are going to be disagreements with your ideas, and that’s brainstorming; it may be uncomfortable and exhausting as stated but doing this is fine.

Once you have an outcome and have made your decision up, then everyone must commit, this is what is meant by “backbone.”

Dive Deep

“Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ. No task is beneath them.”

It does not matter what tasks anybody is doing; everyone is super valuable and super critical for the success of the company.

Earn Trust

“Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odour smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.”

If you are developing a team, trust is the fundamental principle of teamwork. You must listen and treat people respectfully.

Frugality

Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.”

As you experience more, you can become more resourceful over time, and invention, creativity, and thinking outside the box, also grows over time.

Bias for Action

“speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.”

Experiment and test things. Things might not work out right, there may be failures, or you may lose time and money. But it is all about speed, speed of implementation. Those who can go into the unknown keep taking action forward, despite not having everything calculated and studied, that is one of the things that holds people back.

Think Big

“thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.”

A big part of what you are trying to do must be very far-fetched. Think big and be bold and brave. Go for a big goal.

Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders have relentlessly high standards – many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so that they stay fixed.”

If you have a problem in your business and you’re the owner of it, don’t just pass it on to someone else to take care of it. Take control of the problem and put it on your shoulders.

Hire and Develop the Best

“Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognise exceptional talent and willingly move them throughout the organisation. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.”

You must really believe in developing other people and their skills: fundamental skills, communication skills, productivity skills, punctuality skills and creativity skills. Allowing everyone in the team to express themselves and allow them to achieve what they want to achieve in their career. Allowing good people in and making them great, bringing great people in and making them outstanding. Allowing them to grow.

Learn and Be Curious

“Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.”

You must be open to learning something new. Always listen, it doesn’t matter who you are talking to and how great your skills are, having an open mind and listening to everybody. Someone may have an idea that you have never even thought about.

Are Right, A Lot

“Leaders are right a lot. They have a strong judgement and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.”

Whenever situations occur in your business, whether it’s working with a team member or client, having that gut instinct that tells you about something in that circumstance, you have got to follow it through.

Invent and Simplify

“Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be understood for long periods of time.”

There is always a period of being misunderstood, whether it’s your team, customers, partners or mastermind. There is always a period of you trying to figure out what you are going to do and speak. Encouraging your team to be misunderstood and come up with creative ideas, and even when they have creative ideas but maybe not have explained them in the right way or fashion, you can explain to them that you’re misunderstanding, which then gives better communication from different perspectives.

Complexity is the enemy. If you can always invent and simplify, then you will go in the right direction.

Ownership

“Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.””

Everybody in your business is responsible for what they do, they represent your business, and you must act on the long-term, never the short-term.

Customer Obsession

“Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers”

Whoever your customer is, you have got to obsess on their experience, what you’re trying to help them with, what service you have and what product you have. Always think from their point of view, how you could make things easier and less complexed.

Further reading:

How To Be A Leader In Your Business (Best Tips For Entrepreneurs)

Kev's Honest Thoughts On Amazon FBA in 2021

How To Build Systems In Your Business