How to Ace Amazon Leadership Principles-Based Questions in 2022

Answering Amazon leadership Principles-based questions need the right mindset. With our proven strategies, candidates can master the skill of answering behavioral interview questions.

People learn from their failures, but what is the need to fail when you can qualify their behavioral interview questions by understanding moulding your attitude in line with Amazon’s Leadership principles.

 

      Why is understanding Amazon Leadership Principles important?

 Think

To grab a job at the world’s most valuable and trusted brand ‘Amazon” is not easy; it becomes more complicated when the company religiously believes in its core values and Principles. 14 Amazon Leadership Principles reflects the mindset of Jeff Bezos and his team to infuse a futuristic principled approach in each member of the organization. But do you know that company focuses on choosing such talent that shows equal respect and solidarity with its principles?

Amazon makes sure to take such leaders on board who are capable enough to raise the bar with their performance continually. Leaders who show passion for customer obsession and deliver high-quality products and services.

      What Are Amazon Leadership Principles?

Amazon Leadership Principles are 14 fundamental values that drive the company and its workforce. These principles are not just fancy mission and vision statements but are believed to be followed daily by its employees in their day to day professional activities. It won’t be wrong to call them guiding fundaments that govern the company’s foundation.

Amazon believes in aligning its processes and working by these principles. At Amazon, it is believed that each employee must follow these guiding Amazon leadership principles while performing their job.

Amazon is a market leader and believes in staying a leader, and this can be possible only when each employee thinks and works as per its guiding principles.

So whenever they hire, they make sure that the employees exhibit similar respect and dedication to implement Amazon Leadership principles to their job.

Don’t be afraid; not all the 14 Amazon Leadership principles will be tested; instead, the interviewer will test your attitude based on the most relevant Principle as per the job’s requirement.  

Here is the list of Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

Rather than cramming them, our advice is to understand the need and importance in context to Amazon’s growth. These principles are the guardian spirits of Amazon. The one who is aligned with them, be a part of their team at Amazon.

1st Amazon Leadership Principle : Customer Obsession

Take away from this Principle.

With a vision to become the most customer-centric company on earth, Amazon believes in generating delightful customer experiences.

Amazon is successful because they keep their customers at the heart of all decisions. They desire to exceed their own benchmarks in customer experiences.

Amazon does not over-rule the need of giving attention to competitors. But with the vision to lead the market, they aim to understand customers well.

By customer obsession, they mean to keep customer choices ahead. Work backwards means changing and modifying themselves as per customers’ choices and delivering high-quality products and processes.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Customer Obsession’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. How do you handle demanding customers?
   2. How have you shown customer obsession at your previous job?
   3. At Amazon, we work with many customers. Sometimes it is tricky to deliver excellent service to them; how will you prioritize customer needs to provide a favorable customer-oriented result?
   4. Did you ever face an ethical dilemma regarding customer service? Plz, elaborate.

2nd Amazon Leadership Principle : Ownership

Take away from this Principle.

Amazon believes its workforce reflects ownership in their actions; they do not restrict themselves to the assigned responsibilities.  Instead, leaders at Amazon should act like owners.

Owners emphasize long term vision and do not fall for short term gains. They construct short term goals in alignment with long term vision.

By ‘That’s not my job’ means Amazon expects its leaders to think beyond their assigned roles. When the workforce considers themselves owners of the organization, they show high regard in giving shape to the company’s vision and do not fall for inter-departmental conflicts.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Ownership’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. How did you address inter-departmental conflicts at your current job?
   2. Would you share any story when you went ahead with your regular job responsibility?
   3. Tell us, did you ever leave any job unfinished or midway?
   4. Tell any experience when you had to work with unclear responsibilities.

3rd Amazon Leadership Principle : Invent and Simplify

Take away from this Principle.

Innovation and invention hold a special place at Amazon. At Amazon, leaders are expected to show hunger for new ideas. If it has to learn new skills to provide innovative products, it will not hesitate to do so.

Jeff Broz stated in one interview that if your company base ages with you, you will become obsolete and irrelevant and thrown out of the market soon. So the company should continuously figure out ways to reach new customers and stay forever young.

This will be possible only by keeping a proactive approach fueled by innovation and invention.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Invent and Simplify’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Tell me about the incidence when you failed to simplify any process. If given a new chance, how would you do it differently now?
   2. Would you highlight any process or product invented by you recently?
   3. Tell me how your skills helped you to simplify any complex situation.
   4. Tell me when you innovated some processes and it didn’t work the way you expected.

4th Amazon Leadership Principle : Are Right, A lot

Take away from this Principle.

This Principle is considered the hardest one as it deals with decision making. Many people fail to understand the depth of this Principle.

At Amazon, people are from different backgrounds, beliefs and cultures. Thus company keeps their feedback and suggestions in consideration while making decisions.

Amazon has classified decisions in two parts –  One Way decisions and two-way decisions. Decisions that can be reversed falls under the second category. Amazon takes one-way decisions in a careful and disciplined manner.

Its decision-making process is supported by deep research, analyzing acts and experimental data.

Here are some of the sample questions on Amazon principle ‘Are Right , A Lot’ –

1. 1. What is the basis of your decision-making approach?
   2. Tell us any incidence when you gave preference to personal judgement to solve a problem.
   3. What strategy did you implement while taking one-way decisions?
   4. Would you share any story when your decision went wrong?

5th Amazon Leadership Principle : Learn and Be Curious

Take away from this Principle.

At Amazon, curiosity, thinking out of the box, bringing new sides to the table are considered necessary qualities in leaders.

Amazon expects its people to follow mind storm sessions in reaching out to the root cause of the problem. It encourages the idea of working backwards, solving issues with better understanding.

At AWS, there is always a place for new ideas. The company aims to keep the drive of learning alive.

Workers dig deep to analyze problems; it keeps their creative side ignited. In whatever capacity a person works at Amazon, there always be scope to put forward your ideas ahead.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Learn and Be Curious’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Tell me about the process of reaching out to the root cause of the problem.
   2. Tell me about the most significant learning from your job.
   3. Share any incidence of how your knowledge helped you to analyze the problem.
   4. Tell me how your idea helped your current company to simplify its processes.

6th Amazon Leadership Principle : Hire and Develop the Best

Take away from this Principle.

Amazon believes in hiring and fostering the best talent in the market. Leaders spend a lot of time identifying future leaders. Leaders don’t afraid to raise the performance of future leaders by infusing trust in them.

Amazon believes in taking the best talent on board who can perform well on the job and show future growth possibilities in other teams.

Amazon doesn’t believe in just taking them on board; instead, it unlocks the possibility of their future potential growth.

Managers work closely with workers and keep track of their growth by setting effective goals and keeping track of their professional and personal developments.

Amazon sees future leaders in their staff, so it shows zeal to foster their skills to raise the growth bar in the future.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Hire and Develop the Best’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. How did you mentor your teammates?
   2. Tell us about your best hire experience.
   3. Tell us how you nurture skills among your teammates.
   4. Did you ever hire the wrong staff? When did you realize it?

7th Amazon Leadership Principle : Insist on the Highest Standards

Take away from this Principle.

At Amazon, leaders believe in setting a high standard bar. There is a continuous urge for delivering high-end products, processes and services.

At Amazon, people are expected to excel in their working domains and raise standards for themselves. If they encounter any issue or problem, it must be addressed to lead it to its goal.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Insist on the Highest Standards’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Tell us what motivates you to raise the standard bar for yourself.
   2. Tell us when any employee let you down with their performances.
   3. What parameters do you use to analyze your performance?
   4. Would you like to quote any example when you motivated your team to outperform a given level of performance?

8th Amazon Leadership Principle : Think Big

      Take away from this Principle

This Principle drives leaders to think beyond their comfort zones. At Amazon, it is expected that people look for ways to serve customers better. Leaders drive their teams to deliver results and create new benchmarks with their performances.

Getting satisfied or thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They do not get satisfied with positive outcomes. Instead, they look beyond to excel. Thinking big is required to stay a leader and driving their teams to the future is one of the paramount objectives.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Think Big’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Tell us about your most significant professional achievement.
   2. Tell us when you felt you could have done better by raising your outlook.
   3. Elaborate when you took a bold decision.
   4. Did you ever felt that the scope of the delivered project could be better in terms of results?

9th Amazon Leadership Principle : Bias for Action

Take away from this Principle

Mutual discussions are part of Amazon’s decision-making; solid facts drive teams decision making. At Amazon, people believe in innovation. Behavior of teams should reflect a bias for action.

Leaders do not fear to keep their ideas ahead. Ideas get discussed among teams, analyzed. Groups prefer to take two-way decisions, which keeps the door of reversing open. Personal judgements, biasedness are kept away.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Bias for Action’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. When last time you took a calculated risk
   2. When the last time you took the decision based on half furnished information.
   3. What are the bases of your decision-making practices?
   4. Tell us when you had to rectify any problem single-handedly.

10th Amazon Leadership Principle : Frugality

Take away from this Principle

This is a crucial Principle. This Principle states people at Amazon should look for ways to perform their roles effectively. By the effective manner, they mean that leaders should know how to perform cost-effectively without putting the excess burden on budgets and incurring any fixed cost.

They look for ways to create positive customer experiences without incurring extra costs. This Principle again focuses on looking backwards, working on backwards processes to achieve optimum use of resources.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Frugality’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Share any experience that you had to work on with limited resources.
   2. Did you take any crucial steps to sustain cost-effectiveness?
   3. Quote any experience to support your frugal behavior.
   4. What is your interpretation of the link between budgets and productivity?

11th Amazon Leadership Principle : Earn Trust

Take away from this Principle

Empathy, mutual respect, showing confidence in the team’s capabilities is the basis of this Principle.

Amazon believes in earning customers’ trust; leaders need to earn the trust of their teammates and subordinates first. Trust is considered the foundation of long term relationships.

At Amazon, it is expected of leaders to perform by setting an example. Their behavior should establish an example among teammates and insist on the highest standards.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Earn Trust’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. How will you deal with fraud at workplaces?
   2. How can you gain Trust among your team?
   3. Have you ever mentioned harsh words to any fellow teammate?
   4. Which one has an upper edge – the Trust of your customers or Trust among teammates.

12th Amazon Leadership Principle : Dive Deep

Take away from this Principle

Amazon believes in creating leaders at all levels. People at amazon believe they must reach out to the root cause of issues.

Regular audits, brainstorming exercising to analyze problems should be part of their job. To outperform responsibilities, leaders should not fear to go in-depth about issues.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Dive Deep’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Tell about the most complex problem you faced at your present job.
   2. What ways do you use to reach the crux of the issues?
   3. Tell me how your current job helped you to evolve as a better leader.
   4. Tell us how your understanding of core processes helped you to take strategic decisions.

13th Amazon Leadership Principle : Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Take away from this Principle

This Principle highlights the value of Brainstorming practices. Amazon expects its leaders to keep strategies, issues beyond personal levels.

This Principle expects its leaders to challenge, raise questions during decision-making processes. And once the decision is finalized, teams should support it wholeheartedly.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Have Backbone , Disagree and Commit’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Tell us when you showed disagreement with any teammate.
   2. How will you handle conflict with your immediate subordinate?
   3. How will you handle team decisions with which you find disagreement?
   4. Share any unpopular decision of yours which attracted the wrath of teammates.

14th Amazon Leadership Principle : Deliver Results

Take away from this Principle

At Amazon, leaders believe in delivering timely results. There may be disagreements, hitches, fallbacks, but they always value the commitment of providing a well-appreciated outcome.

Results are the crux of all activities; at amazon, leaders are expected to deliver results that generate delightful experiences.

The interviewer questions regarding ‘Deliver Results’ Amazon principle be like –

1. 1. Share any story when you had to make modifications in any process and its impact on the result.
   2. Elaborate situation when You felt you have more on your plate than you can chew
   3. Tell me an incident that you faced when your team gave up the idea of giving timely results.
   4. Tell me about the variety of assignments you handled at a given point in time are.

I assume you have clarity about Amazon Leadership principles by now. Now I am going to uncover the winning strategies at Amazon interview questions. But before that, I would request you to familiarize yourself with the Amazon STAR method.

     What is Amazon Star Method ?

        The STAR method is a constructive way of answering behavioral leadership questions. The interviewer will try to extract the experiences          from the job aspirant that give details about his attitude.

        Remember Amazon has one Principle of ‘Hire and Develop the Best’. So selecting good talent is a vital goal of the interviewer itself. They          are finding a workforce for their company, but they will foster your talent as future leaders.

Let’s decode STAR now.

S – Stands for Situation, context and previous experience background

T – Stands for Task, the goal of the activity

A – Stands for Activity, Action which you took to correct the situation.

R – Stands for Result, the outcome of the overall situation.

         You can understand it better with the help of the given image.

       Strategy to master Amazon STAR method

It would be best if you answer the behavior question using this method.

• • First, explain the situation, problem.
  • Then brief about the job that was expected to be done. It should highlight your part of the job.
  • Highlight your actions, steps you took to reach the solution. (Give more information in this part, this part should be the longest one.)
  • Tell them about the outcome of your efforts in terms of quantifiable results. Explain to them what you learned from this situation, what impact this problem had on your approach.

Now I am going to mention a few much-awaited strategies to clear behavior interviews based on Amazon Leadership Principles.

1. Do not take Amazon Leadership Principles lightly

Amazon considers these Principles as their driving force. For you, these principles may be just statements, but for the people at Amazon, these are an essential part of their corporate culture. At AWS, their goals are governed by these Leadership Principles.

2. Read, Understand and memorize these Amazon Leadership Principles

You need to understand the hidden meaning of these principles. Remember, these principles are the brainchild of Jeff Bezos’s and his team. Jeff Bezos leads the world’s most valuable brand. They value their business and give credit for their success to their Principles.

Thus You need to do justice by reading, understanding and grasping these Principles. The interviewer can see and find the reflection of these Principles in your attitude.

3. Master the skill of answering Amazon Behavior Leadership Principles

Interviewers will not ask direct questions. Interviewer masters the skill of finding best skill in accordance to their Principles. So they may ask indirect questions. Many times you may not get clarity like which principles they are targeting.

But once you follow strategy no. 2, it will not be difficult to answer this question. It would be best if you think like leaders at Amazon, present your best attitude ahead.

Apply the STAR method, give examples- your stories, show excellence in your behavior. Take ownership of your responses.

Sometimes job aspirants do not get an idea about the Principle in question, so do not push your panic button. Instead, maintain your calm and think like a leader. Showcase your excellence, how you kept your excellent behavior ahead and did not stop till you got a satisfactory outcome. Never show a give up attitude.

Before going ahead with another strategy, I will highlight what kind of people Amazon avoids hiring.

1. People who are not aligned with Amazon Leadership principles.

2. Who shows more obsession in discussing its competitors.

3. People who blame others or processes.

4. People who are not sincere about their jobs and responsibilities.

5. Who holds a negative approach and keep a biased outlook.

6. People who find it challenging to communicate with others.

I am sure you must be having an articulative and rational mindset. But to be on board with Amazon, one needs to show higher traits that can differentiate you from others.

They are looking for such persons who can work backwards, who demonstrate a customer-centric approach, do not blame failures on others.

A future leader who can perform well even without supervision. A person can mentor his teammates.

A curious mind who can question the processes and can offer solutions. A creative person who thinks out of the box. You need to exhibit all such attributes in your persona.

4. Keep your answers short and precise

By precise, I mean to keep your answers clear. While using the STAR method, keep the focus on ‘A’, which is Action from your end. Elaborate this more, but try to keep track of your time. Like, do not indulge in giving more than 2 minutes long answer. If you are going ahead of 2 minutes, focus this excess time on highlighting your actions that reflect your excellence in solving the issue.

Often, the interviewee gives long answers; this puts off the interviewer, loses interest, and puts your efforts in vain. Try to stick to the 2-minutes rule.

5. Keep a note of your stories

Do not confuse with world Story. Stories are your previous experiences which you can mention.

Remember, your stories should showcase and revolve around Amazon leadership Principles. Your experiences depict the behavioural aspect of your attitude concerning Behavior Leadership principles.

Please keep a record of your stories, analyze how they fall in order with Principles. Do not repeat the same story for all questions. You can mould your story and present a different outlook.

Job aspirants get confused while asked to share experiences or stories. So while you prepare for an interview, prepare your stories well in advance.

Think about the job you are applying for and how it relates to Amazon’s Principles. Now think about your current job; which are the areas where you could apply Amazon leadership Principles?

6. Do not show an obsession with your competitors

You should present yourself like Amazon sees a future employee in you. This can be possible only if your behaviour is in line with Amazon Leadership principles. So if you exhibit more concern regarding discussing the vision of Amazon and discuss more customer experiences and preferences, this will add more value to your interview.

Many times interviewee’s show their present company in a bad light so better to avoid doing so.

7. Your Responses should be organic

You need to understand Amazon leadership principles well, but your expressions should not look rehearsed. Instead of using the exact phrases like ‘Customer obsession”, “ownership”, etc., you can use alternate words.

To express customer obsession, you can use the terms customer-driven, customer-oriented etc. At a place of ownership, you can use the word accountability.

My idea of highlighting this is simply that your responses should be organic, whereas the base of your answers always should be 14 Amazon Leadership principles.

A word from Author

 Amazon is the market leader; Thus, it always sees a leader in its employees. Especially, leaders who can raise the performance bar and are capable of taking calculated risks. In nutshell, Amazon is such a company that keeps its behavior leadership principles ahead and don’t afraid to dive deep to improve its processes to deliver high-quality products. Thus, it is not easy to be on board with Amazon. But with proper planning, you can surely qualify their behavior leadership interviews.

        If you wish us to cover more such topics, kindly contact us .