Still haven’t found a better list than Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Concise, clear, ambitious. A benchmark.
Bookmarked this in 2017, now printed it (on paper!) for a weekly read and review.
Here are my favorites.
Bias for Action
Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.
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 and driving 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 they stay fixed.
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.
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.”
The Sensible Leader 
Yet, it doesn’t seem to actually hold the company accountable to my eye. What’s it worth when they are clearly violate the first point?
I’m not talking about little inadvertent decisions that need to be walked back. The way they’ve let their marketplace debase itself, via commingling of third-party inventory, massively betrays their customers–even if most customers haven’t realized it yet. I’m sure it’s incredibly more efficient and profitable for them on the backend but there is effectively no way to trust the item shipped is real.
So far, their established good will and lack of critical eye from consumers in aggregate holds them up. I hope a reckoning comes soon though as it’s awful in my book to consumers and legit sellers.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Hew.
LikeLike
In talking to my friend and colleague Alister, he pointed out something interesting. This list doesn’t contain much language around empathy or emotional awareness.
LikeLike