What are Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's Employee Relations Tips?

According to Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, the most effective method for establishing a successful business involves creating a strong foundation of trust between leaders and employees.

However, this is a concept he sees many individuals getting wrong within the workplace. In a video shared on Amazon's YouTube channel, he shares his experiences regarding Amazon's "Build Trust" Leadership Principle while working at the retail giant.

Defining trust in the workplace

Andy says that people often misinterpret what building trust entails in a professional setting. In the video, he says: “They sometimes confuse it with meaning being nice to one another or having social cohesion or not challenging each other in meetings.

 “‘I won’t challenge you if you don’t challenge me’ or ‘This person isn’t trustworthy because they challenged me in a group of people’.”

Instead of this approach, Andy recommends that senior leaders should build honesty in the way they manage employees. He credits this transparency as being instrumental to his own progression within the company.

From principles to behaviours

Amazon’s leadership principles date back to 1997, when Jeff Bezos established the company’s original framework. Since then, the list has evolved alongside the business.

Longstanding tenets such as ‘customer obsession’ sit alongside more recent additions including aiming to be ‘Earth’s Best Employer’ and ‘Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility’.

Andy credits this framework with enabling Amazon to “operate like the world’s largest start-up”.

One of these specific leadership principles is ‘Earn Trust’. This value requires leaders and employees to listen attentively, speak candidly and treat others with respect. Instead of demanding authority, leaders are encouraged by the company to lead by example.

This involves demonstrating consistency, honesty and accountability. By doing so, leaders can encourage truth-seeking within their teams and build up relationships between employees and leaders. 

Andy says: “What we mean by ‘earn trust’ is being honest, authentic, straightforward; listening intently, but challenging respectfully if you disagree.”

This principle empowers employees to voice concerns regarding business operations without fear of retribution.

He adds: “If you think we’re doing something wrong for customers of the business, speak up. If you own something, and it’s not going well, own it.”

Taking ownership of mistakes

Andy first joined Amazon in 1997 as a Marketing Manager and founded Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Jeff in 2003, before succeeding him as CEO in 2021.

Andy recalls a time early on in his career when Jeff challenged him while he was presenting. Jeff told him: “all your numbers are wrong on this slide”.

While Andy says he was initially “taken aback”, he believes that it was a good moment for him to show accountability in making a mistake. This moment helped him to earn trust in the company.

He says: “I earned trust by owning it, being vocally self-critical and actually getting better and improving it and providing a much better presentation and account for what was truth the next time I presented in a much broader group.”

Andy has said that beginning a career and progressing to a leadership position largely depends on attitude. In an interview with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, he says “there’s so many things that you can’t control in your work life, but you can control your attitude.

“I think people would be surprised how infrequently people have great attitudes. I think it makes a big difference.”

For Andy, this means being positive in the workplace to “pick up” advocates and mentors, and being willing to put in the work to succeed.