Hello there, my name is Richard McMunn from the interview training company PassMyInterview.com,
and in this tutorial, I'm going to teach you how to pass an Amazon Leadership Principles
interview. If you have either a manager or leadership interview coming up with Amazon,
please make sure you watch this tutorial from beginning to end, because it will make a huge
difference to your preparation. Now, Amazon has 14 leadership principles, and during your
interview preparation, my advice is to learn them, understand them, and then also be able
to give examples of where you were previously demonstrated these important leadership principles
in prior situations. So this tutorial is going to make a huge difference to your preparation.
And this is how I will achieve that. I'm going to tell you what the Amazon leadership principles
are, and why they are so important to your interview preparation. I will then give you
sample Amazon leadership interview questions. I will give you suggested example answers
to those leadership interview questions. I will also give you three questions that I
recommend you ask at the end of your Amazon leadership interview, and I will also give
you further resources to help you be the standout candidate during your Amazon interview. There
are five really good reasons why you should watch this from beginning to end. Now, before
I get into the content. A very warm welcome to this Amazon Leadership Principles Training
tutorial. My name is Richard McMunn. That's me there in the center. I've been helping
people for over 20 years now to successfully pass their interviews and I always do that
by giving you top-scoring answers to the interview questions. Please do make sure you SUBSCRIBE
by clicking the red button below the video, and then you won't miss out on any of the
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the description below the video. It's always good to connect with like-minded professionals
such as yourself. Okay, let's now get into the training tutorial. Please do take notes.
What are the 14 Amazon leadership principles and why are they so important? Now, before
I get into those interview questions and answers that are based around the principles, we need
to quickly look at what those 14 Amazon leadership principles are. I have created this blueprint
for you, that tells you what they are. But I've also put a little line underneath each
principle to explain what it means. And I will tell you at some stage where you can
download these slides to save you having to write down notes, if you don't want to. The
first one, and in no particular order is, CUSTOMER OBSESSION. Now, I have put this up
first because I believe one of the main reasons, if not the standalone reason why Amazon has
been so successful since it first started many years ago, is because it obsesses about
customers. It puts customers at the heart of everything it does. So the first leadership
principle is customer obsession. The number one most important person in Amazon is the
CUSTOMER. And that is why they've been so successful. Because Amazon focuses on the
customer in everything they do. So, in preparation for your interview, think about a time when
you've gone above and beyond what is required for a customer. Another Amazon leadership
principle is EARN TRUST. As a leader and a manager, you should treat people with respect.
You have to earn their trust, and once you do, they will achieve great things for you.
Another Amazon leadership principle is HIRE & DEVELOP THE BEST people. As a leader, you
will move forward and improve continually by hiring and developing the best people available.
Every time you hire someone for your team, think about how they can help Amazon grow
and move forward as an organization. And as a leader, you have to THINK BIG. You should
have huge ambitions and you should go out of your way for the customer in everything
you do. So, if you think historically about the kind of products and services Amazon has
brought to us as customers, they are fantastic. They have changed the way that we do things.
They have changed the way that we shop. They have totally radicalized the way that products
are delivered for customers. And that's only going to continue to improve. We’ll have
drone delivery, for example. You know, they implemented the E-reading device, the Kindle,
and changed the way that we read. So they are always thinking ahead and thinking big.
BIAS FOR ACTION. This is getting things done. I've been in business for about 15 years and
I believe one of the reasons why I’ve been successful, is because I always take action.
I get things done. As a leader, you need to demonstrate in previous situations where you
have managed to achieve great things. Talk about what you do during your day. You take
action continuously and you are prepared to learn. Another Amazon leadership principle
is that leaders ARE RIGHT, A LOT of the time. As a leader, you should have strong judgment
skills. You can look at situations and you can make the right decisions despite perhaps
being under pressure. Another great Amazon leadership principle is that you should always
INSIST ON THE HIGHEST STANDARDS at all times. This is about demonstrating you can work to
high standards always. You never cut corners. In your preparation for your Amazon leadership
interview, think about a time, or times, when you have insisted on the highest standards.
Perhaps it might have been an unpopular decision amongst a team, but you've said… “No,
we're going to do things the right way.” Another Amazon leadership principle is DIVE
DEEP. You look into things deeply and analyze data and information to get results. This
is one of my favorite Amazon leadership principles… OWNERSHIP. Are you somebody, you should be
as a leader, who takes ownership of situations and you are responsible and accountable? Have
you ever worked for a company where somebody in the team say this when something goes wrong?
“That's not my fault. It's somebody else's fault.” That happens a lot in organizations,
but it doesn't happen in Amazon. People in Amazon, the leaders, will take ownership.
“Yes, we will take ownership of that situation. Let's resolve it and get it sorted out.”
You need to be somebody who takes ownership. You should also be someone who is willing
to LEARN & BE CURIOUS. You have to improve, develop and ask questions to find out why
you are doing things. FRUGALITY. This is about achieving things with less. You don't have
to spend a lot of money to achieve great things. You always have one eye on the finances within
your department. You should also HAVE BACKBONE, DISAGREE & COMMIT. This is not about falling
out with people. It's about having the backbone to stand up and say… “I don't agree with
that. Let's try things a different way.” But then committing. Challenge decisions and
then commit. INVENT AND SIMPLIFY. You should be able to lead teams to innovate and invent.
They are always looking forward and coming up with great ideas and also DELIVER RESULTS.
Amazon leaders and managers deliver results, so you get things done properly to a high
standard. And in a timely manner. Those are the 14 Amazon leadership principles. That
is a brilliant blueprint that you can use during your preparation. I will tell you where
you can download that at some stage during this training tutorial. As I say, I'll tell
you where you can download that blueprint soon. But let's get into those sample interview
questions and example answers to Amazon's leadership principles. Here we go. Here's
the first one, which is my favorite: customer obsession. As I mentioned, Amazon has won
the online retail battle for one reason. It obsesses about its customers. It puts customers
first in everything it does. And that's why customers keep going back to them. Amazon
doesn't worry too much about its other competitors online, but instead, it focuses on the customer.
Because it knows if it does that, it will always WIN. Nobody has managed to challenge
Amazon. And the reason for that is because they always focus on the customer. So let's
take a look at a sample Amazon leadership interview question that is on the principle
of customer obsession. And the one I want you to prepare for is: Describe a time when
you went above and beyond what was expected to help a customer? Describe a time when you
went above and beyond what was expected to help a customer? When you are answering these
kinds of questions, my advice is to use the STAR technique. The star technique stands
for situation, task, action, result. And this will make sure that your answer is SPECIFIC
in nature. You're not telling them what you would do in this kind of situation. You are
telling them what you have done, and that is very important. You start off with your
answer and you describe the SITUATION you were in. You then move on and explain the
TASK that needs to be done. You then tell them the ACTION you took to achieve that task,
and you then finish off and reveal the RESULTS of your actions. Whenever you get asked an
Amazon principle leadership interview question, think about the STAR technique: situation,
task, action and result. For all of the sample answers that are going to follow for the remainder
of this tutorial, I use the STAR technique to help you. Here we go: Describe a time when
you went above and beyond what was expected to help a customer?
“I can remember a number of occasions when I would go above and beyond for a customer.
One particular time comes to mind when I was speaking to a customer on the telephone about
a product they had recently ordered from our website. The product had, unfortunately, become
damaged by the courier company, and they needed to return it for a replacement. However, there
was an additional issue in the fact the customer really needed to use the product the next
day, yet they were unable to, due to the damage that had been caused. I put myself in the
shoes of the customer and I could genuinely feel her frustration. I decided to take ownership
of the situation and resolve the problem as it genuinely was not her fault the issue had
occurred. I kept the customer on the line whilst I sourced a new ‘guaranteed delivery’
courier company who was able to pick up and deliver a new replacement product within 24
hours. After some quick searching, I managed to find a company, and whilst the customer
was still on the line, I facilitated the order. I then informed the customer that we would
have a new product with her in time for the following day, which she was absolutely thrilled
about. The following morning I called the customer back to make sure the product had
actually arrived in time, which it had done. The customer then went on to leave a glowing
review of our company and I am pleased to say she has been a regular customer ever since.”
Now, that is a great example of somebody going above and beyond what is expected. My advice,
in your answer to this question, is to give a situation when you really have gone above
and beyond. Think about what a company would do, and then try and improve on it. The majority
of companies would never do that. By giving the example, you are showing that you really
can go above and beyond. Let's now take a look at another Amazon leadership principle
interview question based on the principle of ownership. Ownership is where, as a leader,
you have to take ownership of situations. I mentioned before, have you ever worked with
somebody in a team? And they say, “Oh, that's not our fault. That's not my fault. Someone
else caused that problem.” Leaders who work for Amazon don't do that! Don't be a person
who says… “Well, it wasn't really my problem. Somebody else caused that issue.” Take ownership!
Let's sort it out, because we are all collectively working for Amazon. When you work for Amazon,
be responsible, take ownership and put the customer at the heart of everything you do.
Remember, you are working for a great organization where everybody is working to achieve that
same goal. Let's take a look at a sample answer for that question, which is: Tell me about
a time when you failed at work? This is a sample Amazon leadership principle interview
question that is focused on taking ownership. We all fail at work. Do not say during your
answer to this interview question: “I have never failed.” We all fail, but it's how
we deal with that situation. Tell me about a time when you failed at work? Here we go.
I don’t like to fail, but if I do, I always take ownership, put things right, and above
all, view it as an opportunity to learn, grow and develop. During a challenging and exciting
project at work in a previous role, I was part of a team of talented people who were
working on the creation of a new product for an important client. The task required us
to work together as a team and use our combined expertise and experience to create the product
for the client within very strict timescales and specifications. The project should have
been a breeze, simply because we had done this type of work together many times before.
We started out as usual with the project manager giving the team the usual brief. I can remember
thinking the brief was perhaps not clear enough for the specification required by the client,
but I chose not to say anything, which ended up being a huge mistake. Part-way through
the project, it became apparent we had missed a very important specification off the product,
which ended up putting us two weeks behind schedule. Although the client was forgiving
and he allowed us additional time to complete the project, we had failed to deliver on our
promises as a team. During the team debrief, I disclosed I had concerns during the initial
team briefing, but I chose not to say anything. I apologized for not doing so. As a team,
we learnt a lot from that experience, and moving forward the same mistake never happened
again.” What I love about that kind of answer, is that you are saying: “Yes, I have failed
before, but I am taking responsibility for it.” Now, some people would say in that
situation: “It’s the project managers fault. He or she didn't give a thorough brief.”
But you are saying: “No. I thought something was wrong, and I didn't say anything.” That
demonstrates you are an honest person. You take responsibility and you take ownership.
And then you look to move forward and you learn from the situation. That's a brilliant
answer. Let's now take a look at another Amazon leadership principle interview question, which
is deliver results. Don't forget, if you are enjoying this, please do SUBSCRIBE and also
hit the LIKE button. That tells me you enjoy the content and I I'll spend more time creating
it for you. Thank you. Delivering results. This is all about overcoming problems and
obstacles with vigor, resilience and determination. To work for Amazon, you need to be a results
driven leader who has the ability to overcome difficult challenges and problems. What kind
of question could we get asked? Describe a time when you overcame a difficult challenge
at work? This has to be a difficult challenge, one that you demonstrated determination and
resilience. Here is my suggested answer. “In my previous job, a long-standing client who
had brought in good business for a number of years, made contact with us to say he was
moving to a new service provider and that he no longer required our services. This was
bad news for the company, and I saw it as my responsibility to try and keep hold of
his business. Although this would be a difficult challenge, the impact of losing the customer
would be significant for our company from a financial perspective. I reached out to
the customer by telephone and asked him to meet me the next day over lunch. He agreed,
and in the time period between the telephone call and the meeting, I did my homework, looked
at how we could improve the service we currently provided for him, and also looked at the options
surrounding what he was paying for our services. At the meeting, I asked lots of questions
about how our service could be improved and what we could do to keep his business. It
quickly became apparent he no longer felt valued as a customer with our company. After
a couple of hours of discussions, I managed to keep hold of his business by offering a
new tailored service that would mean we provided a closer working relationship with him. When
I returned to the office, I immediately implemented a review of all clients to make sure we never
had the same situation again, where a client felt devalued.” That is an example of where
you have overcome a really difficult challenge. You have thought outside the box. You took
ownership of the situation, and you have also looked to improve. You've identified it’s
a problem, but you have resolved it moving forward. Now, most people would just leave
the client and say… “OK, thank you for your business. Good luck in the future.”
But with this situation, you've gone out your way to try and keep them – That’s a great
answer! Let's take a look at another one, another Amazon leadership principle interview
question. This is based around HAVE BACKBONE, DISAGREE & COMMIT. If you think something
is wrong, challenge it in a constructive and professional manner. It is ok to disagree,
but always make sure you fully commit to the decision made. I have a Managing Director
who works as part of my company, and he is constantly challenging me on decisions. I
love that, because we always then come up with the right decisions for the company.
When you disagree with people, always do it constructively and professionally and never
be childish. Never get confrontational. But do say: “I don't agree with that. And these
are the reasons why.” Look for the BENEFIT. Yes, give your opinion, but look for the BENEFIT
to the company in the decision that you are making. Let's have a look at a sample interview
question based around, HAVE BACKBONE DISAGREE & COMMIT, and that is: Tell me a time when
you had a disagreement with somebody at work? I'm not talking about a petty disagreement.
I'm talking about a disagreement here that looks to improve the company. Here's a great
answer to this interview question. “I was working in an office and a customer emailed
the team to complain about the errors that they had found in one of our company newsletters.
The newsletter was created periodically by another department within the organization
and it’s purpose was to generate new business for the company. I took a look at the newsletter
and I was shocked at the number of errors that were contained within it. I felt it was
my responsibility to raise the issue with the department responsible for the creation
of the newsletter, so we could explore ways in which it could be improved. It was my view
that the newsletter, in its current format, was letting the business down. I spoke to
the manager of the department and I was met with an immediate defensive attitude. I was
basically told to mind my own business and he disagreed with my suggestion the newsletter
should be improved. However, I persevered and I outlined the benefits of what a strong
newsletter could bring to our company. I also offered to proofread the newsletter before
it went out, as this would then enable me to suggest different ways in which we could
improve the newsletter and use it to leverage new business. After some perseverance and
tactful relationship building skills, the manager agreed for me to work with them to
improve the newsletter. Six months after I initially made contact, the newsletter was
seen as an integral part of the business and it was responsible for helping to promote
new products and also offer incentives and discounts for our loyal customer base.”
That is a great example of where someone has gone above and beyond to overcome a difficult
challenge at work. Now, of course, most people may say when they spoke to the manager and
they were met with that defensive attitude, they would go: “Okay, I would leave it.”
But this person has gone above and beyond. And I persevered, outlining the benefits of
what that strong newsletter can do to the company and also using tactful relationship
building skills, and then offering to help out by proofreading that newsletter. That's
a really good answer to that question! What questions should you ask in your Amazon leadership
interview? I'll come on to them in a second, so please do stick around. If you want to
download these slides, plus the Amazon blueprint, if you click the link in the top right hand
corner of the video, it will take you through to my website, PassMyInterview.com, where
you can download a copy of these slides and that blueprint to help you during your preparation.
What are those three questions? I recommend you ask these at the end of your Amazon interview
because they will say to you: “OK, the interview is over. Do you have any questions you would
like to ask us?” This is what I would ask. Q1. What are the plans for Amazon over next
five to 10 years and how could I help you in this role to achieve them? That question
demonstrates you are thinking ahead long term. You want to stay with Amazon for a long period
of time. Q2. Amazon is always bringing out new products and services, what are the next
great innovations Amazon is concentrating on right now? They might not disclose them
to you, but this is a great example of a question that is saying, you know, what products are
Amazon bringing out in the future because you are interested in them. Q3. What's the
first thing you would like me to concentrate on in this role? What's the first thing you
would like me to concentrate on in this role? Those are three really good questions you
can ask at the end of your Amazon interview! Don't forget, if you want to download these
slides, click that link in the top right hand corner. I hope you've enjoyed that tutorial.
I love teaching you guys. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn.com. Please give
the video a LIKE. Thank you very much. And don't forget to SUBSCRIBE. And if you have
any questions, put them in the comments section below the video. Thank you for watching. I
wish you all the best for passing your Amazon interview. Have a brilliant day.