Made with unreasonably high standards - Jeff Bezos & his philosophy on the employee as an owner

LeaderPoint: Leaders create a culture of clarity.

The truth

Mission, People, & Culture: They form what I call the magic triangle. Every company has to address these 3 issues. Few address them quite as Amazon does.

They empower their employees and push for what many seem as impossible standards. But these standards are exactly the reason when you say “Amazon,” most people assume you’re talking about the trillion-dollar company, not the rainforest in South America.

With a company so successful, I wanted to hear what the CEO had to say.

So I read

I spent days pouring over the annual letters Jeff Bezos sends to his shareholders every year, and I’ve been writing and podcasting about the insights. (If you want to check out all the letters for yourself, you can snag them all right here.)

Bezos requires all 3 

Most people work long, hard or smart. Bezos requires all 3 skills at Amazon!

When Bezos hires someone, he hires them with an outstanding methodology. He tells them upfront that most companies know they can only get 2 out of 3 of these: someone who works long, hard, smart. Most companies (and most individuals), pick 1, or maybe 2 out of 3.

He tells employees that Amazon doesn’t exist to do anything mediocre, or, not even anything that’s “really good.” Bezos tells his staff that they’re all at Amazon to do something their grandchildren will be proud to tell others “my grandparents built that!”

Bezos wants employees to treat Amazon like it’s theirs. So he compensates them like owners.

Bezos never wanted a team that thought like employees. He set out to build a team that thinks as owners think. In his very first letter, he told his shareholders he wanted to compensate his employees with stock options, not just hourly pay. 

I’ve seen firsthand what happens when you work for a startup that sells, and you, the employee, get nothing. It’s entirely demotivating for the team.

No powerpoints.

Amazon doesn’t believe in PowerPoints. Instead, they have silent readings of 6-page narratives

Some hip startups have switched from PowerPoints to Google Slides, just to keep up with the times and have their information in an easily accessible cloud format. Amazon takes this way up a notch: Bezos trashed decks altogether.

Instead, leaders create 6-page narratives for any initiative they want to bring up at the next meeting. At the meeting, they distribute a copy of this narrative to every person who needs to sign off.

The entire room reads in silence. After everyone has completely read the narrative, they discuss it. Crazy cool!

I just want to be a fly on the wall to see this play out!

Amazon requires unreasonably high standards

Bezos requires unreasonably high standards from himself and his company. Not only is he aware of these near-impossible requirements, but he believes this mentality is one of Amazon’s greatest assets. He hires for it.

“You must have unreasonably high standards.” Bezos says it again and again, and he wants it in bold, big font, underlined, and italicized.

The way he talks about it in his shareholder letters, I wouldn’t be surprised if we one day see “Made With Unreasonably High Standards” printed on every item that comes from Amazon.

Leader Point: Today's leadership is about creating a culture of clarity.

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