Why Andy Jassy Wants Leaders to Show Accountability

According to Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, the best way to build a successful business is by having a foundation of trust between leaders and employees – something he often sees people getting wrong. 

In a company YouTube video, he said: “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, Andy recommends that leaders should facilitate honesty in the way they lead, which he credits as being foundational to his own progression after nearly 30 years at Amazon. 

Amazon’s 16 leadership principles

Amazon has been continuously refining what it refers to as its leadership principles since Jeff Bezos developed the company’s initial core principles in 1997. 

Some of these values – such as ‘customer obsession' – have been a part of the leadership principles since the start, while others have been brought in to reflect new business evolution. 

These include striving to be the ‘Earth’s Best Employer’ and ‘Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility’. 

According to Andy, abiding by these principles has allowed the company to “operate like the world’s largest startup.”

One of these leadership principles is ‘Earn Trust’, which requires leaders to listen attentively, speak candidly and treat others with respect. 

Instead of demanding authority, leaders are encouraged to lead by example – demonstrating consistency, honesty and accountability. That way, leaders can encourage truth-seeking within their teams over social cohesion. 

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

“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.”

Andy Jassy's Amazon career

Andy first joined Amazon in 1997 as a Marketing Manager, beginning the process of creating what became Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Jeff Bezos in 2003, before succeeding Jeff as CEO in 2021.

In the video shared by Amazon, Andy recalls a time early on in his career when Jeff challenged him while he was presenting, saying: “all your numbers are wrong on this slide”.

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

He said: “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 previously said that beginning a career and progressing to a leadership position largely depends on attitude. 

In an interview with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, he said “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 having a can-do attitude in line with Amazon’s leadership principles – saying employees need to “work hard” and do what they say they will do to succeed.