10 Leadership Lessons from Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg are famous names that we always heard of on the news and internet. But have you heard about Jeff Bezos; CEO of Amazon.com – the largest and most successful internet retail company in the world? Jeff Bezos currently tops Fortune’s latest list of the world’s greatest leaders. Let’s have a look on the leadership lessons that he practices that turned Amazon.com from a garage operated company to a multi-million dollar business:

1. Be Stubborn and Flexible

 “We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details.” This is what Bezos says when it comes to business. According to him, if you are not persistent enough to pursue your dreams, you will easily give up on the trial and error that you do for yourself/company. At the same time, you need to be flexible on the details to see the bigger picture when it comes to problem solving. In a nutshell, any entrepreneur need to have these two characteristics in order to excel.

2. Never Stop Experimenting

“If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.” Experimentation and willingness to invent has always been a part of the culture in Amazon. It’s how new innovations are born and how they stay competitive in the market.

3. Be Willing to Invent

Bezos lived by rule of rapid experimentation and invention. Invention is really important to him and his team at Amazon. He looks for people that like to invent and are always looking for ways to make products better.

4. Think long-term

Thinking long term requires a tremendous amount of patience. This is especially true when you’re the CEO who needs to focus on day-to-day operations. Since its establishment in 1994, Bezos encountered numerous obstacles and challenges in setting up the company as people barely know what the internet is.

5. Obsess About Customers

“Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.” At Amazon, the team practices to always start with the customer and “working-backward” approach to upgrade your service. When you work backwards, you start with the customer and their needs and problems.

6. Take on new and unique experiences

Innovative leaders always embrace new experiences as a means to engage in interactive learning.  It’s important to approach new activities with an open mind. When you’re working with a variety of people, processes and products or solving new, complex problems, you’ll see a big boost in creative thinking and you’ll gain new perspectives on the world around you.

7. Work in a Call Centre

We live in a digital age where everything will go viral especially when it comes to complaints and customer service. Bezos asks thousands of Amazon managers, including ­himself, to ­attend two days of call-center training each year. The end result: humility and empathy for the customer.

8. Every day is a new day for Internet

We still have so much to learn on the World Wide Web. In an interview, Bezos says that they treat every day as a new day for the internet as there is so much to learn and discover.

9. 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. They ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

10. Hire and Develop the Best

 Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others.