Success and scale bring broad responsibility

Amazon’s leadership principles describe how Amazonian do business, how their leaders lead, and how they keep the customer at the center of their decisions. The leadership principles describe Amazon’s culture. The 16th Amazon leadership principle is “success and scale bring broad responsibility”.

How does Amazon explain the “success and scale bring broad responsibility” principle, what does it mean?

With the principle “success and scale bring broad responsibility”, Amazon is demanding from its leaders a recognition of the societal impact and insisting they build that consideration into their decision-making frameworks.

Introducing this principle is a response to the huge criticism that the company has received during the pandemic in recent years. The criticism was that it is bad for the communities in which its employees live and bad for the environment.

The main idea of the 16th Amazon Leadership principle

This principle initially recognizes the impact that Amazon has had and will have on society, and through it, Amazon says that its leaders must be humble and careful even about the side effect of actions. That they must be better every day because we all need local communities, a planet, and future generations.

Amazon believes its leaders must start each day with a determination to improve and to finish every day knowing that tomorrow they can do even more. Leaders create more than they consume and always leave things better than they found.

Interview questions related to the principle “Success and scale bring broad responsibility”

• Tell me about a time when you left something better than you found it - big or small.
• Tell me about a time you worked to contribute to something bigger than yourself. What was the impact of that?
• Have you ever be faced with a moral dilemma in the workplace and how did you respond?

When preparing for an interview with the company, prepare some of your best stories, broad enough to answer a wide range of potential questions and scenarios. Keep in mind that you need to be original in your answers because Amazon continues to test these leadership principles throughout the work. Make sure you suit the company.

In your answers, show that you are a leader who lives with humanity and awareness of how your actions affect others and the world around you. You should recognize that you have a responsibility to make the world a better place and to leave it better than you found it, for the generations after you. Show that you don’t take success lightly.