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Vol. #08, Issue#87
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February 2016
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I love Amazon and their free shipping program AmazonPrime because it makes shopping so easy and convenient.
I love that from my phone I can order everything from replacement vacuum cleaner bags (for my Miele Vacuum, that I also ordered from Amazon a few years ago) to my very nice Raymond Weil (a little bling, bling for my wrist) watch, that was 50% cheaper than Macy's and the local jeweler, and arrived at my doorstep the next day!
I see our UPS delivery guy often and we always chat about how great Amazon is. It provides him job stability and it keeps my office, our home and our get-away place stocked with essentials and other good things, with ease.
So, you have to know that I was super-excited when John Rossman, a former Amazon executive and the author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company, agreed to be interviewed by me for Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast Episode #21: Building a Culture of Accountability The Amazon Way.
The insights John shared around the top three leadership principles (of the
fourteen) that help create an accountability culture at Amazon are things every company can put into place, large and small. 
The one leadership principle he shared that stood out to me, is this one: Be Vocally Self-Critical.
This is where a leader takes responsibility for mistakes by being completely honest about where a project or a team stands, by always demonstrating a combination of truth-telling, humility and will, and continually asking "How can we get better?"
John shared that everyone was expected to "open the kimono" in meetings - which is to expose the faults, errors and limitations of your situation. If someone ever hid a problem and later on it was discovered, well at Amazon that is a terminable offense. The thought behind this is that if you are vocally self-critical you can "combat the danger of arrogance" with constant self-examination and by relentlessly focusing on the journey and the results.
Think about how productive every team and project meeting would be in your organization if everyone "opened the kimono" by sharing not only what is working, but fully sharing what is not working, why it isn't working and how they're going to fix it. Wow! What would it be like if this were the expectation? Think of how quickly problems could get resolved and how everyone would begin to really own their job.
How do you create this? The leader has to go first, metrics have to be in place and there has to be tolerance for failure and no tolerance for making the same mistakes over and over.
"Accountability is not painless. But it is the only sure path to achievement."
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Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast Episodes:
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My four-part Accountability Series, on
my Podcast continues with an explanation around how to set expectations and how Amazon has built a culture of accountability:
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EPISODE: In Episode #20 -
Learn how to create a Job Dashboard - the easiest and most effective
way to get employees to own
their job and their performance
Listen and Read the Show Notes, Now!
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NEW EPISODE: In Episode #21 -
Three key actions every leader can take, #1 one thing every leader at Amazon obsesses about and find out why 'social cohesion' is the enemy of accountability.
Listen and Read the Show Notes, Now!
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This Month - What's Your Biggest Regret?
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In my newest Podcast,
Episode #21, I share about my love for Amazon and we learn about how Amazon creates a culture of accountability.
Former Amazon Executive and Author John Rossman shares how Amazon encourages leaders to always share the truth, to not cover things up, to admit what is and to then state your plan for the future.
I love how, in this video, people "tell the truth" about a regret and then, with that sharing, they come to realize that they can start again. That every day can be seen as a clean slate. A great reminder that every day you CAN begin again. Lovely. And true.
Enjoy this Inspiring Video, Now
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Helping Leaders, Trainers and Consultants Build the Energy, Commitment and Communication in Organizations
Suzie Price
CPF, CPBA, CPVA, CPHDA
Priceless Professional Development
770-578-6976770-578-6976
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