How do you ensure your teams produce quality work?
Your interviewer is curious about what leadership style you'd bring to their teams. When answering this question, go with what you know about all of Amazon's leadership principles, and let that guide you. When describing your approach to supervising your teams, be mindful of the leadership principles, 'Earn Trust,' 'Deliver Results,' and 'Ownership.' But place most of your focus on 'Insist on the Highest Standards.' When reviewing your approach and how you'd describe it, study how they align with these principles, and incorporate their language into your answer.
Jeff Bezos has been described as an autocratic leader, a pragmatist, and transformational, all depending on which previous employer you talk to. In some manner, they are all correct. But consider the words of Jeff Bezos: "Seek to build a community, to make better choices in the people with whom you partner. That's the only way to have greater long-term impact on the world." It is from this ideal that he formed the leadership principle, 'Insist on the Highest Standards,' which states, "Leaders have relentlessly high standards, many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high-quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed."
"I go the distance with every member of my teams. I make sure we all keep our eyes on the big picture and that each teammate has everything they need. Without the right tools, I cannot expect them to succeed. I set them up for success, to do the job the right way right away. I touch base but make sure they trust that I trust them. My check-ins are never to micro-manage, but to ensure they don't need support and to pat them on the back for how far they've gotten with their work each time I ask them where they are at."
