Tell me about the last time you made a commitment that challenged you.
When answering this question, offer an example where you made a professional commitment that proved far more challenging than anticipated. Share the stakes involved, whether the stakes were high for the company or your professional goals and development. The goal is to showcase how resourceful you were, how pioneering and inventive an effort it was, and how you ultimately followed through on this commitment, over-delivering on your promises.
Amazon's company culture has been described by its former employers in many ways but is consistent in that their company culture is centered around productivity and innovation. Yet it has also been described as high-pressure and intense. When an employee commits to a pioneering path, with the backing of their leadership or Jeff Bezos himself, it can be a make-or-break career experience. This is where their leadership principle of 'Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit' comes into play. "Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly."
Here is an example where Jeff Bezos further elaborates on this leadership principle: "We recently greenlit a particular Amazon Studios original. I told the team my view. They had a completely different opinion and wanted to go ahead. I wrote back right away with 'I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we've ever made.' Consider how much slower this decision cycle would have been if the team had actually had to convince me rather than simply get my commitment."
"I recently mentored and promoted a member of our team to management. They were excited to contribute. After a few weeks of being oriented, they started asking questions about the systems I'd created to increase workflow. On many occasions, they asked why there were extra steps involved in many processes. I explained that I take extra effort to ensure that the best method of doing anything is fail-safe. I also often said of other systems that the best method of performing any task is to make it so that the shortcut takes longer. Eventually, they proposed new systems that they felt were more efficient than the ones I'd created. I couldn't argue that their model did seem like it embraced these ideologies. It was difficult for me to do so, but I decided to allow them to propose these changes to upper management. It bruised my ego, but I committed to training and promoting them, so it was a matter of integrity to promote their proposal."
