3 Ways to Career Plan Like an Amazonian: Leadership Principles and Mechanisms for the Job Seeker

Amazon is a very successful company and is admired throughout the world. In a few short decades, it became a top globally-recognized brand and has influenced countless other businesses to rethink their approach to innovation. Amazon Web Services (AWS) the cloud computing pioneer, is the fastest enterprise software company in the history of the world.

So, what lessons do Amazon’s Leadership Principles and daily mechanisms hold for those who are actively or passively looking for their next career move? A lot.

CUSTOMER OBSESSION: The foundational Leadership Principle at Amazon is a relentless pursuit of understanding durable customer needs and then driving solutions to address those needs. Anyone who has worked there or studied the company knows about the “flywheel” where connected customer needs (for selection, low prices, quick delivery) feed off each other to create customer loyalty. Would be job seekers should apply the same discipline to their search. Rather than applying to every role they see or trying to be “everything to everyone,” they should focus on their ideal customer profile, in this case, a hiring manager at a particular type of company that has needs they can best fill. When you read job descriptions, look for the problems they cite or imply in the description. What are they looking to accomplish? What are their barriers to success? What problem are they trying to solve with this hire?

For ideas on how to do narrowing down, I recommend professor Steve Dalton’s The 2-Hour Job Search (thank you, Gina Riley, for the original recommendation). For those who are in the thought leadership business, see David C. Baker’s The Business of Expertise (thank you, Drew Neisser for that recommendation) and The Thought Leaders Practice from Matt Church, Peter Cook, and Scott Stein (thank you, Marc Wolfe for that recommendation).

WORKING BACKWARDS: The most famous Amazon mechanism is the working backwards process. It is codified in a PRFAQ, which outlines in a fake press release format what you propose to do for that customer need you identified. You can do the same thing for your career. Sit down and write a press release announcing your appointment for your next job. As you might have been taught, start with the headline and the “customer quote” (in this case, the hiring manager’s quote) that outlines why you were such a great fit for their needs. This sounds easy but is very hard, and that is the point. It forces you to think deeply about what you bring to the table, what needs you solve, and why you are better than any alternative (including the “hire no one and try to do the work with the folks you already have” scenario, which is very common). This will give you confidence when networking, applying or interviewing for new roles as you can articulate your value proposition.

For more information on how to write out strategy in this way, see chapter 6 of my book, Well Made Decisions. I also recommend Colin Bryar and Bill Carr’s Working Backwards.

LEARN AND BE CURIOUS: If you find yourself out of work and considering the next steps, don’t forget to apply this critical leadership principle. Take the time to get a new certification, take a course, or learn a new skill. Build a website, start a blog, train for a 5k, dive deep into a technical topic, and add to your toolkit in a way that not only bolsters your resume, but gives you a sense of accomplishment. A job search, especially an active one, can drain your energy, and so many days, you can feel like you aren’t making progress. Focusing on learning daily gives you back that agency and prepares you well for what is next. When you do land your next appointment, you may find it was something that you were not qualified to do before you jumped into learning!

How else are you applying Leadership Principles to your career plan?

Making Change

A recent article in Forbes by Janet Balis, who works in EY’s Marketing Practice, summarized research that EY conducted with the University of Oxford and identified that emotions are a key determining factor in the success or failure of a business transformation. She went on to say that those with a CMO background may be well-suited to the collaboration, care, inspiration, empowerment, building skills, and leadership required for high-performing transformation. In other words, it is a familiar set of decisions for those of us who work cross-functionally, create impact at scale, and constantly advocate for customers.

That said, even those wired for or experienced in change, need help along the way, especially as they work across the organization to share vision and align motivations. When I wrote Well Made Decisions, I thought about the strategic decisions that businesses make and the processes and approaches that leaders employ before and after the decision and concluded decisions weren’t a finish line, but a starting line.

With this in mind, I have begun to expand my areas of practice to a broader set of tools and principles that I have found to be particularly effective and backed by research and results in companies large and small. Over the coming weeks, I will share more of what I am helping companies, CEOs, and leaders accomplish. If I can be useful to you in the meantime, as you are considering a strategic refresh, merger or acquisition integration planning, or process reinvention, do not hesitate to reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn.

A Punt is What You Make It: what football teaches leaders about decision making

Over the past few years, I have been seeing up close the intersection of athletics and business in my role as the CMO of LEARFIELD. I believe sports have many lessons to teach us about decision making that can be applied beyond the field of play. This blog series compares game day decisions and those faced by business leaders providing some insights from the greatest minds in sports that can improve your business.

One of my favorite episodes of Young Sheldon is where the genius child of a west Texas high school football coach tells his Dad matter-of-factly that according to the statistics it is better to “go for it” on a fourth down than it is to punt. It takes some convincing, but in the end the team does well with the new, unconventional strategy. The decision that coaches make on how to handle fourth downs has lessons for us about crisis management.

For those reading who might not be as familiar with American football (preferring perhaps the round ball variety played everywhere else), a 4th down is the offensive’s teams last chance to move the ball or score before they have to surrender it to the opponent and risk being scored upon. This is where strategy can fall victim to panic and impatience. The team’s back is against the proverbial wall. They still have control of the ball, but their control is tenuous and threatened.

There are many situations that put businesses into similar positions. Perhaps a company has invested extensively into new market expansion or new technology and are running out of time to have those investments pay off. Perhaps they are facing new pressures externally from the market or economy, or internally from their board of directors, which is causing them to change their style of play. Perhaps the current leadership is under performance pressure and feel like they are in a 4th down predicament.

In these situations, football has some strategy lessons for leaders under risk and scrutiny. Like Shelton Cooper demonstrated, expert advice will vary, but here are some rules of thumb and how they might apply to your team:

1. Field Position Matters: Most advise that teams should not punt the ball on the opponent’s side of the field, and really only after crossing your own 40-yard line. Anything less than that puts the opponent in good scoring position is there is a turn-over on downs. Similarly, if you are in a competitive environment and the risk of not progressing forward is higher than the risk of pulling back, then you should proceed. If you have spent 2 years developing a promising new pharmaceutical or technology and know that your competitors are only months behind you in their development, it might make sense to continue to launch, so that you can achieve market adoption first.

2. Scoring May Not Be The Immediate Goal: In football, as in business, it is a long game. Not every play results in a touchdown or field goal. Sometimes moving the chains is the goal. Some times field position dictates that the special teams should come out and try to kick a field goal, instead of trying to move the ball or score a run or pass touchdown. That only makes sense if ball would be placed confidently in the range of your kicker. In business, this is where your knowledge of the market and your knowledge of your team combine. Not every team has the same capabilities, especially true in college matchups and in your business. So, it is critical to remind yourself of yourself of your differentiating strengths and what the team can reasonably accomplish under pressure. Sometimes that means putting points on the score board. Sometimes that means living to fight another day.

3. A Punt Isn’t Always a Defeat: If on the 4th down there is no reasonable chance to achieve a 1st down or to score, then the team will choose to punt. The goal here is to give the ball to the opponent, but place it as far away as possible. There are many ways that business emulate this behavior. Instead of developing a marketable product, some firms will secure intellectual property so that anyone attempting to bring to market a product in the space has to license their technology. Sometimes what a company learned through a market or product development process reveals that the market need isn’t as substantial or profitable as they once thought. In this case, ceding the space to a competitor might have them chasing low-return opportunities, while you go on to solve larger or more impactful customer needs. Perhaps you believed in the strategy, but outside forces are causing you to pick different priorities. Although it is hard to stop investing in something you believed in or to pivot an organization to a new strategy, it is often best to ignore the sunk cost and move to a new strategy.

In my book, Well Made Decisions, I write about the importance remaining nimble after a high-stakes decision is made. After all, it is after the decision where all of the results occur. There no such thing as a right decision in many cases, but one that was made right (or deemed wrong) by what happened after the play was called. You see this on the field of play as well, where punts are returned for touchdowns, or the ball is recovered in other ways to change the momentum of the game. Through great communication, a grasp of the fundamentals of the business, and candid truth-telling and teamwork, great teams can perform well even when they face 4th down situations.

Take What’s Yours: What Baseball Teaches Us About Entering Adjacent Markets

Over the past few years, I have been seeing up close the intersection of athletics and business in my role as the CMO of LEARFIELD. I believe sports have many lessons to teach us about decision making that can be applied beyond the field of play.  This blog series compares game day decisions and those faced by business leaders providing some insights from the greatest minds in sports that can improve your business.

Baseball is a game that is highly instrumented. Everything is measured and tracked. This makes it a great source for data-driven leadership lessons. The game also has a rich tradition and lots of rules that change every season. In September, the MLB has changed the size of official bases which some speculate will make it easier for runners to steal bases. You can see the comparison of the old and new bases in the background of the graphic above.

A base is “stolen” when a runner advances to a base to which “they are not entitled” (seems a little judgy, Wikipedia) and they are deemed safe at the next base.  It apparently first happened in either 1863 or 1865 with Ned Cuthbert playing for the Philadelphia Keystones. 

Even if that is true, they will have some big records to beat! There is a now-retired MLB player, Rickey Henderson, who racked up an incredible 1,406 stolen bases in his career.  In the 1887 season, Hugh Nicol racked up 138 stolen bases in a single season for the Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA), although it is speculated that not all of Hugh’s would meet the “modern” rules. Modern rules established (gulp!) in 1898.

Stealing bases holds some interesting lessons for business leaders interested in entering adjacent markets.  If a business is well-established in a category or with a particular customer set, what can that company do to take its current product to new markets or to serve their current customers in new ways?

1. Know the Score: It is critical that players on the field know score, the inning, the out count, and the position of all the players on base and those on the hitting roster. Otherwise, they will not do the right thing. The same is true in business. Before considering any impactful decision, one must understand the current situation clearly, including the businesses' ability and appetite to invest.

2. Managing Risk-Reward: Not all stolen bases attempted are successful. There is certainly risk associated with business expansion which should be explored. In my book, Well Made Decisions, I write about the importance of customer obsession and the practice of writing out strategy to mitigate risk. One useful practice is to do a pre-mortem to identify the potential derailers to your plan, before you implement. This is what baseball coaches and players do when they are making real-time decisions on the field. Before they take their foot off the base, they are calculating probabilities. Analysis of adjacent markets often use the 2x2 matrix I illustrated with bases above. You can choose to take existing products to new customers. Or you can choose to bring new offerings to your existing markets. The further away you get from your current customers or markets or your current products or technologies, the more risk. Talking candidly about those risks and mitigating them can be the key to getting the buy-in and cooperation the business will need.

Introducing the Well Made Scholarship

Excited to introduce a new college scholarship, funded in part by the proceeds of the Well Made Decisions book by Jennifer Davis. Now accepting applications with our partner bold.org! Learn more about the scholarship on the Well Made Decisions blog.