Amazon Leadership Principle 5: Hire and Develop the Best

What Is ‘Hire and Develop the Best’?

Hire and Develop the Best is about managing and developing people. This principle is mainly for people who work in a managerial position. It is about hiring good people who get their work done well but also care about learning and growing. Hire and Develop the Best is a principle that your interviewer will ask you questions about if you are a candidate for a role that involves managing other people. The principle Strive to be the Earth’s Best Employer is also one associated with roles involving managing people.

Discovering and Growing Talent

Hire and Develop the Best is about discovering talent and helping people grow. Although it is mainly for managers, it is not only applicable to them. People who are not managers can also coach and support their coworkers.

Amazon’s Definition of the Principle

This quote is how Amazon explains the principle Hire and Develop the Best:

“Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others.”

What This Principle Looks Like in Action

People who hire and develop the best will help and support their peers, coach and mentor them, recognize talent in individuals, share their knowledge with others, and (if they are managers) hire the right people.

Interview Focus Areas for Managers

In an interview, Amazon will want to hear about how you think about your people, how you can create a team, and how you coach, support, mentor, and review that team. If there are problems with performance, Amazon will want to hear about how you improved that and dealt with it. They will also want to hear about what you put in place to help people achieve their fullest potential, and evidence of how you gave time to create and support performance.

Application for Non-Managers

If you are not a candidate for a managing position, this principle is about how you coach, mentor, and support your colleagues. It comes down to how you help your peers and share knowledge with them. This could mean that you offer help or training or share your knowledge of a different thing with them.

Sample Interview Questions

Examples of interview questions about the Hire and Develop the Best principle:

Who do you think was the best person you ever hired? Why?
What was the biggest error you made when hiring? What lesson did you learn?
How do you gain new employees’ trust?
Describe a time when you gave feedback to an employee. Did you succeed in helping them and improving their performance?
What differences are there in how you manage your best performers and your other employees?
Give an example of a person who was promoted because of your efforts to teach them.
How do you make sure that you hire the right people?

What to Emphasize in Your Interview

When you answer questions about the Hire and Develop the Best principle as a candidate for a managing position, you want to show that you know how to hire the best people, recognize exceptional talent in people and coach those people, try to help people grow and teach others, give feedback to others, and value people different from you.

Building Strong, High-Performing Teams

You want to show that you take the process of interviewing very seriously and that you understand how to select the best candidates based on job descriptions. You want to show that you then support those candidates if they become part of your team, especially the top performers. Amazon believes that a leader’s time is best spent mentoring the top performers instead of the bad performers. You should also show that you help your employees achieve their goals and that instead of hiring the people you feel most comfortable with, you hire the best people to add diversity to your team.