Amazon Leadership Principle 4: Are Right, A Lot

What Does ‘Are Right, A Lot’ Really Mean?

The leadership principle Are Right, A Lot is not just about being right, but also about being wrong. The main idea is not actually about being wrong or right, but having good judgment that lets you determine when you are right and wrong. You should be able to get feedback from others, even when you strongly believe your way is the better way, and you should challenge what you think is right.

Challenging Beliefs and Biases

Part of Are Right, A Lot is disproving your beliefs and biases. A good leader works a lot to challenge what they actively think as well as unconscious bias.

Learning From Mistakes

Leaders at Amazon are right a lot, but not always. They should have strong judgment and spread it to others. There is a lot of tolerance for failure at Amazon, but not for people who make the same mistake repeatedly. There is no tolerance for people who make the same mistake over and over. Leaders are expected to always learn from their mistakes, so they should be right a lot more than they are wrong. When they are wrong, they should learn from it, investigate the reasons for their being wrong and making mistakes, and share what they find with the company.

Seeking and Considering Diverse Perspectives

A person who demonstrates the Are Right, A Lot principle will sit and talk to others with opposing views that challenge them and try their best to understand where the other person’s argument is coming from, what exactly it is that they think, and all the reasons why they think that. They take in what the other person says and use it to bolster, disprove, or create their own beliefs.

Amazon’s Definition Of The Principle

This quote is how Amazon thinks of the leadership principle Are Right A Lot:

“Leaders are right a lot. They have strong business judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.”

Preparing For Interviews

In an interview, you should be prepared to talk about the impact that you have had on your company in your previous job and about all the business knowledge you have obtained. Amazon will expect you to have succeeded in your previous job. However, talking about failure is expected also. To Amazon, it is a red flag if you only talk about the times in your previous position when you succeeded. You need to show that you have also failed, and it has shaped you into a better person and a better leader.

Sample Interview Questions

Examples of interview questions for the leadership principle Are Right, A Lot:

Describe a time you made a mistake.
Give an example of a time when you strongly disagreed with one of your colleagues. How did you work it out?
When do you decide you should follow along with a group decision when you disagree?
Describe a time when you had to make a decision purely based on your judgment because you did not have enough good data. Did the decision you made turn out to be the best one? Why or why not?
What is your most significant achievement, and what impact did it have?

How to Answer Mistake-Based Questions

If you are in an interview and are answering questions about the principle Are Right, A Lot, and you get a question asking you to talk about a time you made a mistake, error, failure, or bad decision, you should first admit your mistake, quantify it (if possible, say how much it cost you or your company), explain how you fixed it, describe what lessons you learned from the experience, and link what you learned to a recent accomplishment, making sure to show how you used what you learned from your failure before. Also, be specific when you talk about what you learned from your failures. This method of answering will show Amazon that you are not the type of person who repeats mistakes.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Doing that will also show that you are the type of person who is willing to acknowledge mistakes instead of saying they have never made one. If you say you have never made an error, they will think you are a liar since everyone is expected to fail sometimes. You should also not say things like “I can’t believe I did this; it was so stupid. I’m sorry,” because Amazon does not want to hear you talk badly of yourself. They want you to acknowledge your errors and be calm about them. You should also not say that your most significant failure is a small mistake. That will show Amazon that you are not used to talking about your failures, which is what they don’t want.

Demonstrating Judgment in Interviews

If you get a question about judgment (How do you get data? Do you have good intuition?), you should be specific about the process you use to choose your course of action when you make decisions. Be specific about where you get information from.

Balancing Success and Learning

You should remember that while leaders should be right a lot, they should also have many failures, and learning from their failures is the reason that they are mostly right.