Leadership Principle Worksheet
This worksheet was designed to share how I align my experience with Amazon’s Leadership Principles. I’ve written down a couple of detailed examples from my experience that relate to each of Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Enjoy! Sandra Burns
Are Right, A Lot: Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.
From getting the fact that hard drives would overtake floppies in the 80’s, Internet would be a new way to do business in the 90’s, and to have worked for the companies that developed the products I used in cutting edge technologies to do online learning 2010-2014, 2014 Instructional Design for other companies.
Example 1: Left Xerox to start an internet company
Situation: It was a balmy afternoon in Phoenix when visiting some office buildings in my Xerox territory. I came upon a dark office filled with computers. I asked the typical question for fact finding, like what do they do, They responded we build stores on this was the early nineties and most people didn’t know what the internet was. Working for a a bit in advertising in Chicago a store online 24/7 would be a sizable ad budget. Internet was not, it was new and I wanted to be a part of it especially when big box stores were starting to sell home office size equipment.
Task: It was a bit risky for a single mom with a 2 year old to venture into something new.
Action: At first, I quit my job, worked for an internet company selling websites. When I didn’t care for the management. I rented a tiny office in a beautiful executive suite, and started calling on companies.
Result: I was interviewed by the Arizona Republic resulting in a full page story in the business inc. section. Many companies started calling and meeting with me.
Example 2:
Situation: When getting a start up off the ground, also realizing companies/people were afraid to pull the trigger in the pioneer stage of a marketing cycle.
Task: Find ways to grow business or know when to let go.
Action: My office was down the hall from an Adobe satellite office in Scottsdale. I decided to walk down the hall and stick my head in the door and shared how I loved Adobe products and use them to design and build websites. That I wasn’t only a web designer but also a graphic designer. I learned the manager had also worked for Xerox. Anyone in sales goes through the rigorous famed Xerox Sales Training program.
Result: The manager invited me to apply for a role as an application engineer. I decided to accept the offer and join Adobe which would eventually lead me to other opportunities.
Sandra J. Burns, M.Ed. 