Definition
Leaders have relentlessly high standards — many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.
Explained by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Customers have very high expectations of us, and they should. And by the way, it’s where we set the bar. And in this day and age, it’s essential. It’s so easy in this day and age for customers to switch or change. The internet makes that super simple and gives customers very good information. And it means that you can’t rest on what you’ve done for the last 10 years, the last 20 years.
Historically, we have had very high standards, perhaps unreasonably high, but it’s the right level for what we’re trying to accomplish.
And in my opinion, having high standards is one of the most critical underpinnings for teams I’ve constantly seen in Amazon. I’ve seen it in Amazon, I’ve seen it with friends, I’ve seen it with all sorts of kids and organizations I work with. Higher expectations lead to better results.
And as leaders here and as individual contributors here, as the business grows and as the scope of what you all work on grows, you can’t be in every meeting. And that means if you’re able to, in the meetings you’re in, set the expectations, set the standards high. Model what good looks like. It’s highly leveraged. Because it means that in the meetings that you can’t be in, all the people who see you model it in the other meetings you’re in can take that to those meetings and can spread it to the rest of the organization.
During the pandemic, I feel like most companies had to relax their standards a little bit just to be able to get through what was such a difficult time. And probably for us too. And I think that we’ve all been fighting the last couple of years to get back to those almost unreasonable standards that we had for several years. And I would just say we’ve made a lot of progress, but keep fighting. That is a fight worth fighting.
It is what customers expect from us and it’s where they’re going to gravitate toward. The companies that keep increasing what’s possible for customers and have those really high expectations deliver best for customers.