Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.
Earn Trust is a classic leadership principle question. The goal of this question is for the Amazon interviewer to see if you can work well within teams, and if you have a high bar of integrity. This is an easy question to get tripped up on. We’ve seen examples of people throwing team-mates under the bus when asked basic questions about Earn Trust, so as long as you don’t do that you are off to a great start.
When the Amazon Interviewer asks you one of the questions from the Earn Trust bucket they’re looking for you to demonstrate that you can build trust within your team. You can pick examples which show that you’ve built positive working relationships through making good decisions, keeping commitments and treating your teammates with respect. Earn Trust is often cited in your day-to-day role where you’ve done well/badly in your work and how you’ve handled managing stakeholders. Amazon top performers are often described as doing a great job of Earning Trust, which comes out of their total performance.
When you’re interviewing at Amazon for an individual contributor role, and you get asked about Earn Trust, the interviewer or Bar Raiser is looking for examples of you doing what you said you would do, or re-setting expectations with the team so that you don’t leave people without completed work.
If you’re interviewing for a manage role, you’ll need to also demonstrate that you’ve provided an environment where people can take “good” risks, where people can learn from their mistakes, but still provide an environment where people are accountable for their Deliver Results leadership principle.
Example Earn Trust Questions
Describe a time when you significantly contributed to improving morale and productivity on your team. What were the underlying problems and their causes? How did you prevent them from negatively impacting the team in the future?
What three things you are you working on to improve your overall effectiveness?
Describe a time when you needed the cooperation of a peer who was resistant. What did you do? What was the outcome?
Example Earn Trust Manager Questions
Tell me about a time you uncovered a significant problem in your team. What was it and how did you communicate it to your manager and to your peers or other stakeholders?
Tell me about a time your team’s goals were out of alignment with another team on which you relied to attain a key resource. How did you work with the other team? Were you able to achieve your goals?