Embedding Amazon’s Leadership Philosophy in Legal: A Blueprint for Success

Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles have been the cornerstone of its extraordinary growth and innovation, guiding decision-making and fostering a high-performance culture. These principles are universally applicable and can bring immense value when adopted by any manager or leader, including a Head of Legal. By embedding these principles into the legal function, General Counsel can enhance strategic thinking, foster collaboration and accountability, ensure the highest quality of legal services, and drive operational excellence. Below, I share my interpretation of how each principle can be effectively integrated into the work of a Chief Legal Officer to create a legal team that is not only aligned with the business but also a key driver of its success.

??1. Customer Obsession

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

? Replicating in Legal: Legal teams should focus on both internal clients (i.e., business units and other company departments) and external customers (e.g., company clients, regulators). Understand their goals, anticipate their needs, and provide tailored legal solutions to ensure that delivered services are efficient, clear, and aligned with the company’s objectives.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Develop customer-focused legal service models (workflows), conduct regular feedback sessions, and provide concise, actionable advice that meets clients’ needs and supports overall business objectives.

??2. Ownership

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.”

? Replicating in Legal: Foster a sense of ownership in the legal team, encouraging members to take full responsibility for their tasks, be accountable for their work, and collaborate with other departments to achieve long-term value.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Encourage team members to support initiatives from start to finish, focusing on outcomes (e.g., completing contract negotiations quickly rather than treating them as endless review cycles). Establish results-driven KPIs and an incentive system, and practice obtaining task progress reports from teammates.

??3. Invent and Simplify

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

? Replicating in Legal: Drive innovation in legal processes, craft unconventional solutions, and simplify complex legal concepts for business stakeholders.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Implement legal technology solutions (e.g., contract lifecycle management systems, e-signature solutions, intake and triage management tools, legislation monitoring and compliance facilitation technologies). Draft contract templates, create frameworks for repetitive tasks, encourage team members to propose creative solutions, and translate legal jargon into actionable, easy-to-understand advice.

??4. Are Right, A Lot

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.

? Replicating in Legal: Use strong judgment and seek diverse perspectives to improve legal advice and decision-making.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Encourage the legal team to stress-test ideas through collaborative discussions and adopt a data-driven approach (e.g., case law research, regulatory monitoring) to validate assumptions and ensure sound advice.

??5. Learn and Be Curious

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

? Replicating in Legal: Promote continuous learning within the legal team. Stay updated on industry trends, new regulations, and best practices in delivering in-house legal services. Stay ahead of new legal automation tools to future-proof the legal function.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Actively develop team members (e.g., provide access to professional development programs, encourage attendance at legal conferences, and facilitate peer training). Arrange legislation monitoring and explore new legal automation tools.

??6. Hire and Develop the Best

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): 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. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.

? Replicating in Legal: Build a strong, diverse legal team by upbringing and/or hiring top talent and providing career growth opportunities.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Create clear career paths with increasing performance expectations, offer regular coaching/mentoring, and provide cross-training in legal and business areas. Recognize and value team members’ differences (e.g., in qualities, experience, and legal awareness), focus on complementary skills. When hiring, consider what exceptional talent the candidate possesses and how exactly the candidate will help the company to grow and achieve its objectives. Ensure talent retention by fostering a healthy work-life balance, offering development opportunities, and maintaining a supportive environment.

??7. Insist on the Highest Standards

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): 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.

? Replicating in Legal: In legal work, high standards are crucial. Encourage attention to detail, adherence to deadlines, and commitment to the quality of work. Ensure continuous improvement in the legal services delivered, striving for impeccability.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Lay down clear expectations regarding performance standards, emphasizing high quality. Regularly audit legal work for accuracy and workflows for efficiency. Provide timely, constructive feedback to team members. Demand precision and address recurring issues at their root. Establish KPIs fostering compliance with deadlines and quality of work standards.

??8. Think Big

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

? Replicating in Legal: Encourage the legal team to think beyond day-to-day tasks, looking for ways to contribute to the business’s long-term success and act preventively.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Ensure that legal risks are managed proactively. Collaborate with senior management to involve the legal team in strategic decisions and long-term planning. Develop and execute a robust corporate legal strategy aligned with the company’s overall business strategy. Encourage the legal team to stay informed about industry trends and market developments relevant to the company.

??9. Bias for Action

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

? Replicating in Legal: Avoid paralysis by analysis, ensuring that legal matters receive swift decisions. Cultivate a mindset of moving forward without getting bogged down in excessive deliberation.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Ensure that legal issues are resolved within the timeframes required by the business. For decisions with lower anticipated impact or legal risk, expedite the decision-making process. Make well-informed, reversible decisions quickly. Establish KPIs to streamline legal services. Agree with stakeholders on a framework for providing legal advice in urgent matters.

??10. Frugality

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.

? Replicating in Legal: Follow a “value for money” approach, keeping a close eye on the legal team’s finances (budget) and focusing on value-driven activities.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Use legal resources wisely. Engage external counsel strategically while leveraging in-house expertise for most matters to reduce costs. Implement technology to automate processes and minimize manual tasks where economies of scale are evident. Negotiate cost-effective agreements for legal spending. Prioritize value-added activities that align with business priorities. Establish clear algorithms for repetitive tasks and implement KPIs to monitor time allocation for different task categories.

??11. Earn Trust

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): 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.

? Replicating in Legal: Build credibility by fostering open and polite communication, transparency, reliability, and integrity within the legal team and in relations with other departments.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Treat people with respect. Regularly update stakeholders on progress, particularly for high-priority tasks. Use a task management tool to achieve transparency in resource deployment, ensuring alignment with overall business priorities and legal risks. Deliver on time and to the required standard. Never let colleagues down. Admit (own) mistakes and correct them promptly.

??12. Dive Deep

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

? Replicating in Legal: Ensure legal team members deeply understand legal issues rather than settling for surface-level knowledge. Stay connected to the details to maintain alignment between strategy and execution.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Understand the granular details of key issues. Be ready to get hands-on when needed. Regularly review the quality of legal work and conduct performance assessments. Demand attentiveness to detail and encourage a “deep dive” mentality when tackling legal issues.

??13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

? Replicating in Legal: Legal professionals must confidently offer legal advice and proactively mitigate legal risks. When challenging decisions, do so respectfully and propose alternative solutions. Once a decision is made, execute it effectively.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Be able to form your own original opinion based on the rules of law while keeping in mind the company’s business priorities and be able to conform to a consensus. Challenge high-risk decisions respectfully and ensure senior management is aware of legal risks before decisions are made. Once a decision is taken, fully support it, ensuring legal risks are mitigated. Within the legal team, create an environment where team members are encouraged to share ideas and everybody’s opinion is valued.

??14. Deliver Results

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

? Replicating in Legal: Ensure the legal team is results-driven, focusing on providing actionable, clear, and timely legal advice that advances the business. Legal goals must align with the company’s overall objectives.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Develop and execute a corporate legal strategy aligned with business objectives. Set clear KPIs for the legal team, monitor performance, and ensure timely delivery of services, including contracts, regulatory filings, and compliance reviews. Maintain a results-oriented approach, ensuring the team provides the legal aid that the company actually needs.

??15. Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. They lead with empathy, have fun at work, and make it easy for others to have fun. Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what’s next? Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere.

? Replicating in Legal: Create a positive (i.e. a supportive, collaborative, respectful, and inclusive) work environment within the legal team.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Build and maintain the legal team culture, based on diversity, inclusion, setting aside personal differences, providing mutual support, and collaboration. Encourage ideas and knowledge sharing. Know your teammates (including their personal goals, aspirations, interests and challenges, communication preferences, working conditions, motivation style and work habits). Make people feel valued, actively develop them and ensure that they receive the necessary training and resources to do their job properly. Practice positive management style (including being honest, consistent and fair, proactively removing blockers and protecting the team, promoting team members, refraining from punishing failure). Praise teammates regularly and celebrate achievements. Encourage senior management to invest in employee wellbeing. Promote work-life balance.

??16. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

?? Description (from Amazon’s website): We started in a garage, but we’re not there anymore. We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions. Our local communities, planet, and future generations need us to be better every day. We must begin each day with a determination to make better, do better, and be better for our customers, our employees, our partners, and the world at large. And we must end every day knowing we can do even more tomorrow. Leaders create more than they consume and always leave things better than how they found them.

? Replicating in Legal: Help ensure the company’s operations align with sustainability and ethical standards. Advocate for compliance programs that exceed minimum requirements and positively impact clients and the broader community.

?? Action for the Head of Legal: Promote integrity and adherence to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, as required by regulators . Support corporate accountability for societal and environmental impacts. Participate in discussions on corporate social responsibility and ethics, driving initiatives compliant with applicable laws.