How to answer Amazon "Earn Trust"

interview questions
 Published on April 13, 2019

Jennifer Scupi

Interview Coach
49 articles

The eleventh Amazon Leadership Principle is “Earn Trust.” If you’re preparing for an interview
at Amazon, you should ask yourself what Amazon means by “Earn Trust” and how this principle
applies to your role at the company.

If you don’t know about the Amazon leadership principles, consider first reading this article
about interviewing at Amazon.

How Amazon explains the “Earn Trust” principle

Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally
self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. They benchmark themselves
and their teams against the best.

So let’s take a closer look at this principle.

What does the “Earn Trust” principle mean?

The first sentence of the principle is straightforward and expected in any professional
environment. The interview is a great opportunity for you to “Earn Trust” by listening to your
interviewer attentively and answering questions candidly.

 In the second sentence of the “Earn Trust” principle, things get more interesting. At Amazon,
you’re expected to win over your colleagues (i.e., earn their trust) by being “vocally self-
critical.” In other words, you’re not afraid to point out your own faults to others. To win trust,
you must show that you understand best-in-class standards, and that you seek to meet or exceed
them. 

How do you “Earn Trust” at Amazon?

Leaders at Amazon embody this principle by:

 consistently making good decisions

 keeping commitments
 treating others and their ideas with respect
 adhering to high ethical standards
 admitting failures
 listening, communicating, and delegating to help employees get the right things done

Leaders “Earn Trust” when they “take the hit.” When undesirable outcomes happen, we’re all
quick to point the finger. If your team members see that you’re willing to take the blame for the
good of the team, even if it’s not directly your fault, then they’ll start to let go and trust you. As
leader of a team, you need to accept the responsibility for both the good and the bad.

True collaboration is only possible in an atmosphere of trust. And that atmosphere must be set by
a leader who has earned his team members’ trust and who trusts them in return.

Interview Questions Related to the “Earn Trust” Leadership

Principle
If your interviewer asks about this leadership principle, she or he might ask one of the following
questions:

 Tell me about a time you had to earn trust quickly.

 Building trust can be difficult to achieve at times. Tell me about how you’ve effectively
built trusting working relationships with others on your team.
 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?
 Give an example of a time where you were not able to meet a commitment to a team
member. What was the commitment and what prevented you from meeting it? What was
the outcome and what did you learn from it?
 Describe a time when you needed the cooperation of a peer or peers who were resistant to
what you were trying to do. What did you do? What was the outcome?
 Tell me about a piece of direct feedback you recently gave to a colleague. How did he or
she respond?
 How do you like to receive feedback from coworkers or managers?
  Tell me about a time when someone (peer, teammate, supervisor) criticized you about a
piece of work/analysis that you delivered. How did you react? What was the outcome?
 Tell me about a time when you had to tell someone a harsh truth.
 Tell me about a time you had to communicate a big change in direction for which you
anticipated people would have a lot of concerns. How did you handle questions and/or
resistance? Were you able to get people comfortable with the change? 
 How do you convince someone who is resistant to what you’re trying to do?

How to Answer Interview Questions Related to the “Earn

Trust” Leadership Principle
Question: How did you quickly earn your client’s trust?

Answer given by a Solutions Architect

“One of the largest mass entertainment companies in North America purchased licenses for
product X and signed a statement of work (SOW) for Professional Services for implementing the
solution.

I was the architect and hands on technical resource for doing the migration. I created detailed
standard operating procedures, end user training materials, and delivered end user trainings once
the solution went live in production, even though these weren’t in the scope of the services
SOW.

I was engaged in building the long-term deployment roadmap, working very closely with
customer’s stakeholders. By demonstrating strong technical acumen and client-facing skills, I
was able to earn trust in a short period of time. I quickly became part of the customer’s inner
circle.

The solution was successfully deployed, and we went live with one of their key services in
production. The initial SOW was for a three-month engagement, but we stayed with the customer
for about two years delivering services. We were able to successfully expand the solution
capabilities during that period, assisting the customer in further enhancing their security
protocols.”

In this story, notice how the solutions architect credits her “technical acumen and client-facing
skills” for winning the customer over. But earlier in the story, she described how she had
already demonstrated that she was willing to go above and beyond the requirements of the SOW
to make the project successful. In other words, she set a higher standard for both herself and the
project. This type of behavior will help you “Earn Trust” at Amazon. 

Let’s look at another answer for the same question

Answer given by an Account Executive

“One of the large full-service banks in North America had already purchased our product
licenses to manage the company system permissions and user identity. Due to organizational
changes, the new leadership team had decided to shop for alternative solutions, and
compare/contrast all the functional/technical capabilities before finalizing a single solution. My
accounts team brought me in to talk about the solution, and why it would be a good fit for this
client.

As a first step, I flew to L.A. and conducted an all-day workshop with the key stakeholders to
carefully listen to their concerns and reasons for the vendor solution review exercise, as well as
to understand their business and the technical requirements. We had good discussions during this
workshop. I told them that I agreed to some of the areas of improvements in our product and
made a note of them for an internal product management team review. At the same time, I was
candid in my feedback regarding some of the requirements and suggested alternative options to
minimize operational overhead in the long run.

By the end of the day, the client wanted me to work with them in conducting a proof of concept
(POC) in their environment. I believe listening attentively to the customer, speaking candidly
and demonstrating sound technical and communication skills helped me in gaining trust in a
short period of time. I was able to deliver the POC successfully and in turn signed a professional
services SOW contract of about eight hundred thousand dollars.”

After reading this story, return to the section above and read the “Earn Trust” principle again. I
hope you can see that the story demonstrates the principle almost perfectly. Note in the story the
emphasis on attentive listening. Note also how the person telling the story is will to admit that
the product has faults. It’s easy to see why this person won the customer’s trust.

Question: Tell me about a time you coached someone and provided feedback

Answer given by an Engineering Manager

“One of the senior managers complained about one of the developers on my team regarding his
tone being too harsh and frank in his emails and over the phone. My manager brought it to my
attention, and I told him I would take care of it.

I immediately pulled this employee in for a one-on-one and brought this to his attention. I told
him it was not what he said but how he said it that makes all the difference. There are more
politically correct ways to provide feedback to other teams regarding their mistakes.

He agreed that he reacted out of frustration and promised me he would be more careful going
forward. It has been a year now, and he has completely turned it around. He had numerous
accolades from other managers regarding his integrity, and he is now one of the rising stars on
my team.”

This story highlights a theme I see again and again in working with professionals across all
walks of life. As hesitant as we sometimes are to give feedback, when we set aside our fears and
give honest, candid feedback, people are often extremely appreciative and grow because of it.
This story demonstrates another way to “Earn Trust.”

For more articles about interviewing at Amazon, go to the Amazon page on my blog.

I offer several interview coaching packages, one of them tailored specifically to Amazon
candidates. If you’re looking for an Amazon interview coach, email me at
[email protected] to schedule a free 15 minute consultation or an interview coaching
session. I’m also happy to create a custom package that fits your needs.