Lessons From Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos may be the richest person in the world; his net worth is estimated at over $130 billion. Over the years, he has offered lessons from his own experience to his shareholders. Here are three of those lessons about how to become a top performer, something that should be important to each of us regardless of the role we play, or the goals we aspire to.

1. If you need full support for every decision, you’re not going to succeed. As a change practitioner, you are not the decision-maker much of the time. But you are in a position to influence the decision-makers. Do you decide to be honest with the leader about how her presentation about the change resonated with her subordinates…or not? Do you alert the steering committee when the change starts to go off the rails, or do you attempt to fix it behind the scenes? Know the values and the philosophy you bring to the role, and stay true to them.
2. Always operate with a beginner’s mindset. “Many have asked Bezos about why it’s always ‘Day 1’ at Amazon. He addressed this in his 2016 letter by stating that ‘Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.’ If you want a proven way to decline and stop improving, simply think you’ve mastered it all.” As change practitioners, regardless of the experience and the certifications we have, it should always be a learning journey.
3. Hold yourself and everyone around you to a higher standard. It is often tempting to lower our standards to those of the client(s) we are serving. Good is good enough. I can’t be expected to get everything done on time. Etc. But true success requires a high standard. It requires a high standard for ourselves, and it requires a high standard for our clients, our colleagues, and those we are serving.

Applying these three lessons can be challenging; but it can also significantly strengthen our own success and the success of our clients.

Photo Source: Wesley Mann for Fortune