(UNITED STATES) — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a May 2024 internal leadership message that trying to win over a manager with flattery or constant agreement will not build credibility, urging workers instead to “Earn Trust” through candor, respectful challenge and consistent delivery.
“Trust isn’t about staying quiet so you and your boss never disagree,” Jassy said. “It’s about being honest, authentic, straightforward, and respectful — even when you see things differently.”
Jassy framed “Earn Trust” as a daily behavior rather than a personality trait, casting honesty and accountability as the fastest route to becoming someone colleagues and managers rely on, especially when decisions move quickly and teams work across time zones.
In his May 2024 video series explaining Amazon culture and leadership behaviors, Jassy highlighted “Earn Trust” as one of Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles established by founder Jeff Bezos. He also discussed the principle in an internal podcast, linking it to how Amazon expects employees “regardless of level” to communicate up, down and across teams.
Modern workplaces put more weight on written communication, crisp decision-making and measurable follow-through, and Jassy’s emphasis has resonated beyond Amazon as more professionals operate in distributed teams and under closer scrutiny on performance and clarity.
The principle, as Amazon states it, sets a blunt standard for how leaders should act and how employees should expect leaders to act. “Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing.”
Jassy’s core argument challenges a familiar corporate instinct: treat agreement as loyalty and silence as safety. In his framing, disagreement can be a form of commitment when it is rooted in facts, delivered respectfully, and aimed at better outcomes.
Trust, he said, runs in both directions, with leaders expected to model the same candor they want from their teams. He emphasized leaders being open to self-criticism, acknowledging when they are wrong, and creating room for others to challenge decisions without being labeled disloyal.
That approach, he said, depends on truth-telling and authenticity rather than workplace performance meant to avoid conflict. The point is not to argue for argument’s sake, but to communicate directly about what is working, what is not, and what needs to change.
In the internal video and podcast, Jassy described a common misunderstanding of “Earn Trust” as social cohesion, or as avoiding hard conversations to keep relationships smooth. He described the principle instead as “being honest, authentic, straightforward, listening intently but challenging respectfully if you disagree, and then delivering what you said you would.”
For employees, that means speaking up when they believe a decision harms customers or the business and bringing evidence rather than heat. Jassy said workers are “expected to do so, regardless of level,” and he pushed the idea that constructive challenge is not insubordination when it is grounded in benchmarks or data.
Accountability, in his telling, is not an abstract virtue but a visible signal of reliability. “If you say you’ve got something, deliver it. If you own something and it’s not going well, own it, say it’s not going well, be self-critical, and fix it,” he said.
That mindset treats early disclosure as a form of respect, because it gives teams time to correct course before small misses become larger failures. It also shifts the social dynamics around error, rewarding those who name problems quickly and take responsibility for improving outcomes.
Jassy also stressed that earning trust depends on evidence and results, not on persuasion alone. He urged employees to back up claims with data, and he described using benchmarks or evidence when raising concerns, particularly when the stakes involve customers or the business.
The day-to-day version of the principle, as Jassy described it, puts reliability at the center: make commitments, meet them, and say so clearly when the work risks slipping. He tied credibility to consistency, arguing that trust grows when colleagues can predict performance over time.
He also placed unusual emphasis on being “vocally self-critical,” including for leaders, calling it a necessary discipline even when it feels uncomfortable. The official principle explicitly captures that standard, saying leaders should be “vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing.”
In his remarks, Jassy described a culture in which teams benchmark against the best and admit shortcomings, even if it creates momentary discomfort. He also cautioned against misreading data in the opposite direction, saying teams sometimes “waste time beating themselves up when they’re actually better than they think—use the data.”
Jassy linked the trust standard to how Amazon expects debate to work: dissent should be aired in the search for what is true and what best serves customers, then teams should align around the final call. He described the broader cultural priority as “getting to truth for what matters to customers,” followed by full commitment to decisions, even when someone disagreed earlier.
That framing matters in high-visibility environments where decisions can move quickly and where remote or hybrid work can widen communication gaps. When managers and employees interact through chat, email and short meetings, claims often carry more weight when they are documented, supported by numbers and tied to clear ownership.
The emphasis also points to a manager’s role in shaping whether dissent improves decisions or disappears from the room. Jassy’s message presents psychological safety not as softness but as a performance tool, because teams that can challenge assumptions early can decide faster and avoid costly rework later.
For international professionals working in U.S. workplaces, the message carries additional implications because credibility can hinge on how disagreement is delivered and interpreted. Jassy’s approach treats respectful candor as a positive behavior, but it also places a premium on clarity, especially when teams bring different cultural norms around deference, directness and conflict.
In a competitive global job market, Jassy positioned evidence-based contribution as a way to build reputation faster than agreement alone, including for people pursuing opportunities in the U.S. tech sector or aiming for H-1B sponsorship. He argued that measurable outcomes and transparent ownership help reduce misunderstandings and make performance easier to evaluate.
That emphasis can also shape how employees think about mobility inside large employers, where performance reviews and role changes can turn on documented results and visible follow-through. Jassy’s message repeatedly returned to the idea that “Earn Trust” is earned through action, not through staying on the right side of a hierarchy.
The broader lesson, drawn from Amazon leadership principles, is that respectful challenge should sharpen decisions rather than slow them down. In multinational teams, that can mean stating concerns plainly, showing the data behind a viewpoint, and aligning with the final decision once it is made.
Jassy offered a personal example of feedback and improvement tied to trust and advancement, describing how he improved a poor presentation after feedback from Bezos, which he said earned him trust and promotion. The anecdote reinforced his broader claim that acknowledging gaps and acting on critique can strengthen credibility rather than diminish it.
Employees and candidates often watch how large employers operationalize values, and “Earn Trust” offers a concrete test because it can be reflected in what leaders reward. Principles like this can show up in evaluation rubrics, manager expectations and leadership development, especially when organizations want debate to produce better outcomes without eroding cohesion.
Jassy’s May 2024 message, centered on candor plus respect plus delivery, leaves a straightforward standard for 2026 workplaces: trust does not come from flattery, and it is not protected by silence. “If you say you’ve got something, deliver it,” he said.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Urges Honesty to Earn Trust Under Leadership Principles
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s May 2024 guidance highlights that ‘Earn Trust’ is a daily behavior rooted in authenticity and accountability. By encouraging employees to challenge decisions respectfully with data, Jassy aims to move beyond corporate flattery. The principle emphasizes being vocally self-critical and prioritizing customer-centric truths over social cohesion, ensuring that reliability and consistent delivery remain the primary drivers of professional credibility.
