Leadership Principles¶
Many top companies (especially Amazon, Google, Meta) evaluate candidates against leadership principles. These principles assess your decision-making, ownership, customer focus, and ability to drive results. Prepare stories that demonstrate each principle. Show that you think beyond your role, take ownership, and prioritize impact.
Key Concepts¶
Deep Dive: Common Leadership Principles
| Principle | What They Look For | Sample Question |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Take responsibility beyond your scope | "Tell me about a time you went above and beyond." |
| Bias for Action | Make decisions quickly with imperfect info | "Tell me about a time you took a risk." |
| Deliver Results | Focus on output, not activity | "Tell me about a time you delivered under pressure." |
| Customer Obsession | Start with the customer, work backwards | "How did a customer influence your technical decision?" |
| Dive Deep | Go beyond surface-level understanding | "Tell me about a time you found a root cause." |
| Earn Trust | Listen, be honest, self-critical | "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager." |
| Disagree and Commit | Challenge decisions respectfully, then commit | "Tell me about a time you disagreed with a team decision." |
| Learn and Be Curious | Continuously improve, explore new areas | "What's a recent technology you learned on your own?" |
Deep Dive: Mapping Stories to Principles
One story can demonstrate multiple principles.
Example story: "Led database migration under tight deadline"
- Ownership → Volunteered when no one else stepped up
- Bias for Action → Made quick decisions on sharding strategy
- Deliver Results → Completed migration with zero downtime
- Dive Deep → Analyzed query patterns to choose optimal schema
- Earn Trust → Communicated risks transparently to stakeholders
Deep Dive: How to Prepare
- List your top achievements, challenges, and failures
- Map each to 2-3 leadership principles
- Structure each as a STAR story
- Practice aloud (2 min per story)
- Have a "failure" story ready — shows self-awareness
Common Interview Questions
- Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem.
- Describe a time you had to make a decision with incomplete data.
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with your team.
- How have you handled a project that was falling behind schedule?
- Tell me about a time you learned from a mistake.
- Describe your most significant technical achievement.