Leadership principles in behavioral interviews

Summary:
All major companies, especially FAANG’s look for “Leadership” qualities during their behavioral rounds. Some companies have it more explicitly called out, some have it implicitly layered. For example you can directly read about the Amazon leadership principles here, whereas Facebook will look for some of these signals in various rounds like Jedi. In this article though we will attempt to understand a few of them in detail and more importantly, give tips on how to answer a certain questions a certain way.

First & foremost, Customer obsession: This is definitely more Amazon specific. If you are going to interview with Amazon, do make sure you understand how your current project & your specific contributions map backwards to the end customer. Key: Always work backwards from the end customer and use that as a high order bit when making product decisions.

Assume Ownership: All 3 top FAANG companies have Ownership as one of their core principles, at Facebook you will see this poster across the walls, “Nothing at Facebook is someone else’s problem”. At Google, Ownership is a key part of “Googleyness”, and Amazon has it enshrined in it’s key leadership principles. So You must have concrete examples prepared where you demonstrate your end to end ownership of a problem/product/space. Bonus points if it was slightly out of your direct team. 

Simplicity trumps Complexity: This sounds cliche’ but this is one of the biggest mistakes teams make. Simple solutions (Simple in terms of building, maintaining, explaining) usually have higher ROI than equivalent but more complex solutions. They not only tend to add lower tech debt but also are less prone to production incidents.

Earning Trust: This is also something which is starting to become very commonly “scanned for” signal. At Facebook, this is referred to as “Ability to introspect” and at Google there is almost always a question around this, especially for behavioral loops. It is extremely important to have an example from your past where you were self-critical / stood up and accepted / acknowledged a mistake and worked on improving it.

Bias for Action: This is also something which we strongly recommend that you prepare your pitch for. Facebook calls this “Move fast” & Be bold. Combined together, it boils down to calculated risk taking based on the data that you have at the time when you are deciding. Facebook culture encourages action as Opportunity cost of inaction far exceeds the cost of failure – if at all there is one. If there is, it will be a great learning to share with the rest of the org. At Amazon, Speed is given importance as there is a strong belief that many decisions and actions are either fully reversible or their cost is lower than the missed opportunity cost of not making a decision.

Insist on Highest standards: This is something we see more prominently scanned at Google. It is a great idea to have a story where your attention was to detail and expectation of quality was exemplary. However small the example is, it is good to have it ready in your back pocket on the day of Interview.

Conviction, Commit wholeheartedly. : This is all about having a belief in your data & technical depth. Do your homework, and if you feel differently about the topic at hand, then firstly, Disagree with conviction, and explain yourself. After the discussion, no matter what decision gets taken, stand behind it, and fully commit to it as if this is exactly what you were fighting for. 
 
Integrity: Behave with honor, whether someone is watching or not, your values are the foundation on which coworkers build relationships and trust. Employers love candidates who can demonstrate this. It is all about being self-aware, accountable, responsible, and truthful in all your actions.

If you would like to see where you stand on your preparation, feel free to reach out to us to have a mock scheduled be it, Amazon Leadership Principles, Facebook specific interviews or Google Cognitive Ability Rounds.