Solving the Mystery

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle and fast-forward 14 years, in 2018 Amazon made $230 billion in revenue.

Starting as just an online book store, Amazon is now one of the global leaders in eCommerce. Since it’s incorporation in 1994, Amazon has diversified its business in many different industries.

They are in everything from Gaming (Twitch) to Voice Recognition (Alexa) to Enterprise-Level IT Services (Amazon Web Services). And now, the founder Jeff Bezos has taken an interest in Space Exploration with his latest company Blue Origin.

Anyone who knows the Amazon brand knows that it’s big but most people have no idea just how big it is.

How big is Amazon?

In 2018 $230 billion in revenue.

Every second Amazon makes $4,722.

Every minute Amazon makes $238,000.

Every hour Amazon makes $17 million.

Amazon employs 560,000 people.

According to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, setting high standards for leaders is a key to Amazon’s success.

“Last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos released his annual letter to shareholders. This has become a major news event each year as people both inside and outside Amazon wait to hear the latest musings from the leader of one of the world’s most successful companies.

“Last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos released his annual letter to shareholders. This has become a major news event each year as people both inside and outside Amazon wait to hear the latest musings from the leader of one of the world’s most successful companies.

“Last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos released his annual letter to shareholders. This has become a major news event each year as people both inside and outside Amazon wait to hear the latest musings from the leader of one of the world’s most successful companies.

This year, Bezos tackled a topic that is near and dear to me: the need for leaders to set high standards. A big part of Amazon’s success is due to Bezos’ relentless drive to meet ever-increasing customer expectations.

What I find fascinating about this topic is that it validates global research that my team and I have done over the last two years on leadership accountability. In short, successful leaders not only set high standards, but hold the people they lead to account for their ability to meet those standards.

This concept is so important at Amazon, it’s actually baked into the company’s 12 core leadership principles, which encourages Amazon leaders to set relentlessly high standards for the people they lead. Even if people think these standards are unreasonably high, Amazon culture stipulates that it’s essential for leaders to always raise the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes.

In this year’s shareholder letter, Bezos went further into the whole topic of standards and expectations, asking whether the drive to set high standards is intrinsic, or whether it can be taught. My sense is Bezos believes it’s a little of both.

It helps to hire what Bezos calls “high standards” people. But it’s also important to create a culture that encourages people to strive for high standards in everything that they do. Bezos clearly believes high standards are contagious. So, if you bring someone onto a team where high standards are the norm, that person will be more likely to adopt the same standards as part of a commitment to supporting the success of the team.

Bezos concluded his letter by highlighting some other benefits that accrue from building a culture of high standards.

First, high standards allow you to build better products and services for your customers.

Second, people are drawn to high standards, so it helps to attract and retain the best talent in your industry.

Third, a culture of high standards helps to cultivate what Bezos refers to as “invisible work.” This is the extra effort people put in when the leaders are not around. It’s an indication that your people believe that doing great work is its own reward.

Finally, Bezos insists that high standards can be fun, and that once people accept them as part of their day-to-day work, there’s no going back” (https://www.lhh.com/us/en/our-knowledge/2018/do-you-hold-yourself-and-others-to-high-standards-of-performance).

God also teaches that a high standard of leadership is essential for the success of His church.

3 Reasons for God’s High Standard of Leadership in His Church

So that church members will know how to set their houses in order (; , 12)

So that church members will know how to set God’s house in order (1 Timothy 3:14-15)

So that the mystery of Godliness will be realized in God’s church (; ; ;; ; ).

The high and holy purpose of God’s church demands a high standard for leaders in the church.

Identify the spheres of leadership in your life and apply God’s standards of leadership for His church to those areas.

If nothing else, every person is called to lead another soul to Jesus Christ. The only way to do this is to have Christ living in you. Have you made the way clear through repenting of sin and surrendering to God’s will for Christ to live inside of you?

Some of us grew up hearing, “be a leader, not a follower.” But, we actually need to be both leaders and followers: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (, NIV)

Don’t give your leaders a hard time: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (, ESV)

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (, ESV)