Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's advise to employees: Flattery won’t earn your boss’s trust

Trust, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted, sits at the heart of the tech giant's 16 leadership principles established by founder Jeff Bezos.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has offered a sharp corrective to employees who believe that staying agreeable or avoiding friction is the key to professional credibility. In a recent company YouTube video, Jassy said that many workers mistakenly equate trust-building with niceness or social cohesion, but flattery has no role in earning genuine trust.

Jassy explained that people often get the concept “wrong,” confusing trust with a silent pact to avoid confronting one another. He said employees sometimes think, “I won’t challenge you if you don’t challenge me,” or judge colleagues as untrustworthy simply because they voice disagreement in meetings. Instead, he stressed that disagreement—offered respectfully—is essential to healthy workplace dynamics.

Trust, Jassy noted, sits at the heart of Amazon’s 16 leadership principles established by founder Jeff Bezos. It is this culture of authenticity, accountability and honest exchange that he believes has powered Amazon’s rise, including its recent overtaking of Walmart in revenue and its potential ascent to No. 1 on the next Fortune 500 list after 13 years.

“What we mean by ‘earn trust’ is being honest, authentic, straightforward; listening intently, but challenging respectfully if you disagree,” Jassy said. “If you think we’re doing something wrong for customers of the business, speak up,” he added. “If you own something, and it’s not going well, own it.”

He described trust as a “two-way street,” saying leaders must also be comfortable being “vocally self‑critical,” even when doing so feels awkward. Speaking up in meetings matters, but he warned that talk without follow‑through is meaningless. “If you say you’ve got something, deliver it… benchmark it, use data, and show us that we’re not as good—or that we are.”

Jassy illustrated his point with a moment from his early years at Amazon. While presenting a 220‑slide operating plan to Bezos and other executives, he was stopped just 10 slides in when Bezos said, “All of your numbers are wrong on this slide.” Initially surprised, Jassy quickly realised Bezos was correct. Rather than reacting defensively, he acknowledged the mistake and used that moment to show accountability and earn his boss's trust.

It clearly worked because eventually, Bezos promoted Jassy to be one of his top advisors, before naming him to succeed him as CEO in 2020.