How you react to being told you need to upskill—despite doing your job for years—will probably determine your career trajectory. At least, that’s according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
Out of all of the tech giant’s 16 leadership principles penned by its founder Jeff Bezos, Jassy said that always being eager to learn more is the one that has separated those around him who have “grown their career substantially versus those that stayed stagnant.”
“You have to be ravenous and hungry to find ways to learn,” the 56-year-old Amazon veteran said last week in a company YouTube video.
“The second you think there’s little left for you to learn is the second that you are unwinding as an individual and as a learning professional.”
The world of work is constantly changing—so too must you
As Jassy noted, maintaining the mindset that you don’t know everything is “not easy to do”. It’s more common to assume that once you’ve studied, honed your craft and climbed the ranks, it’s now your turn to impart knowledge onto others.
But actually, the world of work is always being reimagined—think back to how managers had to adapt to leading from home during the pandemic, and now artificial intelligence is coming to shake most sectors up even more.
“Even if you spent many months or years learning a certain area, it may flip upside down very quickly,” Jassy, who has climbed Amazon’s ranks over the course of two decades, said.
“Instead of that feeling threatening and scary, you have to think about that as being part of the fun of what you do.”
He went on to caution that lots of professionals are “terrific” about speaking about how they’re going to adapt to industry changes, but then either fall back into the old ways of doing things or fail to attempt implementing the changes at all.
To avoid falling into the trap of talking the talk and not walking it, Jassy said you have to “both have a plan on how you’re going to change and then make that change.”
To make that plan, he advised asking yourself:
- What am I doing well?
- What’s the team doing well?
- What do we need to get better at?
“You have to be honest at looking at a situation and what customers care about,” he added. “And you have to be able to self-assess and be self-aware.”
“Try to get better, even a little bit better, every single day, every single week that you come into work.”
Leaders agree on the importance of learning
Jassy isn’t alone in thinking that learning is the key to not stagnating at work.
Shaid Shah, the global president of the global food and pet care giant Mars Food & Nutrition, previously told Fortune that “career success is more than just hierarchy.”
“It’s about acquiring the experiences that you need to realize your ambition, to realize what makes you happy, what makes you tick, what inspires you to get out of bed every day,” explained Shah, who steadily climbed the ranks from sales director to the helm of Mars Food & Nutrition department.
Barack Obama’s former speechwriter Aneesh Raman echoed that workers should forgo titles completely to focus on skills development—until you reach 35-years-old, at least.
“This is the time to find out what you’re excited about, what you’re good at, and what you want to get better at,” Raman said.
Even 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer credited his success to constantly improving his technique, studying his opponents and learning new ways to beat them.
“I didn’t get where I got on pure talent alone. I got there by trying to outwork my opponents,” he added. “Most of the time, it’s not about having a gift. It’s about having grit.”
