If you ever run into Jeff Bezos in a meeting, don't be surprised if the billionaire founder of Amazon doesn't speak first. Bezos says this is an important lesson for big business owners, and he explains why. Below, check out more information about the teachings of the founder of amazon.
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Jeff Bezos, before stepping down as CEO of Amazon in 2021, used to let his employees speak first in meetings.
His girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, founder of Black Ops Aviation, a Santa Monica-based aerial filming company, said this is one of the most important business lessons she's learned from boyfriend Jeff Bezos since the two began their relationship a few years ago years.
Lauren Sanchez said about her boyfriend that: “Living with Jeff is like having a master class every day. He really taught me a lot about management.”
Why does Jeff Bezos think bosses should always speak last in meetings?
Lauren had this to say: “I do a lot of meetings and I would talk to them first, and [Bezos] would say, no, no, no. You are the boss. You speak last. You let everyone speak, so they are not swayed by your opinion.”
Changes to meeting formats in amazon
In a 2018 speech, Jeff Bezos said that overhauling his company's approach to meetings was "probably the smartest thing we've ever done" at Amazon.
Goodbye to PowerPoint
For his first step in meeting redesigns, Bezos eliminated the PowerPoint presentations. Instead of PowerPoint presentations, he started each meeting with about 30 minutes of silence. So that all meeting participants could read a detailed memo on the topics of planned discussions.
The boss speaks last
After reading the memo, the employees showed their own opinions about the memo. Bezos did this to prevent subordinates from imitating his point of view to score points with him.
Bezos said that this way he ensured that meeting attendees actually read the memo. Since he noted that just emailing the memo wasn't enough. He further quoted: "Executives will bluff during the meeting as if they had read the memo, because we are busy and you really need to make time for the memo to be read."
Keep the meeting going
Lauren Sanchez, Bezo's girlfriend, said the memo also helps keep the meeting from going off topic. Sanchez added, "Another thing he taught me is, if you're going to have a meeting, ask the person who directs you to write a document about what you are going to discuss and why, and there can be no more than six pages”.
Meetings under an hour whenever possible
Sanchez also said that Bezos recommends that meetings be kept as short as possible after the memo is finished reading. “Keep meetings under an hour if you can,” Sanchez said.
