Key Moments
Ex-Amazon VP: Do This at Work to Get Promoted Fast | Ethan Evans
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Key Moments
Former Amazon VP Ethan Evans reveals that hard work alone doesn't lead to promotion; instead, visibility, advocacy, and understanding workplace dynamics are key. He advocates for a 'magic loop' with managers: help them, and they'll help you ascend.
Key Insights
Burnout is primarily caused by losing one's vision or sense of purpose, not solely by hard work.
The 'magic loop' involves helping your manager with their needs first, then asking for their support in your career advancement.
Visibility is crucial; sending weekly status reports can immediately make you stand out more than invisible top performers.
Companies like Amazon focus on 'two-pizza teams' to foster autonomy and innovation, organizing into many small, independent units rather than large, centralized departments.
Jeff Bezos prioritized customer needs (lower prices, more choices, faster delivery) and strategic patience with tactical impatience to build enduring businesses.
70% of employees never ask for a raise, yet 70% of those who do receive something, highlighting the importance of asking.
Beyond hard work: visibility and advocacy drive promotions
Ethan Evans, a retired Amazon VP, debunks the myth that hard work alone guarantees promotions. He asserts that true career advancement hinges on visibility, advocacy, and understanding the 'game' of corporate politics. Many talented individuals remain overlooked because they 'work hard and hope to be noticed,' a strategy he deems ineffective. Evans emphasizes the importance of understanding the motives of others in the workplace, noting that corporate politics often boils down to individuals pursuing their own advancement. He likens the corporate ladder to a climbing wall with multiple routes, suggesting that success isn't a linear path but requires navigating these complexities strategically. The core insight is to stop being frustrated by others' success and instead analyze why the corporation rewards certain behaviors so you can adapt.
The 'magic loop': a reciprocal relationship with your manager
Evans introduces the 'magic loop,' a framework for career growth built on a symbiotic relationship with one's manager. The process begins by identifying and fulfilling the manager's needs, demonstrating helpfulness and a willingness to support their goals. Once this collaborative relationship is established, an employee can then seek the manager's assistance in their own career development, such as requesting a promotion, learning new skills, or joining specific projects. This reciprocal approach leverages human nature's law of reciprocity, where people are inclined to help those who have helped them. Evans illustrates this with an anecdote about an employee who stayed with him for eight years, was promoted thrice, and eventually founded their own successful company, all propelled by this mutually beneficial dynamic. The core principle is "I help you, you help me." Even in corporate America, where managers have their own pressures, being the person who proactively offers assistance, rather than merely waiting to be told what to do, makes a significant impression and fosters a positive feedback cycle.
Strategic patience and tactical impatience: Bezos's approach to growth
Drawing from his experience with Jeff Bezos, Evans highlights a key leadership philosophy: 'strategically patient but tactically impatient.' This means understanding that building truly valuable enterprises takes long-term commitment, as exemplified by Amazon Web Services, which took over 15 years to become a dominant force. However, within this long-term vision, there's an intense daily urgency to move the business forward. Bezos would press his teams on what they accomplished each day, demanding progress and action. This dual focus allows for the methodical development of enduring value while maintaining a high tempo of execution. Amazon's culture, characterized by 'two-pizza teams,' further emphasizes this by fostering autonomy within small, agile units, allowing them to function like independent startups. This decentralized model, despite potential for duplicated effort, was preferred by Bezos over rigid central planning, as it prioritized action and innovation over consensus-driven gridlock. The math equation he famously wrote, '2 > 0,' underscored his belief that having two teams potentially doing similar work was better than a single, potentially stalled, centralized effort.
Visibility and proactive problem-solving set you apart
Evans stresses that simply doing good work is insufficient; making that work visible is critical. He calls this being 'strategically annoying.' Simple actions, like sending weekly status reports, immediately draw attention by providing managers with clear updates on progress and accomplishments. This contrasts sharply with individuals who keep their heads down, assuming their efforts will be recognized. In a role where managers are often pressed for time and resources, these proactive updates cut through the noise and signal engagement and ownership. Beyond visibility, proactively bringing solutions, not just problems, to the table is paramount. Instead of presenting a manager with a dilemma and asking them to choose, a 'top-tier' approach involves assessing options, recommending a course of action, and explaining the rationale, ideally with a contingency plan. This demonstrates initiative, critical thinking, and a readiness to take ownership, making it easier for leaders to delegate and trust your judgment.
The 'poop taker' vs. the 'poop bringer'
A stark analogy used by Evans to differentiate high-value employees is the 'poop taker' versus the 'poop bringer.' 'Poop bringers' are those who present their managers with problems, often highlighted with exclamations like 'Hey, I found this problem here, Cody!' In contrast, 'poop takers' are the rare individuals who proactively offer solutions or, even more valuably, volunteer to handle difficult tasks. They might approach their manager and say, 'Hey, I see you have a bag there. It looks pretty smelly. Let me take care of that for you.' This mentality of tackling issues head-on, rather than just identifying them, is highly prized. It signifies a willingness to take on difficult assignments and shoulder responsibility, making these individuals indispensable and, therefore, more likely to be promoted and rewarded.
Mastering the ask: how to negotiate for raises and promotions
While consistent results can lead to unprompted raises, Evans clarifies that asking for what you want is still a crucial skill, though it must be done strategically. He notes that a staggering 70% of employees never ask for a raise, yet 70% of those who do receive some form of positive outcome. The key is not to frame the request as a personal demand, but to depersonalize it by focusing on your career's importance to the company and aligning it with their goals. Instead of saying, 'I want a promotion,' a more effective approach is to say, 'I'm committed to growing my career here, and I'd like to understand how my contributions align with the company's objectives for advancement. Would it be possible to discuss what I need to deliver to earn a promotion and compensation increase?' Timing is also critical; requests should ideally follow significant achievements. This approach emphasizes mutual benefit and long-term contribution rather than individual entitlement, making it harder for a manager to dismiss.
Avoiding career killers: betrayal, distrust, and unprofessionalism
Evans identifies key behaviors that can derail a career: betrayal, general distrust, and unprofessionalism. Betrayal, in a corporate context, often means letting down a manager or colleague when they are counting on you, making them look incompetent or foolish. This hits at a person's ego and identity, which is often more damaging than performance failures. Building distrust is equally detrimental; actions like unethical behavior, cheating on expense reports, or inappropriate conduct erode faith in an individual's character, and recovery from such breaches of trust is extremely difficult. Gossip is also a significant career killer. While some level of political maneuvering is inevitable, overt gossiping about colleagues or the company creates a toxic environment and signals a lack of integrity. Evans advocates for leaders to exemplify a culture of transparency and direct communication, discouraging 'political correctness' that masks true issues and encouraging open debate, even with senior leadership. Being diplomatic when discussing past employers, focusing on cultural fit rather than personal attacks, is also crucial, as past negative behavior is a strong predictor of future actions.
The gift of hard feedback and how to deliver it
Giving and receiving difficult feedback is a crucial, yet often avoided, aspect of career development. Evans shares his experience witnessing Amazon's leadership, including Jeff Bezos, engage in direct, sometimes public, criticism, which, though painful, fostered growth. He learned that while public feedback can be a powerful learning tool, private conversations are generally more effective for individual correction. The ideal approach involves being 'professionally firm while personally warm' – showing care for the individual's success while clearly stating performance expectations and consequences. This requires clarity, avoiding ambiguity, and focusing on observable behaviors and their impact. Managers often struggle with delivering hard feedback due to fear of confrontation, potential blowback, or an employee quitting. Techniques like 'sandwich feedback' (positive-negative-positive) are often ineffective because the core message gets lost. Ultimately, the ability to give and receive constructive criticism, especially when it's challenging, is a hallmark of strong leadership and a sign that someone is valued enough to be invested in for improvement.
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Common Questions
The Magic Loop is a philosophy for building a collaborative relationship with your manager. You help your manager achieve their goals, and in return, they invest in your career growth, leading to promotions or skill development. This creates a virtuous cycle of mutual benefit.
Topics
Mentioned in this video
A retired Amazon VP who shares frameworks for career advancement, having started from being fired twice to running multiple billion-dollar businesses.
Founder of Amazon, known for his leadership philosophy of strategic patience and tactical impatience, customer obsession, and unique meeting styles.
Ethan Evans's boss at Amazon, who exemplified 'umbrella management' by trying to shield his team from executive blame.
The host's previous corporate boss, described as a ruthless but effective leader who gave public and direct feedback, contributing to the host's development.
An individual whose ideas about people wanting to know 'why what they're doing is interesting' are referenced in the context of attracting A-players.
A financial expert whose company has a strict 'no gossip' policy that the host admires and attempts to implement in his own organization.
A leader mentioned for his quote about seeing through compounding lies in business and for his ambitious mission to put people on Mars.
The company where Ethan Evans worked as a VP, known for its hard-driving culture, two-pizza teams, and leadership principles like ownership and customer focus.
The host Cody Sanchez's company, a business Ethan Evans asks about regarding employee offers of help.
A social media platform where Ethan Evans notes common but often incorrect career advice is given, particularly about asking for raises.
A large tech company that offered a significant pay raise to an Amazon employee, highlighting the variability in corporate compensation.
A company where the host worked, noted for its incredible corporate training and a culture of continuous but slow growth, with high job security.
A major platform company from which a VP was hired at Amazon, who questioned Amazon's decentralized 'two-pizza team' approach.
A tech giant mentioned in the context of Amazon's philosophy of focusing on customers rather than competition, like what Google is doing.
A gaming website where Ethan Evans helped build the sponsorship business, one of his five or six billion-dollar ventures at Amazon.
Elon Musk's electric vehicle company, where Ethan Evans's former boss had interviewed and decided it wasn't a good fit.
A large financial company where the host worked, mentioned alongside Vanguard and Goldman Sachs.
A language-learning app with good gamification, which the host uses to understand how gamification works to improve tools and encourage learning.
Recommended professional networking platform where Ethan Evans writes daily content for corporate professionals.
Social media platform where Ethan Evans's LinkedIn content is mirrored, and which the host enjoys following.
Elon Musk's aerospace company, which offered Ethan Evans a job, representing a mission to put people on Mars and a chance to make a historical mark.
A very fast-paced financial company with a '20% cut every year' policy, which the host preferred over Vanguard due to its culture of rapid growth and performance.
A communication platform suggested for sending weekly status reports to make work visible in a corporate environment.
Jeff Bezos's signature business, which took over 15 years to become a multi-billion dollar business, exemplifying strategic patience.
A presentation software product that Jeff Bezos famously disliked, viewing it as a sales tool that allows narratives to be controlled and important details to be buried.
A presentation software product similar to PowerPoint, mentioned in the context of presentation tools being used to 'make powerful points' and control narratives.
A billion-dollar business that Ethan Evans ran at Amazon, listed as one of his successful ventures.
A specific truck model used as an example to illustrate how physical products typically have a single price point versus the flexible pricing models in virtual goods.
A subscription service offering benefits like faster delivery, cited as an example of Amazon's relentless focus on customer convenience.
A signature Amazon invention, which transitioned books to digital format, born from Jeff Bezos's focus on customer needs in the book business.
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