Andy Jassy’s leadership lesson he practices at work and at home

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes leaders should always be learning—from everybody, all the time.

In a recent conversation with David Novak on the "How Leaders Lead" podcast, he talks about how he’s applying Amazon’s “Learn and Be Curious” Leadership Principle both at work, and at home.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

You have to be willing to learn from everybody. For a number of folks in their careers, at a certain point they seem to lose their thirst to learn. I don't know if it's because you get to a certain point and you think you should know what there is to know, or if it feels threatening to be senior and to not know everything, or it's tiring to always be learning. But I think the second you're not learning is the second you're starting to unwind.

At work, I optimize to learn. I try to speak last in meetings. If I don't have to say anything in a meeting, that's a great meeting. There's nothing wrong with that. And I am willing to change my mind as often as I'm presented with information that should change my mind.

At home, I try to do the same thing. Our kids are amazing. They're so thoughtful and authentic. They're so open and they see the world their own way, and I learn a lot from them. I'm often in the position where they're asking me for some advice or guidance, but I've also learned a lot from just listening to their own stories.

For prior generations, I feel like maybe it was a point of pride that you didn't really say sorry to your kids. But I also think that being able to tell your kids when you've gotten something wrong, in either an interaction with them or an interaction at work, is important. Being able to say to them, 'I got this wrong, and I'm sorry,' has opened up a lot of our best conversations.

For more, you can listen to the full podcast.

Next up, Jassy shares three key pieces of advice for anyone transitioning into a leadership role at work.