A story published Saturday by the New York Times called new attention to the workplace atmosphere at fast-growing and increasingly hard-driving Amazon.com Inc., while occasioning a fresh look at the company’s guiding principles.

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Here is an abridged rundown of the “Our Leadership Principles” section of the Amazon career site:

• Managers at Amazon AMZN, +0.18% are expected to focus primarily on the customer and to “work backward” from that point.

• Company leaders take ownership of the company’s overall destiny and practice founder Jeff Bezos’s famed long-term focus (vis-a-vis short-term results).

• Leaders at Amazon are continuously not just innovating but simplifying.

• Amazon’s successful leaders are “right, a lot,” meaning they have strong instinct and judgment and seek diverse views and “work to disconfirm their beliefs” in that process.

• Managers are expected to hire strong talent and, in turn, to develop those hires into leaders.

• Amazon, anticipating a common criticism, concedes that “many people may think [its ‘relentlessly high’] standards are unreasonably high,’ but instructs leaders to raise the bar “continually.”

• Leaders at Amazon are directly warned against thinking small.

• Amazon decision makers are instructed to take calculated risks in the service of speedy action.

• Be frugal, as no “extra points” are awarded for “growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense.”

• Stay curious and keep learning.

• Amazon leaders are to earn trust, with vocalized self-criticism — even if awkward or embarrassing — presented as one means of achieving that end.

• Amazon leaders view no task as “beneath them” as they “operate at all levels” to “stay connected to the details.”

• Leaders at Amazon have “backbone,” which enables them to challenge and disagree — again, even when doing so is “uncomfortable.” They don’t compromise for the sake of compromise, but when a decision is reached “they commit wholly.”

• Amazon leaders deliver results by focusing on “key inputs” and never settling for less than the “right quality” delivered in “timely fashion.”

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