Ethan Evans

The Magic Loop is a five-step partnership framework designed to align your work with your manager's needs to secure promotions and career growth.

"The basic idea of The Magic Loop is five steps and they're very easy. The first one is you have to be doing your current job well... Then step two is ask your boss how you can help... Step three is wh..."

Advancing to executive levels requires shifting from functional execution to strategic influence and delegation.

"The difference between a senior manager and a director is how you lead and the work you're doing. And you can get as far as senior manager by being really strong in your function and being really good..."

Testing for the ability to challenge authority is critical for hiring leaders who possess 'backbone' and can 'disagree and commit.'

"I think my favorite interview question is, 'Tell me about a time where you needed to disagree with your management, where you needed to stand up or fight for a position against higher leadership or pe..."

Top candidates distinguish themselves by focusing on the business impact and problem-solving results of their actions rather than just listing tasks.

"The biggest thing I see particularly at higher levels is people talk about what they have done but not why it mattered. They don't talk about the impact. See, a leader is not hiring someone to just do..."

Defining clear, actionable language for leadership principles is essential for scaling a high-ownership culture across a large organization.

"I propose these six words, which are, 'An owner never says that's not my job.'... because Amazon has one and a half million employees who live by these leadership principles, it's probably the most im..."

In high-stakes failure scenarios, taking immediate ownership and providing frequent, scheduled updates can prevent micromanagement and preserve trust.

"The first thing I did was I owned it. I said, 'Yes, it's not working. It's my fault. I will deal with it.' I took ownership. And the second thing I did was start updating him very proactively and sayi..."

Effective managing up involves positioning yourself as an ally who alleviates the manager's burden through reciprocal help.

"Management can be a lonely job, because you feel like you're responsible for everything. So having an ally, it's just a huge weight off people's shoulders. And I think a lot about social engineering...."

Speed is a competitive necessity, particularly for reversible decisions where the cost of delay outweighs the cost of a mistake.

"Bias for action says speed matters in business and many decisions are reversible. And so it's important to go faster. And I think people don't understand that in a competitive environment, being right..."

Systematic invention requires deep domain expertise combined with dedicated, distraction-free thinking time.

"To invent systematically, first you do need to be somewhat of an expert in whatever area you want to invent... then the second thing people don't do is they don't spend dedicated time actually thinkin..."