Ethan Evans
13 statements across 1 episodes · 3 bullish · 0 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Jun 3, 2026 by Ethan Evans · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Ethan Evans's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Everything said about Ethan Evans, oldest first
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Clear, Disagreeable Standards Beat Agreeable, Shifting Standards
“I'd rather have hard standards I disagree with than fuzzy standards that I don't know. If I have to pick, I'd rather be working for a boss I don't agree with, but who's really clear. Then one who sounds agreeable, but then shifts with the win.”
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Ask candidate references for secondary contacts to get truth
“My favorite trick for figuring out A players is everybody knows to give three references if you ask. My trick was I would call a reference and say, Hey, who else knows this person that I could call? And that way I would get out of their list of chosen referenc…”
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Survey of thousands of managers shows unsolicited help is extremely rare
“I've surveyed thousands of managers by having them raise their hands and ask them, how often does someone on your team offer you help? ... They all say the same things. Number one, it's so rare to be asked. Number two, it makes an immediate impression on me. A…”
Jun 3, 2026 positive
Evans: Amazon's on-demand t-shirt printing business started as a six-page memo
“One of the businesses I helped start was our t-shirt printing business. So I had to justify like, hey, we've never printed t-shirts before. Why is this a good idea? And why should we do it? And what's going to be the consequences? And three of us worked togeth…”
Jun 3, 2026
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Damaging a boss's ego kills careers faster than losing company money
“Betrayal is the number one. Any sort of, and to some degree that's the letting me down where you promise something, like I'm counting on something and then it doesn't show up and it makes me look bad. Anything that hits people's ego or identity is actually mor…”
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Talent Inflow and Outflow Is the Primary Signal of Boss Quality
“First, good boss or bad boss, are people leaving or are people coming? Because reputation travels. And if the first signal of a boss is, are they gaining talent or losing talent? If people want out, probably a bad boss. If people want in, probably a good boss.”
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Built much of his career through reciprocal workplace dealmaking
“I think I made a lot of my career effectively by deal making, by finding people that I could align with what they wanted and help them get what they want, and then I would sometimes talk to them privately and be like, hey, I will help you get this, but like, I…”
Jun 3, 2026 neutral
Jun 3, 2026
Jun 3, 2026
Evans: Proactively offering help and failing hurts careers more than staying invisible
“The only way to screw up this loop is to go to your boss and say, how can I help you? And they say, oh, do this. And then you don't do it because that's much worse than if you just kept your head down and never gone in their office because they weren't thinkin…”
Jun 3, 2026 positive
Evans: Bezos preferred paying for redundant teams over forcing early collaboration
“I'd rather pay to get two of something because I find when I force people to collaborate too soon, they gridlock and argue about priorities, and what I actually get is nothing. And so I'd rather pay for two Then get zero, and if we're so lucky as to get two wo…”
Jun 3, 2026 positive
Evans: Amazon Considered Dropping Ownership Principle, Retained It After Internal Push
“At Amazon, we had an ownership leadership principle, which is part of how Amazon runs. It has a set of principles. And at one point they were considering removing it and I led the fight to keep it. And some of the words in it That I helped create, say an owner…”