A former Amazon VP explains the simplest way to get promoted

• Executive coach and former Amazon VP Ethan Evans says promotions boil down to five words.
• "Solve problems for your boss," he said. "If you're solving their problems, they will value you."
• He also said getting advice from leaders above you can help identify ways to work more effectively.

The key to your next promotion could boil down to five words.

"Solve problems for your boss," executive coach and former Amazon VP Ethan Evans said in a recent podcast interview with Ryan Peterman.

Evans attributed the saying to a former Amazon colleague who he said is now a senior VP at Walmart.

"If you're solving their problems, they will value you," he said, explaining that your value will likely make your boss more receptive to your request for bigger opportunities.

"They don't want to lose you, because not everyone's helping them that way," he continued. "Even a so-called bad boss will often take care of someone who's helping them."

During his 15-year career at Amazon, Evans said he led global teams of more than 800 people in divisions including the Amazon Appstore and Amazon Gaming. He also said he promoted eight of his reports from senior manager to director and contributed to the advancement of dozens more leaders at the company.

One reason Evans said workers tend to get stuck in a particular role is that they don't spend enough time learning the skills of the next levels up, which are different from those in early careers.

"What gets you promoted early in life is hard, effective work," he said. "As you get further, you need different skills: You need to be able to delegate, you need to be able to communicate."

Evans also said this requires letting go of some of the hard skills, like coding, that got you to your current success, since your expertise could lead you to micromanage your colleagues who might prefer to do things a little differently.

The best way he said to find out what skills to work on, he said, is to have lots of conversations with people who are a level or two above where you are — not for feedback, but for advice, since people typically feel more comfortable offering advice.

"Identify what's different about that level and get good at that, as opposed to just work harder," he said. "I see so many people working brutally hard, but ineffectively."