diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 303d9909d2..018ad6f97c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ endif
 # bingo manages consistent tooling versions for things like kind, kustomize, etc.
 include .bingo/Variables.mk
 
+# Setting SHELL to bash allows bash commands to be executed by recipes.
+# Options are set to exit when a recipe line exits non-zero or a piped command fails.
+SHELL := /usr/bin/env bash -o pipefail
+.SHELLFLAGS := -ec
+
 # By default setup-envtest will write to $XDG_DATA_HOME, or $HOME/.local/share if that is not defined.
 # If $HOME is not set, we need to specify a binary directory to prevent an error in setup-envtest.
 # Useful for some CI/CD environments that set neither $XDG_DATA_HOME nor $HOME.
@@ -19,7 +24,6 @@ ifeq ($(shell [[ $$HOME == "" || $$HOME == "/" ]] && [[ $$XDG_DATA_HOME == "" ]]
 	SETUP_ENVTEST_BIN_DIR_OVERRIDE += --bin-dir /tmp/envtest-binaries
 endif
 
-SHELL := /bin/bash
 ORG := github.com/operator-framework
 PKG   := $(ORG)/operator-lifecycle-manager
 MOD_FLAGS := -mod=vendor -buildvcs=false