Leading Without Authority: How Every One of Us Can Build Trust, Create Candor, Energize Our Teams, and Make a Difference

Simply having a title and authority isn’t enough to engage and motivate today’s employees, says bestelling author and CEO consultant Keith Ferrazzi. They have to want to follow your lead. You have to earn it. On the other hand, there are countless leaders in the ranks of our companies, Ferrazzi says, who may not have a title, but whose experience and insights and counsel are essential for a team and an organization to reach its full potential.

In Leading Without Authority, Ferrazzi shows us the secret to getting those around you to collaborate and cooperate to reach their full potential, whatever your title. The answer involves a shift in mindset that Ferrazzi calls co-elevation-working to elevate those around us. And you don’t have to have formal authority, or direct reports, to utilize the co-elevation process. In fact, you can take initial steps forward without the other person even being aware of your efforts.

Based on two decades of working with CEOs, senior leadership, and drawing on emerging research in organizational and behavioral psychology, Ferrazzi reveals, through stories and examples, how to assume the mantle of leadership, whatever your title, to build trust, create candor, and drive transparency and purpose. By helping others to be better at what they do, we help ourselves, advance our careers, and improve our teams. Leading Without Authority promises to be the book on leadership-whether you have a title or not-by strengthening relationships and cooperation, both in our professional and personal lives.