Keith Ferrazzi on Leadership Trust

I recently sat in on an executive team’s weekly meeting, listening to a report-out from one of the business units. The team was clearly in trouble. Metrics were lagging. Customer complaints were up. And worse, you could feel the tension. It was polite on the surface, but the moment the slides ended, the blame started. “We’re not getting enough support from product.” “Sales keeps overpromising.” “People just aren’t accountable.” I’ve seen this movie before. A team starts missing targets, and instead of pulling together, they turn on each other. The instinct is to protect your lane, control what you can, and avoid being the one to blame. So I asked a question I knew would make everyone uncomfortable: “If we’re honest, how much of this is about the metrics, and how much is about how we’re leading right now?” Silence. Eyes on the table. Then, slowly, the truth started to surface. One leader admitted he’d been micromanaging because he was afraid of more surprises. Another said she’d stopped giving feedback because it never felt safe to disagree. Someone else confessed they were spending more time defending their function than solving problems. It was the first real moment of honesty we’d had in weeks. And it made me think about how often we default to control when things get hard: More status updates. More dashboards. More layers of approval. But control doesn’t build trust. It doesn’t create safety. It doesn’t help people do their best work. So instead of another round of slides and excuses, we tried something different. We used a version of the Stress Test described in Keith Ferrazzi’s excellent book, Never Lead Alone. The exec team abandoned their normal 25 page QBR "death by powerpoint" deck, instead used a short, focused document, three pages, answering three questions: What have we achieved? Where are we struggling? What’s coming next? No big group presentation. No polished deck. Just small groups, honest conversation, and space to ask the real questions: What are we afraid of? Where are we avoiding accountability? What would we try if we weren’t worried about failing? By the end of the session, the team looked different. People were still concerned - but they were no longer performing for each other. They were problem-solving WITH each other. It was a reminder: If you want to raise psychological safety by miles, you don’t need another training. You need to stop managing perception and start surfacing truth. So much of leadership comes down to one simple shift: Move from large-group presentations to small-group conversations. It sounds obvious. But it’s one of the hardest, and most transformational changes you can make. Because when people feel safe enough to admit what isn’t working, they finally have the freedom to fix it. What’s one place this week where you could trade control for trust?

The ability to shift the dial from a transactional and lower trust dynamic - to a meaningful and high-trust relationship with your team is a key ingredient of high performing teams. Keith Ferrazzi, author of the New York bestselling book Never Eat Alone describes high trust relationship building through the lens of what he calls the Intimacy Pyramid. If you imagine a pyramid—the higher you are on the pyramid the greater the levels of trust and strength of your relationship with others. Viewing relationship building through the lens of “what I can get from this exchange” results in a more transactional and lower-trust relationship dynamic, as represented at the bottom of the intimacy pyramid. In order to move up the pyramid and build meaningful relationships, it requires a shift in mindset from “What can I get?” to “What can I do for others?” This means being of service to your team, supporting them through their most challenging projects and day-to-day issues as well as being the first to recognise celebrate their successes. It also means showing a genuine interest in finding out more about your colleagues—e.g. their passions and interests, however recognising that trust works both ways and therefore requires self-disclosure and vulnerability from you first. The more you are willing to reveal pieces and dimensions of who you are, the more willing your team will be to do so as well. Ultimately, the higher you are able to get towards the tip of the intimacy pyramid with your team the stronger the relationship you will have with your team and the higher the level of trust you will share with each other. What would you add? 👇🏽 #culture #trust #leadership

If your team doesn’t trust you, it’s probably your fault. Here’s how to change that: I used to think trust came from being the “strong” leader. Always certain. Always composed. Never showing fear, doubt, or struggle. I was wrong. That version of leadership? It creates distance, not trust. It teaches your team one thing: “Don’t be human here.” And when people feel they can’t be human: ↳ They hide. ↳ They hold back. ↳ They shut down. You don’t get their real opinions. You don’t hear the warning signs. You don’t get their best. So if you want real trust? You have to go first. Here’s how to rebuild it from the inside out👇 On the latest HR Leaders Podcast, I sat down with Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Lead Alone and Founder of Ferrazzi Greenlight, to unpack the shift from leadership to teamship. 🎯 Top Takeaways: 🧠 Teamship over hero leadership → Real growth comes from shared responsibility. 🗣️ Psychological safety drives results → When people feel safe to speak up, innovation follows. 🤝 HR must model bold collaboration → Don’t wait for permission—design the culture you need. 📊 Collaboration is a skillset → Teams need training, not just trust falls. 🚀 Co-elevation is the future → Great teams push each other to new heights—together. ⬇️ Watch the full episode below. ♻️ Repost to share Keith’s message with your team And follow Christopher Rainey for more episodes.

The Future of Leadership is Teamship—Are You Ready to Lead Together? I am thrilled to be interviewing Keith Ferrazzi this week on #TheLearnitAllPodcast about his new book, Never Lead Alone. In preparation, I read it cover to cover—and loved it! One of the things I immediately liked about this book is its focus on Teamship—the idea that the highest-performing teams don’t just rely on strong leadership; they lead together. It’s not about one person driving success—it’s about creating a culture where trust, accountability, and innovation are shared across the team. Why This Hit Home for Me For years, I’ve told everyone that I tried to model the Learnit culture after the two College World Series teams I played for (Pepperdine and ASU). Both of those teams had great head coaches, but what made them special was that we didn’t need the coaches around to uphold our standards. We knew what excellence looked like. --We held each other accountable. --We gave each other honest feedback and had each other’s backs. --If one of us struck out, the next guy stepped up and delivered. That is exactly the message I walked away with from the book. Taking Action: Implementing Teamship at Learnit I was so inspired by this book that I purchased copies for my entire team. Our Plan: 1️⃣ Everyone reads it. 2️⃣ Over the next six months, we’ll go step by step through the 10 Shifts as a team. 3️⃣ We’ll use Keith’s proven playbook—including diagnostic questions, stress testing, and structured recontracting—to ensure these shifts stick and become part of how we work. There are 10 game-changing shifts in the book. Here are three of them (read the book for the rest): 1. From Hub-and-Spoke Leadership to Co-Elevation ✔ 30% more leadership time freed up – Leaders empower their teams to take ownership, shifting from control to collaboration. ✔ Stronger trust and accountability – Leadership is shared, and teams execute with greater speed and autonomy. 2. From Leader-Enforced Accountability to Peer-Led Commitment ✔ Stronger trust – No back-channeling, just open, honest conversations. ✔ Higher ownership – Teams hold each other accountable, not just leadership. 3. From Meeting Overload to Agile Collaboration ✔ Faster decision-making – No more waiting for the next meeting to make progress. ✔ More engaged teams – Async tools replace wasted time, boosting focus and productivity. Final Thought If you want to thrive as a team or organization, start by picking up the book and exploring how you can implement Keith's blueprint for a new way to work together. And don't miss my conversation later this month on #TheLearnitAllPodcast! FYI – Buy the book in bulk like we did and receive exclusive content. I’ve added the link in the comments below. Who else has read Never Lead Alone? How are you applying it to your team? #Leadership #Teamship #NeverLeadAlone #KeithFerrazzi