I'm on a mission to help people live Co-Elevated — to build deeper bonds in a rapidly changing, often disconnected world — and to shape a future where human-AI collaboration enhances trust, creativity, and our shared potential.

For over two decades, I’ve worked with Fortune 500 Executives and their teams to transform the way they lead — replacing command-and-control with candor, collaboration, and shared accountability. Whether in the boardroom, on stage, or in my writing, I’ve been guided by one question: How do we build deeper, more meaningful connections in a world that so often pulls us apart? Because the most meaningful success doesn’t come from ambition alone — it comes from the connections we build, the generosity we show, and the relationships we nurture along the way.

I’m the author of five books, including Never Eat Alone, Leading Without Authority, Competing in the New World of Work, and Never Lead Alone. I share my latest thinking in publications like Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal, and through my firm, Ferrazzi Greenlight, we help leaders architect teams built for agility, trust, and exponential performance.

We’re not just building better teams. We’re building a better way to work — together.

Learn more about how you can unlock your team's potential here:

https://www.keithferrazzi.com/

“I don’t have time to invest in my network.”

I hear this all the time. And I get it. We’re busy.

But here’s what I’ve learned over decades of building relationships at every level.

Your network is your net worth.
And it doesn’t grow by accident.
I don’t believe in waiting for serendipity or hoping the right people just show up.

I believe in purposeful, planned, and authentic relationships.
I don’t try to impress people.
I don’t try to be charming.
I just try to be real.
I share what lights me up. I talk about my purpose. And when I do, people lean in, because authenticity is contagious.

Yes, sometimes I feel intimidated. We all do.
But I remind myself of this: they’re just people.
I ask for introductions.
I focus on generosity first.
I work intentionally to deepen relationships, not collect them.

And when I truly need a connection, it’s there. Not because I “worked the room,” but because we built something together over time.

I go to a lot of conferences and events. If I’m investing the money, I’m also investing the preparation.
That’s where relationships actually compound.
Is it work? Yes.
Is it worth it? Every time.
You don’t have to do this alone.
You can learn a system.
And we can do it together.

👉 If you want to build relationships that actually create momentum, community, and opportunity, check out Beyond Connections here:

https://lnkd.in/dd29UwYm

Keith Ferrazzi

I founded Ferrazzi Greenlight in 2000. Since then, we've cracked the code to what unlocks team potential and turns a group of individuals into a high-performing team. Since 2010, we've been at the leading edge of research on how teams can embrace hybrid work for even greater performance.

A Co-Elevating team is committed to the mission and to each other—equally. Each team member shares a balance of peer-to-peer accountability and heart, encompassing a powerful combination of mindsets, tools, and practices. When unleashed, the union leads the highest-performers to put their egos aside, put the mission first, and share the leadership load with peers to achieve extraordinary results.

Our model helps executive teams:
-Coach new high-return team practices that increase growth and value
-Understand that real business success isn't about individual leadership; it's about a leader's capacity to develop a team
-Work on peer-to-peer feedback and vastly improve candor
-Become a true Co-Elevating and Radically Adaptable team agile enough to meet the next major business challenge and opportunity

I'm the author of Competing in the New World of Work, the NYT #1 bestseller Who's Got Your Back, Leading Without Authority, and Never Eat Alone. I'm also a regular contributor to publications like Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and Forbes. 

You may have seen me on the Today's Show or CNN, as a keynote speaker on some of the largest stages in the world, or giving a challenge talk in an intimate leadership team setting. In 2018, I was recognized by Toastmasters International with the Golden Gavel award for being a top global speaker. I wish my steelworking dad, who was a Toastmaster himself, would have been alive to see that. 

I am also proud to be a member of Transformation 50 — World 50's peer community for senior-most executives driving large-scale organization transformations.

Learn more about how you can unlock your team's potential here:

https://www.ferrazzigreenlight.com/  

Testimonials
"The FG team helped us adopt a sense of mutual accountability and a greater focus on peer-to-peer support networks, all in service of individual, team, and corporate growth." -Lisa Buckingham, Chief Human Resources and Communications Officer, Lincoln Financial Group

"Ferrazzi Greenlight's philosophy, that business is human, and relationships do power growth, completely resonated with me right from the start. Their fresh approach produced a positive and uplifting impact on me personally and on my organization." - Scott Bowen, CFO Deutsche Bank

#1 NYT Bestselling Author | Keynote Speaker | Executive and Team Coach | Architecting the Future of Human-AI Collaboration

The top 10 takeaways from Never Eat Alone:

1. Your network is your biggest asset
2. Give first and don’t expect anything in return
3. Be present, especially with new relationships
4. Do follow-up
5. Have a mentor
6. Build it before you need it
7. Don’t keep score
8. Identify your mission
9. Do your homework
10. Success isn’t an individual effort

Curious to learn which resonates most... or terrifies you most :)

And if you want a system to bring these ideas off the page and into your life, our 9-week training, Beyond Connections, kicks off in the next two weeks.

You can apply here –> https://lnkd.in/ez5DBxQk

Grateful for the incredible messages this book continues to inspire, even 20 years on.

Francisco Quiroz

Flat out, people do business with people they know and like.

Careers, in every imaginable field, work the same way.

Even our overall well-being and sense of happiness, as a library’s worth of research has shown, is dedicated in large part by the support and guidance and love we get from the community we build for ourselves.

That’s why connecting is one of the most important business, and life, skill sets you’ll ever learn.

Every major opportunity in your past can likely be traced back to one specific person.

If you want more opportunities in your future, you simply need to find more of those people.

That is the goal of the Beyond Connections program.

Here is what our graduates are saying about the results:

- Paul (Ex-Amazon): Built a circle of 20+ lifelong professional friends in just weeks.

- Keith (Ex-Bloomberg): Stopped "blind networking" and learned how to turn acquaintances into real relationships.

- Hilary (Leadership Coach): Stopped paying for ads because her network started generating all the leads she needed. 

Whether you want to land a dream job, raise money, or find a new partner, this is the room where it happens.

→ Apply for the upcoming Beyond Connections cohort 

https://lnkd.in/eUtHtkAG

We kick off early February, so the window is closing.

If you’re worried about how AI is going to affect your job, think about this:

The single best thing you can do in the face of ever more powerful AI is to get really, really excellent at the art of relationships.

Learn how to build rapport quickly, build trust, show up authentically, connect with others on a human level.

https://lnkd.in/dd29UwYm

Every boardroom I sit in right now is obsessed with the same question: How fast can we adopt AI? But adopting AI is just an input, not an outcome.

I wrote about this recently for Forbes.

A quick snippet from the article:

Questions every CEO and CIO should be asking now

If you’re serious about becoming AI-first, don’t just ask “How do we use more AI?”

Start asking:

1. Do we have an AI strategy for software engineering, or just for coding?

Coding is one part of the engineering lifecycle. Software has to be deployed, run, monitored, debugged, and maintained. Do we have an AI strategy for the complete lifecycle?

2. Where do we have the biggest problem and the biggest leverage?

Most AI investment goes where it’s easiest to deploy, not where it creates the most value. Where are you burning the most engineering hours? Where is complexity growing fastest? That's where AI leverage matters most.

3. Are we investing in AI that makes tasks faster or AI that makes the organization better?

Point solutions help individuals move faster. But they don't compound. The question is whether your AI investments are building institutional capability or just renting speed.

Check out the full article below and let me know what you think in the comment section.

Spiros Xanthos Davis Govrik Varun Krovvidi Resolve AI Wendy Smith Kyrrha Martin

Every boardroom I sit in right now is obsessed with the same question: How fast can we adopt AI? But adopting AI is just an input, not an outcome. Tak

Open article: The AI Glass Wall You’re Not Planning For by Keith Ferrazzi • 7 min read

The AI Glass Wall You’re Not Planning For

We had such an incredible breakfast this morning with our Radical Innovators Collaborative community in Davos.

We had such an inspiring and truly amazing group of individuals. 

This is a group of the top CIOs, CHROs, and Founders in the world and I absolutely love bringing this group together.

We are building with one another and co-creating across different organizations.

I am so grateful for this community.

People don’t grow because they chase opportunities alone.

They grow because someone connects them, shares with them, and invests in them.

Here are 8 relationship-first truths most people forget:

1/ Stop collecting contacts.
↳ When you create a connection, focus on strengthening it. One strong connection is more important than 100 weak ones. 

2/ Give before you get.
↳ Share your time, insights, and resources without expectation of getting anything in return.

3/ Prioritize real conversations.
↳ Ask about peoples’ goals, challenges, and passions before you share your own.

4/ Help people before it benefits you.
↳Giving introductions, advice, or opportunities will come back to benefit you. 

5/ Celebrate others’ wins.
↳ Public acknowledgment strengthens bonds.
↳ Genuine appreciation multiplies goodwill faster than recognition for yourself.

6/ Listen more than you speak.
↳ Curiosity unlocks insights, opportunities, and trust, a lot of the times, asking questions matters more than getting answers. 

7/ Remove transactional thinking.
↳ Connections built transactions don’t last.

8/ Build networks of people who push you to grow.
↳ Surround yourself with people who challenge, inspire, and elevate.

These relationships end up being the people who show up for you when it matters most.

We’re at an inflection point in the AI conversation.

The question is no longer what AI can do.

The real question in 2026 is whether institutions can actually harness it at scale.

I had an incredibly powerful conversation at Davos with Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product at Snowflake, on what it really takes to move from experimentation to execution. 

From pilots to production. From curiosity to coordination. From potential to real-world impact.

What separates the organizations that are scaling AI from those stuck in perpetual pilot mode?
How do leaders balance innovation with safety as AI moves into mission-critical systems?
And how do global institutions coordinate AI development when every organization has unique missions, risks, and security requirements?

This is the next phase of AI adoption.
Not tinkering.
Not experimenting.
But building the muscle to deliver impact at scale.

The institutions that get this right will reshape competitive dynamics across industries and borders.

The ones that don’t will be left behind.

Looking forward to digging into what it really takes to scale AI.

Some ideas about networking deserve to be retired.

Others deserve a second look.

1. Trying to be someone you’re not? 

Over-rated.

This comes off polished. Smarmy. Transactional. 

People can smell it a mile away.

2. The people you already know?

Under-rated.

There is enormous, untapped richness in your existing relationships.

Not because you haven’t met the *right* people, but because you haven’t gone deep enough with the ones around you.

3. Charisma?

Under-rated.

But don’t be intimidated, you can learn it.

4. Keeping score in relationships? 

Under-rated.

It doesn’t just feel gross — it quietly erodes trust and puts a stink on your brand.

5. Hyper organizing your contacts?

Under-rated..

Systems that help you show up consistently, generously, and authentically, are excellent.  even at scale.

*****

That’s the heart of the work we do in Beyond Connections – our 9-week networking accelerator.

It’s not just tactics for extracting value.

But building a relationship system that actually reflects who you are… and amplifies it.

If you’re ready to stop collecting contacts and start building real social capital that compounds over time…

I invite you to apply to join us → https://lnkd.in/eRPaU3aZ

The next cohort kicks off in two weeks, and spots are almost full.

See you there!

Here in Davos at the Cisco house, we had an extraordinary conversation with a group of the very top CIOs, CTOs, and CHROs.

We were talking about what we’ve learned over the past year by watching AI agents work alongside human employees and what we can extrapolate from that about the future of change management, the future of HR, and the future of work.

What struck me was that the conversation was both exciting and a little frightening.

The same issues we focus on today are still front and center:

Risk mitigation and governance
Building the right cultural norms into how work gets done
Performance management and measurement systems
Training and development
Skills and capabilities inventories

All of that has a clear parallel in the new world we’re moving into.

In one regard, I walked away thinking, “Wow, this is really cool. I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

But I also found myself asking a deeper question.

Was this just a group of enterprise leaders seeing the world in the same way?

And do we need to start looking at AI-native organizations that don’t think about work in traditional terms at all in order to truly understand what might emerge?

That was my takeaway from the conversation.

I wanted to share a video I put together last night after an interesting dinner. 

I’ll be honest, I didn’t have high expectations going in. It was a dinner with Princess Beatrice from the UK, who is heavily focused on the future of AI and sustainability, and a Baroness from the House of Lords who, oddly enough, is an American citizen who grew up very close to me in Pittsburgh.

The conversation was about the future of AI and its social impact.

And I’ll say this clearly: I am 100% a believer that AI and technology are ushering in a world of abundance. There is no question that we are moving toward democratization of education and the best healthcare in the world. Things that only millionaires can afford today will be available to everyone, everywhere.

But my worry is this, and I say this as an American and a capitalist.
I worry about the growing distance in economic situations in the United States, the lack of a social safety net, and what I believe is the inevitable job loss that will come in a relatively short period of time.

My father was an unemployed steelworker. His entire generation never got re-employed, even though Pittsburgh rejuvenated. Those individuals were destitute along the Monongahela for the rest of their lives.

We are about to experience massive disruption.

And my concern is that we are not having enough of the real conversation around that societal gap. Who is going to pay for all of the abundance that is offered to people when people don’t have jobs?

That was the conversation I raised last night.

And I was genuinely encouraged that more people were aware of it and interested in it.

But ultimately, the big question remains: how do we get the 20 most important people in the world focused on re-engineering a social safety net and solving for economic displacement?

I’ll keep tilting at windmills.

But it was a beautiful evening, and I met some extraordinary people, including the CTOs of several major companies I’ve been working with for a while.

The future is being built right now.

One of my favorite parts about Davos is the extraordinary people that I get to spend time with.

Two examples right here - Aloe Blacc and Richard Dickson

I had an early morning conversation today with the CEO of a company called Workhuman.

Really, really interesting company.

I didn’t fully understand what they were doing with AI and data going in. At its core, it’s a platform where people give each other positive reinforcement. Peer-to-peer recognition. Team-to-team praise.

And as I talk about in Chapter Six of Teamship, I fundamentally believe we need to move away from paltry, leader-led praise and shift toward team-to-team recognition. Let the team put energy into each other.

That’s exactly what Workhuman enables.

But here’s the really cool part.

When you have all of that data, you start to see where good leaders are emerging. Where great people are emerging. Where future leaders are forming. You also start to see pockets of work forming outside of traditional org charts.

That data set is incredibly powerful.

I was genuinely intrigued by what they’re building over at Workhuman and definitely interested in pursuing this a little bit more.

A great little nugget of learning this morning.

Five Leadership Practices Any Company Can Learn From:

1. Build AI literacy in Senior Leadership to Enable the Many Employees to Transition
2. Redesign Work by Studying “Tasks Within a Job,” Not Roles
3. Make Responsible AI a True Governance Practice
4. Use Everyday Conversations as the Primary Change-Management Tool
5. Treat Pilots as Shared Learning Moments

Check out the below article I wrote for Forbes on "How IKEA Is Protecting Its Values Culture While Embracing AI"

Thank you Ingka Group | IKEA IKEA Ulrika Biesèrt Parag Parekh for sharing your insights with us!

I am doing a roundtable on Monday at Davos to flush out answers to:

What organizations are learning TODAY about the interaction of AI agents and their human partners. (Things like how to build appropriate cultural behaviors into agents.)

What questions does it pose for the future of how we support such partnerships ongoing?

Anyone have thoughts on what you’re seeing in your organization or across your network?

Most leaders believe being indispensable is proof they're doing their job well. 

I argue the opposite.

I was recently a guest on The Dov Baron Show, hosted by Dov Baron... The Science of Emotion, for a two-part conversation on what leadership truly demands in today’s world. We explored two main questions in two parts:

1. What if the leadership trait you're most proud of is what’s making your team fragile without you?

2. What if the leadership model that made you successful is the very thing that will make you irrelevant in the next collapse?

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, I take apart the belief that strong leaders need to be at the center of decision-making, accountability, and performance.

This episode challenges leaders who take pride in being the smartest person in the room and asks a more uncomfortable question: What happens when you're not there?

In Part 2, I expose how that same leadership addiction scales into AI disruption, economic instability, and even authoritarian collapse.

This conversation moves beyond organizational charts and into the future of work itself. 

I explain why AI adoption metrics are meaningless without real business transformation, why "AI-first" companies think fundamentally differently, and why leaders who cling to control will be outpaced by smaller, faster, more collaborative teams.

This episode argues that leaders who step off the pedestal, co-create across functions, and learn from those already living in the future will not just survive the coming shift, they'll shape it.

Listen here: https://lnkd.in/e7e2edw2

Elite teams operate with a fundamental agreement: we win or lose as one. 

This is a mindset of relentless commitment to elevating everyone’s performance, what I call Co-Elevation.

Teamship requires establishing and maintaining three high-level focuses that produce Co-Elevation and alignment:

1. 21st-Century Collaboration

Traditional meetings are a poor starting point for collaboration because most voices aren’t heard and real thinking happens too late. Start asynchronously by posing a few sharp questions, inviting broad input in a shared document, and letting people contribute thoughtfully before any meeting occurs. When teams do meet (if they even need to), they arrive aligned and ready to decide, which cuts decision time dramatically while expanding participation.

2. Peer-to-Peer Feedback

Elite teams make caring and candor non-negotiable. Practices like Candor Breaks and Stress Testing remove the need for heroics by surfacing what’s not being said, engaging every voice, and turning challenge into shared problem-solving. When teams repeat these simple formats, they uncover hidden risks early, innovate faster, shorten cycle time, and build trust.

3. Relationship Building

When we coach organizations on teamship transformation, we consistently observe that relationship quality fundamentally determines the effectiveness of collaboration. Traditional approaches rely on chance encounters for relationship development, but my research reveals that this approach is increasingly inadequate, particularly in hybrid and distributed environments. 

The question isn’t whether to embrace Teamship, but how quickly you can implement the necessary shifts. 

Organizations that successfully navigate this transformation position themselves not for incremental improvement but for breakthrough performance. 

Building relationships among team members on a foundation of commitment and empathy is critical to providing an environment of forgiveness and caring enough to challenge each other.

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/de7TeJ4j

In 2025, “evergreen” isn’t enough. If your ideas don’t connect to what leaders are dealing with right now, they won’t land.

I'm featured with Peter Winick on Leveraging Thought Leadership for a Best of 2025 compilation episode. We talked about staying relevant without chasing trends and why “teamship” is the missing lever for performance.

We’ve invested heavily in leadership development. But many teams still avoid candor, conflict, and shared accountability. The gap isn’t talent, instead, it’s the habits and systems that make collaboration real.

Give it a listen here: https://lnkd.in/gJtJtNyY

Leadership in an AI-driven world won’t be about smarter tools.

I’m already seeing firsthand that stronger relationships are going to be more important than ever.

In this episode of Tech Whisperers Podcast, hosted by Dan Roberts, I talk about what Teamship and trust really look like as AI reshapes how we work (and why candor is becoming a non-negotiable leadership skill).

We go into:
- Why leaders must stop thinking about AI in silos
- How high-performing teams are built through collaboration
- The role of candor in creating trust at scale
- The power of asking better questions to unlock performance
- And more

I also had the opportunity to respond to thoughtful, real-world questions from leaders I respect, including: Deepa Soni, Leigh-Ann Russell, Frank Congiu, Stephanie Kramer, Lisa Bettinger-Buckingham.

Listen to the episode below: https://lnkd.in/gzqCU4ip

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