Andy Ellis leads security initiatives without formal authority by influencing rather than commanding. He frames refusals as the right decision, so people accept "no" and trust his judgment. This reduces conflict and gets teams to seek his guidance proactively.
So my job was to convince people who weren't sure we would have a company the next day to do security work that would be valuable into the future. And I had no actual authority other than my title. It's a tall order. And so I sort of just had to learn, and I spent a lot of time trying to understand how humans think. And that was my single biggest realization is if you rely on authority, at the end of the day, you're gonna fail. You have to rely on influence even if you have authority. Even if I'm allowed to tell you no. I see, I see. My job is to make you believe that no is the right answer. Because then, A, you're not going to come ask me in the future because you know the right answer, but B, now we're not at odds interpersonally. Like, you believe that no is the right answer, and so you don't blame me for telling you no. You're like, great, we're doing the right thing. Yeah.
