Having a diploma on the wall from your leadership coach does not mean you are a leader. Having loads of leadership coaching hours in your backpack does not mean you are a leader. Both these things increase the chances that you are a better leader compared to others who lack these investments though. But there are no guarantees.

Ticking off a course, certificate, or diploma that confirms and validates your time spent on a certain subject is a quick win and also serves as a very good starting point if you want to deepen your understanding of a certain subject. And this is a natural starting point for a leadership journey. You need to start from somewhere. But that is about it, especially when it comes to leadership. The rest is learned from practicing the things you learned in reality. But from where and how should that practice in reality start? In my previous article, SECURITY LEADERSHIP – THE JOURNEY & CREATION, I wrote about the security leadership journey and the creation of a security leader. In this article, I will explain where the journey starts.

WITH YOU

It starts with you and within you. If you are not capable of leading yourself, you will not be capable of leading someone else. Simple as that.

And to take away a myth out there about leadership, I will do so straight away. Technical skills are less about actual leadership. It can be an ingredient to leadership but it is not equivalent to being a leader or leading. Becoming the best one at a certain subject (technical or non-technical) does not mean that you are a leader. But here is the thing, very often the best and most technically capable person knowing the most about a certain subject becomes promoted or asked to lead. And I get it, this is very much how we perceive and interpret leadership. The best one is the one that sets the direction for the rest to follow. But is this the best way?

I see many aspiring and existing security leaders approach their career path and role in this way. They strive towards becoming the best of the best in their domain/subject of expertise and from there see that natural pivot into a manager or leadership role. It is understandable that this seems like the natural trajectory but in fact, this is not where leadership magic happens. The most technically skilled person does not need to be the best leader. This can be the case but there is no truth to that this is always the case.

Here and there this type of leadership, conducted mainly through domain expertise, is necessary but this is not always the case. Certain security leadership roles will though benefit from strong domain expertise combined with strong leadership skills. This is for example true if the security leader does not have an army (also known as a team of people) who will conduct the working tasks related to the domain expertise. In this case, there are some things that the security leader needs to consider. One of the most crucial ones is for example –> Succession Planning. How will you ensure that there are people in your organization who can backfill you if needed or if something unplanned happens? Can you ensure that your skills are transferable to other people? A good way to approach this scenario is to ensure your skills and responsibilities can be carried out by a group or team of people. Can you coach a group or team of people to share your skills and working tasks? Yes, this is a part of what is also known as Business Continuity Planning.

As I said multiple times before in several of my articles: Security is a supporting function in an organization. It is not about you or about the security team in isolation. It is about the organization. You as a security leader are there to ensure that security will support your organization to become successful.

Before you can lead or coach someone else, you need to have the capabilities to lead yourself. This is where leadership starts. It starts with you. Master self-leadership and the rest will become so much easier.

According to my belief, it is those you lead who will validate if you are a leader or not. Keep in mind, that there are different leadership styles out there and one style might not fit a certain type of team, individual, or situation. I personally think there are some clear attributes that make up a good and bad leader. In this article, I will focus on describing those good things. And if you do more of some of those things (that I will be talking more later) that fall into the “good” category, you will more likely become a leader that your team wants to follow.

Leadership starts with you. Before you are about to lead others, you need to be capable of leading yourself. And the better you do it, the better you will be capable of leading others. Trust me on this one! For many, this is yesterday’s news and nothing strange but for others, this is sort of an eye-opener. And to become a leader, to build yourself up to a leader the absolute first step to take is to choose to be a leader. If you do not make this choice, to be a leader, what are you going to build upon? Leaders are not born. They are to some extent built from the moment one chooses to become a leader. And the choice is first and foremost made by you, intentionally or unintentionally.

“As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person I should try to change is me.”

John C. Maxvell

Some people do not see themself as leaders but they take on the role naturally. And this is what I mean by these people making an unintentional choice to become “a leader”. They do the work as a leader and people are willing to follow these persons. You might have chosen not to be a leader but those around you choose to follow you. In this case, you are a leader. Some call this category of leaders “informal leaders”. They have not been appointed or given a certain role but instead, demonstrate attributes that make others follow him/her. I think that this form of leadership is one of the purest as this shows the power of true leadership. It is not about a title, role, degree, certificate, or diploma. It is about how you make others feel who are around you.

And do not mix things up. A manager and leader at not the same but it can go hand in hand. And you can be a leader without being a manager. And you can be a manager without being a leader. It is up to you which type you want to be, a manager or a leader. Or the combo.

So why do we promote the best technically skilled people into leadership positions? I think this is a good question that we as security people need to ask ourselves. I think there are a couple of reasons for it. One of them is that most cybersecurity education and programs are mainly focused on technical skills and knowledge. And this is of course how it should be as the field in itself is very technical. Now in later days, there is an increased amount of leadership training within most education and programs, which I really like to see.

Another reason why this phenomenon is taking place is because of that security to some extent stems from a technical background with a high ingredient of IT. Security and IT are not the same thing as some people tend to think. They are two different disciplines but with some natural overlaps as both for example have as purpose to support an organization to become successful (in their own ways).

And then of course, if the culture in an organization promotes technical skills rather than leadership skills this will for sure add to the equation. An organization gets the type of leadership it honors. If technical skills are what defines “good leadership” in an organization, that is the way to go. However, I do not think this is a scalable or sustainable way how to create successful organizations. This is my belief though. And at the same time, I think that being a security leader you need to have a technical understanding. Leading a team or yourself in an area that is, to a very high degree, dependent on technology will become much easier if you have a technical understanding. This is though how I see it and I am fine with that everyone does not agree. But take a look at the conceptual model above I have created. I think it demonstrates in a pretty good way what I mean.

So, how do you become that exceptional security leader that others want to follow and that creates new leaders? The million-dollar question. And the starting point is (as I said before):

It starts with you and within you.

If you are not capable of leading yourself you will not be capable of leading other individuals, teams, and leaders. If you are not able to lead yourself in a self-developing progressive direction you will not be able to lead others around you and make them grow.

WHAT TO DO?

The stuff I have been writing about this far is about “Self-leadership”, also known as “Personal leadership”. The same thing but named a bit differently.

What does self/personal leadership come down to and what skills do you need? In my own book of knowledge, personal leadership skills comes down to:

• Vision – you need to be capable of creating a vision for yourself. A long-term goal that you have crafted which is formed around the type of leader you want to become towards yourself. It is you who decide and create this vision for you and not someone else. If you can not create a vision for yourself and lead yourself towards that vision, how will you be able to do so for an individual or team that you lead?

• Self-reflection – you need to be capable of self-reflecting. You need to be able to tap into yourself, coach, and guide yourself towards your vision. If you can self-reflect you will be able to find out what you need to do to become that leader you are striving for. Do you for example need to show yourself some more love, compassion, and strength in your mental resilience? Or maybe get better at setting goals, deadlines, and planning? If you can’t self-reflect, the actions that you need to take will be very hard to identify. I would say, impossible.

• Ownership – you need to take absolute ownership of your own shit and actions. Your leadership development journey is about you and it’s you who must own the outcome. Take accountability and own every single piece of it. It is up to you. It starts with you and ends with you. If you do not want to take ownership or own the outcome, no one else will. And if you want to become the leader, in alignment with your vision, you must own the outcome.

• Courage – you will need to have the courage to do those things that you find uncomfortable. To grow and to do so in a continuum you must show braveness towards yourself. If you are afraid of, for example dealing with your past or negative self-thoughts, and choose to not do so these things will hinder your leadership development. No one else can be brave and go through your mental or physical struggles. This is something you in the end must do on your own. Be brave and have the courage to do so.

• Adaptability – you need to be able to adapt to reality as it changes. Our lives are full of surprises and un-calculated situations. You cannot plan for everything. Life and reality is not perfect. You will face situations that will test you from time to time. This will happen in your work life and private life. Make yourself comfortable to adapt to the situation that takes place. Do not try to change the world around you. Instead, try to adapt to the reality around you. This might mean that you find a certain situation very uncomfortable or stressful and you have done everything in you power to adapt. The next step, to adapt, might be to cut yourself loose and get out of the situation. This is not giving up. This is about taking ownership of yourself and your well-being. And there is a difference between “running away” and being “realistic”. You adapted to your reality and did what was necessary for you.

Now you might ask: are these things everything that you need to learn and be capable of? Definitely not. But this makes up a very good starting point. And if you start with these things, your foundational personal leadership skills are built on solid ground. Many of these skills are also closely related to the thing called emotional intelligence, i.e. your capability to manage and understand your own emotions, inner voice, thoughts, thinking, and those you lead.

EPILOGUE

Leadership is not about definite answers or absolute figures. It is about humans. And each human has his/her own starting point and configuration, I.e. skillset, knowledge, experiences, background, philosophy, and so forth. Telling a person to just do a little bit of this and that will not make the person a leader. That is not how you coach, guide, or lead someone or yourself.

The journey of becoming a leader is something each person needs to do on their own. And especially when it comes to self/personal leadership. It is you who need to develop your own leadership skills. Your leadership coach or mentor, who is there to guide and coach you can only show you the way but it is you who need to go the way. You need to walk that path toward your vision face the obstacles and figure things out. Is it easy? Definitely not. Will it be worth it? Absolutely!

Personal leadership is about developing your mindset and becoming able to direct your actions to reach your desired goals. These goals can take place in your working and/or private life.

Leadership starts with you. And it is you who decide and define the leader that you want to be, this is up to you. You are the owner of your own vision. No one can or should be taking this away from you.

If you do not know yourself, how your mind works, or how you operate yourself you will not be able to fully unleash your own superpowers. Sounds like hippy shit, but this is kind of the core essence of leadership. If you do not know or understand how to unlock your own full potential, how will you be able to coach someone else or a team to do it?

You decide what form and type of leader you want to become towards yourself. This task is not for someone else to decide on. You are the owner of defining, deciding, developing, and making sure you become that form of leader you want to become.

I encourage you to take a couple of minutes and write down if you haven’t already done it, what form of a leader you want to become. What do you define as a good leader? This is the first exercise from where actions can be taken to enable the trajectory towards becoming a leader. The type of leader you want to become. Make a vision. Self-reflect. Have courage. Take ownership. And adapt along your own leadership journey.

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