James is a hands-on CISO with an incredible servant-leadership style. We discuss the importance of building and maintaining a team culture, how and why to prioritize hiring, and how to set expectations for security hiring with the rest of the business. We also talk about the importance of eliminating ghosting, employment hierarchies, and broadening one’s talent pool in the recruiting process.

Notes:

• Possibility that the talent gap consists of mid-level leadership roles. No junior pipeline to become leaders.

• Importance of curiosity in hiring

• Automated rejection emails

• HR bureaucracy & differences between hiring in security and hiring in other fields like legal

• Importance or lack thereof for degrees & certs for security hiring* 

• Importance of diversity of thought and importance of not teaching a school of thought for certifications

• Importance of hiring teams staying close to recruiters and HR when hiring and how to do it with small time investment

• How to set expectations for security hiring with the rest of the business

• Broadening the talent pool with the business in removing cert/degree requirements or going remote

• Selecting must-haves vs. nice-to-haves on job descriptions

• How narrow talent pools can be and how to broaden those pools

• Startups and wearing many hats

• Importance of hiring the right people up front

• Prioritizing hiring to save time in the long-run

• Importance of not ghosting people and the larger implications of ghosting

• Importance of outbound activity in recruiting

• James’s preference for including arguments in the interview process

• Servant leadership and employment hierarchies

• Practicing cybersecurity

• The effects of fatigue in security, burnout, and the importance of breaks 

• Preparing your teams for changes in responsibilities and staffing

• Limiting meetings in time and frequency to keep people productive

• How KPIs drive behaviors

• Importance of hiring smart people so you don’t have to micromanage people. Spend the right time up front.

• Building trust and rapport with candidates and future team members

• Knowing about employees’ lives and how that impacts management tactics day-to-day – best practices/1 on 1s

• When to make the tough decision to let someone go.

• Importance of setting expectations in recruiting process and in day-to-day management

• How to judge performance quantitatively and qualitatively, KPIs and KRI “key risk indicators”, judging alertness 

• How to improve your emotional intelligence as a manager

• Maintaining a healthy team culture

• Importance of retention