TaoSecurity Blog

I've noticed coverage of "leadership" in IT magazines recently, but I'm not comfortable with the approach they take. For example, this editorial in CIO Magazine titled Leadership Isn't a Fairy Tale After All has "Personal attention and hands-on involvement can make good IT managers great IT leaders" as the subtitle. The text then says: Our story spells out detailed tactics and practical ideas that CIOs can use to turn good IT managers into potentially great IT leaders... You’ll notice a strong thread of personal attention and hands-on involvement from the very top at the companies developing a strong bench of future leaders. At REDACTED, for example, the CEO walks the walk on one-to-one leadership development by holding regular career conversations with his senior leadership team. His CIO, REDACTED, then makes sure that style of direct communication flows downward to the IT team. “If you don’t take time to talk to people about their professional dev...

This post is outside the digital security realm, but I know a lot of my readers are team members and team leaders in their technical shops. I thought it might be useful to share a few thoughts on leadership. I don't claim to be the world's best leader but I've been thinking about the topic recently. I've participated in a lot of "leadership training" over the years, in and out of classrooms. A few examples: I've attended classes at GE's Crotonville , earned a master's degree from Harvard Kennedy School (supposed home to future political leaders), led a flight in the AFCERT, served as a cadet flight commander at USAFA , and captained my high school track team. As the years have progressed I find fewer of these experiences, especially formal training, to be novel or particularly helpful. For example, I believe the approaches I brought to my USAFA experience had less to do with USAFA and more to do with what I already knew. Tonight I decided to...