CISO Tradecraft® #92 - Updating the Executive Leadership Team on Cyber
Show Notes
Hello, and welcome to another episode of CISO Tradecraft -- the podcast that provides you with the information, knowledge, and wisdom to be a more effective cyber security leader. My name is G. Mark Hardy, and today we're going to offer tips and tools for briefing your executive leadership team, including the four major topics that you need to cover. As always, please follow us on LinkedIn, and make sure you subscribe so you can always get the latest updates.
Imagine you have been in your role as the Chief Information Security Officer for a while and it is now time to perform your annual brief to the Executive Leadership Team. What should you talk about? How do you give high level strategic presentations in a way that provides value to executives like the CEO, the CIO, the CFO, and the Chief Legal Officer?
- Story about Kim Jones at Vantiv – things have changed
Let's first talk about how you make someone satisfied -- in this case your executives.
Fredrick Herzberg (1923-2000) introduced Motivator-Hygiene theory, which was somewhat like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but focused more on work, not life in general.
What a hygiene factor basically means is people will be dissatisfied if something is NOT there but won't be motivated if that thing IS there, e.g., toilet paper in employee bathroom.
Or, said more concisely, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites. The opposite of Satisfaction is No Satisfaction. The opposite of Dissatisfaction is No Dissatisfaction.
According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are "separate and distinct from those that lead to job dissatisfaction."
For example, if you have a hostile work environment, giving someone a promotion will not make him or her satisfied.
So, what makes someone satisfied or dissatisfied?
Factors for Satisfaction- Achievement
- Recognition
- The work itself
- Responsibility
- Advancement
- Growth
- Company policies
- Supervision
- Relationship with supervisor and peers
- Work conditions
- Salary
- Status
- Security
So, what will make a board member satisfied? Today, cyber security IS a board-level concern. In the past, IT really was only an issue if something didn't work right – a hygiene problem. If we learn from Herzberg, we may not be able to make the board satisfied with the state of IT security, but we can try to ensure they are not dissatisfied. Hopefully you now have context for what might otherwise be considered splitting hairs on terminology – essentially, we want our executive audience to not think negatively of your IT security program and how you lead it.
Remember, boards of directors generally come from a non-IT backgrounds . According to the 2021 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index, of the nearly 500 independent directors who joined S&P 500 boards in 2021, less than 4% have experience leading cybersecurity, IT, software engineering, or data analytics teams. And that 4% is mostly confined to tech-centric companies or businesses facing regulatory scrutiny.
So, there is essentially a mismatch between a board member's background and a CISO's background. That extends to your choice of language and terminology as well. Never go geeky with your executives – unless you have the rare situation where your entire leadership team are all IT savvy. Otherwise, you will tune them out by talking about bits and bytes and packets and statistics.
Instead, communicate by telling stories – show how other companies in similar industries have encountered security issues and what they did about them (either successfully or unsuccessfully). Show how your cybersecurity initiatives and efforts reduce multiple forms of