Welcome To Your New Cyberskills: Reorganizing And Reorganizations

We get it: all that organizational stuff is "soft skills" and you, cyber wiz, mastered "hard skills." Sure.

OK chief, time to meet your new cyberskillset: leading and managing the cybersecurity function during reorganization.

Organizations reorganize when their markets or customers change. Re-orgs are not "cybersecurity friendly" in some subtle ways that you should anticipate.

First, typically the reorganization is reactive, which is (or should be) contrary to how you run a cybersecurity function. External forces led to a need for the organization to change its internal structure  in order to create greater speed to market, care for customers, etc. You built a system around products or markets or users that are now changing. New users will be in a position to use the systems, maybe in ways they are not clear about. People take time to get to know new systems. That's a vulnerability.

Second, a reorganization means there is new leadership that you need to work with. Maybe you finally got into a groove with the previous boss and peers and now...time to train up a new cadre!

Third, executives might use this reorg as a pretense to bring in new tech, quite possibly a build-out of your organization's artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Are those systems secure? How do you know? Great example: HR reorganized the recruiting function, maybe reducing recruiters and adding new robots. Were you asked to do a vulnerability review? Are you staffed to do one? I'll bet not as executives thought -- why, what could go wrong with adopting an AI-based recruiting function?

Successful leadership going into, through, and coming out of reorganization is a cyberskillset that you didn't master to get your current job. Maybe you're OK just riding it out. But you can add value by identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities that were not obvious in the rush to change things up.

And remember, all that re-org will cause stress for your team. It's not just about the value you bring as a functional leader, it's about getting your people through it.

You know, the soft skill stuff.

Ask us how to help you lead your cybersecurity function for success without therapy.