Be A Leader, Not A Boss

Here at Pythia Cyber we focus on what makes a good leader of technologists because that is a necessary (but not sufficient!) requirement for being a good cybersecurity chief.

We have talked about being technically credible and about being open to change without blindly chasing every new thing. Today we are on a different topic: the difference between being a leader and being a boss. 

Recently I had an unpleasant reminder of the difference between bossing and leading. A colleague veered wildly out of the Leadership Lane and into Boss Alley. Why? Because they could. How? they got upset and then let their emotions take the wheel. Their position in the C Suite meant that they could get away with this bad behavior and that was apparently good enough for them. When they calmed down, they calmly informed us that this was how they handles stress. So I guess we all have to just accept this behavior because they're the boss.

What is the difference between bosses and leaders? You follow leaders and you obey bosses. A leader sets a goal and keeps the team on task. A boss gives orders and little else. A leader is a resource when you hit a roadblock. A boss is someone from whom you are tempted to conceal bad news. A leader's decisions and actions are usually in service of the goal. A boss does whatever they do because they can, because they are the boss and you are not. A leader knows that they don't win unless everybody wins. A boss takes credit for success and doles out blame for failure.

This distinction between leader and boss is meaningful in every area of the organization, but it is very meaningful in the technology area. This is because, in theory, there is always a right answer and a wrong answer. That is a bit of an illusion--there is a real element of value judgement in many technology decisions--but there is enough truth to it that many bosses justify being bosses instead of leaders. They think that there is a right answer and that they always have that right answer. So other people's feelings and objections are not really important, compared to the objective truth.

This faintly plausible idea--that there is always a clearly correct answer--means that someone can delude themselves that heading up a technology group doesn't require the ability to inspire, to support or to encourage debate. 

No one is a leader all the time and even diehard bosses accidentally inspire sometimes. But most of us have a clear pattern that we follow; too few of us in the technology domain aspire to lead and too many of us are happy to boss other people around.

And in cybersecurity, where risk management forces practicality to meet policy, it is critical that your leaders lead: that they work together to do the best that can be done in your particular situation with your given resources. In cybersecurity there is always more to do than can be done. Values judgements are critical to success. Imperiousness won't foster the cooperation that you need. You need to neither grovel nor command: you need to collaborate. You need to leader your team and work well with other leaders. You need to be more than a boss.

Need help being more of a leader in this domain, or finding and retaining a leader? Contact us, we can help.