How To Be A Better Manager, Part 3: Discover Your Strengths *And* Your Limitations

Do you want to be a better manager?

Here is the third piece of advice in an occasional series. Remember, these processes are usually free and have high ROI. Ready? OK:

Now discover your strengths and limitations.

An inspection is not the time to be surprised, especially when you think something should be there and it's not. 

Ask yourself, then: what do you expect when you review your logs, check your patches, or assess your system's functions? 

Or, on the behavioral side, what about when you assess your candidates, review employee performance, or assess your team culture?

If you have the same look as Mr. Alfozan in the picture above, you are like most managers and you probably have a talent issue -- both theirs and yours.

Let's inspect the inspector.

The four pillars of a successful cybersecurity team are hire for talent, build structure, create engagement, develop your people. Get those right and you're invincible. But too often managers are not invincible, despite knowing better. Why is that?

It is very easy to get comfortable as a manager because you have a team that, from your perspective, knows what they need to do and if they're not doing it it's a "them issue" not a "me issue." However in reality if you do not inspect your four pillars and just coast, you get a nasty jolt that what you thought was there -- loyalty? flexibility? satisfaction? performance? -- is missing. And unlike electricity, that jolt will hit you not immediately but when you most need the team to perform.

You don't want to look like Mr. Alfozan when that jolt happens in front of your boss.

Let's be candid. If you were not, yourself, hired for talent, that is you got into management for any sort of reason (a few pennies more per hour, it was your turn, you were in the same sorority, etc.), then you likely have challenges with the four pillars. Seen that, been there. 

About 50% of managers fail, after all.

What to do?

Ultimately, you need to know what your strengths and limitations are. This knowledge needs to come from a structured assessment such as a '360' or a Pythia Cyber Cybersecurity Talent Stack Assessment. 

Should you, after the assessment, just go with your strengths and ignore your weaknesses? 

Here's an insider tip: you will succeed using your strengths, *AND* you will fail if you do not mitigate your weaknesses.

That is, you need to do both.

This is not the time to cheap out and think warm thoughts based on personality quizzes likening you to a red panda. You need to know your strengths, and you need to know your limitations, and you need to act on both.

If the assessment doesn't challenge you to change then it's worthless.

Ask us how you can a better leader.

(image credit: US Dept of Justice)