Lessons are best learned when we don’t expect them. When someone proselytizes us or pontificates, our defenses go up. Therefore, the best time to influence someone is when their guard is down.
Both artificial intelligence (AI) and emotional intelligence (EI) have critical roles to play in security. But two recent reports accentuate the challenge of leadership that tethers technology to humanity.
A couple of months ago, I described in this column how security professionals could unify a divided country. I chose a mask as a symbol of that cohesiveness. But that thin piece of fabric worn around the mouth and nose can also be a gag — a barrier that distances leaders and stifles communication.
A reverend. An FBI Director. A Fortune 1000 CEO. A British Prime Minister. Four individuals representing widely different aspects of life: spirituality, law and order, business, politics.
How did we get here? Long, unstable fault lines in the bedrock that undergirds U.S. society have become active, sending seismic waves that have shaken the social contract. Citizens can’t agree on basic facts. People question whether COVID-19 is real amid shifting medical advice and conflicting data on case and death rates. The footing keeps getting less stable. Economic freefall. Surging unemployment. White supremacists, fascists and anarchists boldly emerging from the shadows. Loss of faith in law enforcement by swaths of the populace after black citizens perished in police custody. Rampant misinformation campaigns by anonymous groups and nations. The result is a bitterly split populace that has retreated to their respective echo chambers.
After 14 years of finding last-minute goalies, securing locker room doors, and trying to parcel out equal ice time to the skaters, I recently shed the captain’s “C” from the jersey of my recreational hockey team
Sure, Greek mythology begins with Zeus, Poseidon and Hades divvying up the universe in a game of dice. But they never employed risk management as a methodology to take the future into their own hands. How can security professionals best develop a risk mindset based on probability and rigor rather than intuition and emotion?
Background checks represent a moment in time, but continuous monitoring that listens to a candidate's data over time, looking and identifying changes in their background to mitigate risk is the future.
There's a special place for people whose jobs don't require tremendous sacrifices but insert themselves into the fray. Many of them are security professionals.
"No one knows." We keep hearing that phrase. But, it's up to security professionals, healthcare workers and public safety officers to truly inhabit many leadership titles during COVID-19.
