Nick Tasler recently wrote an article over at Harvard Business Review that is relevant to all cybersecurity people who are trying to make their organizations more secure. And if you’re asking people to change, that means you are trying to be a leader no matter what your job title. But do you need to be a rock star to get the job done?
Here’s the intro to the article:
Virtually every leader wishes they had the power to inspire people to change. That’s because every leader has experienced times when they have identified a change that had to be made, devised a great strategy for making it happen, but then struggled to get people moving in the new direction.
The problem is that most leaders believe that in order to inspire other people, they must exude the uncommon charisma of someone like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr., or John F. Kennedy. Those inspiring examples don’t feel especially relevant or attainable to leaders who are not trying to build the first iPhone, end racial segregation, or send someone to the moon. What if you’re just trying to change the way your people handle loans, manage a supply chain, or interact with customers?”
Or choose better passwords? Or think twice about clicking on that unexpected URL? You get the idea.
Let me tell you a dirty little secret: I was having a difficult time really understanding the point of the article until I read this synopsis by the author down in the comments:
…what the research shows is that in order to inspire people to change how they think, a decision has to be more than just “right” or “smart.” It also has to [be] unexpected or counterintuitive. Eliminating a “good” thing with lots of pros and lots of value, is unexpected, and that’s why it triggers that domino effect of inspiration in our brains.”
This new insight is encouraging for a nerd like me! What about you?
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