Developing Leadership w/ Gary Hayslip

Today, host and CISO Allan Alford interviews friend and fellow CISO Gary Hayslip. Besides being a brilliant business leader, Gary is an author, mentor, and one of the best all-around humans Allan knows!

To start the conversation, Allan asks Gary to share about himself and his background in cybersecurity. While he had a natural interest in computers and technology more generally, Gary’s formal entrance to the cybersecurity field came during his time in the military. He developed a love for security, and as he’s climbed within the industry in the years after his military service, he’s also developed a strong network as a colleague and mentor. Allan tapped into this shared community through one of its most-used platforms, LinkedIn, to find out what others in the field would most like to learn from Gary.

The first questions deal with topics of leadership and training, and Gary explains his own practices of educating himself and his team. In his own life, he is committed to maintaining up-to-date knowledge of his rapidly changing field through research and reading; such knowledge is necessary if Gary is to lead as effectively as he can. Gary also provides opportunities for his staff to receive continuing education, and he does not worry that he might train employees beyond their roles. Rather, he embraces the privilege of partnering with his staff to see them succeed on their career paths.

There is a lot that goes into Gary’s practice of crafting and leading a team, and the COVID-19 pandemic has caused him to make some coaching changes. One-on-one meetings and conversations about family are more frequent, but the emphasis on building team trust and leading team members to own the business strategy remain constant. Gary assigns team members to take the lead on and complete briefings for different aspects of the strategy, and also expects them to back each other up.

This practice not only fosters ownership of business processes and development of employee skills, but also shapes the kind of culture Gary insists his team have. He requires team members to possess certain soft skills, be people of honesty who take personal responsibility, and be comfortable in team and group contexts. Gary tries to care for his workers by taking harder hours on himself than he expects them to work, but as the conversation wraps up, he explains that he is mainly motivated in his work by love for the community and people in the field!

Key Takeaways
0:21 - Host Allan Alford welcomes listeners to the show and introduces Gary Hayslip.
1:08 - Allan asks Gary to share about his background.
2:08 - The first questions deal with continuing education for Gary and his team.
6:58 - How has Gary’s coaching changed because of COVID-19?
10:54 - What are Gary’s methods for helping his team take on pieces of his strategy?
17:55 - COVID-19 also raises new questions about work-life balance.
21:45 - The next question deals with how Gary develops team culture.
25:39 - What keeps Gary going in cybersecurity?

Links:
Learn more about Gary Hayslip on LinkedIn.
Follow Allan Alford on LinkedIn and Twitter
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio and The Cyber Ranch Podcast
Sponsored by our good friends at Axonius

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