Much of SecurityWeek’s CISO Conversations this series discusses how to be a leader. Here we start with a slight variation: how do you become a leader?
The CISO is the ultimate cybersecurity leader. He or she must lead the security team into battle against the stronger forces of cyber criminals and advanced threat actors; must lead the company workforce into a better understanding of cybersecurity and good security habits; and must guide the board into doing the right things.
This begs a fundamental question: what makes a good leader – is a good leader born or bred? That’s one of the questions we asked our two CISOs – Jennifer Watson of Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Mary Haigh of BAE Systems – for this issue of CISO Conversations dealing with the defense sector.
Jennifer and Mary are not the first women CISOs in the series, but this is the first time that both CISOs are women. It is worth noting that while more young women are breaking into technology careers, there is a greater ratio of women CISOs than women security engineers.
That leaves a massive elephant in the room – a question that I have often asked but never received a satisfactory answer. The intellectual difference between men and women is nil. Does this suggest that there may be something in the psyche or psycho/emotional make-up of women that makes them particularly suited to modern leadership roles?
What makes a good leader?
Raytheon’s Watson believes that true leadership evolves – or perhaps emerges – through a combination of experience and empathy. “I started as a hands-on-the-keyboard kind of person, coming up through the ranks and then moved slowly to the security world, and leadership.” This provides the background from which l ..
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