When we think about the many different tasks a security team must complete, many of them are challenging and time consuming, to say the least.
Logic would dictate that if the security team is of high quality and its members enjoy working with one another, tasks will be completed more efficiently and effectively.
Given this, it is interesting how little focus security professionals give to the people aspect of security.
The team is just as important, if not more important.
In this piece, I'd like to examine five reasons why focusing on people and building a team that enjoys working with one another are just as important to attaining security goals as process and technology.
When a team has several members that are not pulling their weight, many of the team members will begin to feel that other team members cannot be counted on.
This directly harms the efficiency and effectiveness of the security team.
On the other hand, when a team has significant dead weight and is not running well, top team members will not feel safe identifying and solving problems that need fixing for fear of getting blamed when something goes wrong, being seen as negative or a naysayer, and/or being sabotaged/drawing too much attention to themselves.
As in the above point, a poorly functioning team results in individuals mainly looking out for themselves as a defense mechanism.
This also harms the productivity of the security team.
Going The Extra Mile: The best security professionals I know continuously greatly exceed expectations when they are working in healthy and constructive environments.
In other words, that the team leadership understands the value they bring, even if they occasionally take a bit more time to step outside the prescribed box of tasks they typically operate in.
This most often brings huge value to the security organization.
Security organizations that do not provide a healthy and constructive environment will miss out on these benefits.
They also begin to talk one another up, which raises morale and helps management, executives, and the board see the value of the human resources that make up the security team.
Lastly, trust brings about openness, honesty, transparency, and sincerity amongst team members.
The security team that has trust amongst its team members sees huge gains from it.
While it is tempting to focus on process and technology, people are an important part of security as well.
The most efficient and effective teams have healthy and constructive cultures that encourage team members to go above and beyond the call of duty.
While creating this type of culture requires substantial investment, it results in a significant return on investment for the security organization and is extremely worthwhile.
This Cyber News was published on www.securityweek.com. Publication date: Thu, 04 Jan 2024 14:13:05 +0000