Servant Leadership in Information Security: A Blog Series

Introduction to the Series

Welcome to this blog series entitled Servant Leadership in Information Security. Over the course of the next 15 blog posts, I am going to take you on a journey to introduce you to servant leadership and basic information security concepts. I will discuss integrating servant leadership into information security, then I will reinforce key principles of servant leadership in information security. I will explore practical applications and case studies of leaders using servant leadership principles, and challenges and solutions. I will discuss how to measure success and implement continual improvement. Finally, I will look to the future of servant leadership in information security, provide additional resources, and recap the entire series.

Here is a roadmap of the series:

• Blog 1: Overview of Servant Leadership (this post)
• Blog 2: Basics of Information Security
• Blog 3: The Intersection of Servant Leadership and Information Security
• Blog 4: Key Principles – Empathy and Listening
• Blog 5: Key Principles – Healing and Building Community
• Blog 6: Key Principles – Awareness and Foresight
• Blog 7: Key Principles – Stewardship and Commitment to Growth
• Blog 8: Practical Applications – Implementing Servant Leadership in Security Teams
• Blog 9: Case Studies – Case Studies of Servant Leadership in Information Security
• Blog 10: Overcoming Challenges in Adopting Servant Leadership
• Blog 11: Measuring the Impact of Servant Leadership on Security
• Blog 12: The Future of Servant Leadership in Information Security
• Blog 13: Resources for Aspiring Servant Leaders in Information Security
• Blog 14: Recap and Takeaways from the Series
• Blog 15: Q&A and Reader Engagement

Servant Leadership is a leadership style that prioritizes the health and welfare of the employee over company or organizational goals. Whereas traditional leadership focuses on the success of the organization, Servant Leadership places the employee’s welfare ahead of direct company success. This allows the employee to grow within the organization through a commitment and engagement with stakeholders.

Advocates of Servant Leadership believe that by improving the emotional health of its employees that the conditions that form as a result will result in greater organizational success. This is accomplished through a strengthened trust, reinforced accountability, and inclusion in the workplace. The theory further suggests that when an employee feels safe and welcomed at work, the effect of the boost will reach others as well, creating an organic culture based on positive traits, not negative ones.

Within information security, the importance of concepts of Servant Leadership are magnified even more than other leadership styles due to the cynicism that has a tendency to run rampant in the department. You may have had that manager(s) that criticized your every move following an incident response engagement as a Monday morning quarterback. Perhaps those same manager(s) stole credit for a project that you delivered. Regardless of the circumstances, it is disheartening to put effort towards your employment when there is an absence of trust, accountability, integrity, and/or growth.

In this blog series, I am going to explain why I believe that Servant Leadership is the model to strive for when dealing with information security teams and organizations.

Understanding Servant Leadership In Context

During the 1970s, Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term Servant Leadership in his essay, “The Servant as Leader.” In the essay, Greenleaf explains:

“The Servant Leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible”.

Greenleaf explained his theory of Servant Leadership in vague terms, leaving others to continue the refinement of the definition of the concept. However, in its current form, Servant Leadership revolves around eleven core characteristics that a leader needs to have to be impactful:

• Empathy
• Active Listening
• Healing
• Awareness
• Persuasion
• Conceptualization
• Foresight
• Stewardship
• Growth
• Ability to build a community
• Having a calling

Empathy is the ability to be aware and understand how others feel. Sometimes in traditional leadership, managers and employees are calloused to anything that is not occurring directly in front of them at that moment in time. In servant leadership, the leader assumes good intentions from the employee and leverages compassion in coaching to correct any deficiencies in judgement or action. Empathy does not imply agreement. One can be empathetic and still disagree on the topic with the employee. Demonstrating empathy shows that you care enough to give somebody else the same level of respect and attention that they do.

Active Listening is “the process of attending carefully to what a speaker is saying, involving such techniques as accurately paraphrasing the speaker’s remarks.” Active listening is a learned skill–and it is not natural for humans to master. We are constantly distracted by our own response during a conversation to effectively process what the other person(s) are saying. Furthermore, our impulses are to place a premium on things like cell phones, tablets, and the world around us instead of tending to the conversation that is occurring.

Healing is the ability of being able to resolve conflicts and issues that are affecting, or have the potential to affect, the team and organization at large. As a servant leader, one of the responsibilities is to step in and participate in the emotional well-being of one’s employees and to foster a healthy workplace. One must be in concert with signs of emotional distress, moodiness, or stress in all of one’s employees.

Awareness is a challenging concept to grasp in Servant Leadership because it takes on two divergent perspectives:

• Internal Awareness, or awareness of oneself
• External Awareness, or awareness of the problems or task that needs to be done

Performing introspection on oneself is the logical start of having internal awareness. As Larry Spears, author of Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders notes:

“General awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant-leader. Awareness helps one in understanding issues involving ethics, power, and values. It lends itself to being able to view most situations from a more integrated, holistic position.”

By uncovering basic questions surrounding our world views and assumptions in a somewhat fluid state, the servant leader can recognize a larger area and detect the gaps and see things for more than face value. Once the servant leader is self-aware, he or she can more easily expand past themselves and see the opportunities and brokenness in others. This leads to a desire to heal, and then act. The act of seeing things that are occuring outside of oneself is indicative of having external awareness.

Servant leaders do not rely upon positional authority in their decision making processes. Rather, servant leaders leverage persuasion and seek to convince others. This is a very distinct break from traditional authoritarian models of leadership. As such, the servant leader is very effective at building consensus within groups.

Conceptualization is a characteristic of servant leadership that involves thinking beyond the day-to-day and thinking big with audacious goals. Possessing this characteristic helps the servant leader:

• Set a vision: Conceptualization can help servant leaders set a vision for themselves, their team, or their organization.
• Consider possibilities: Conceptualization can help servant leaders consider possibilities that are obtainable in the near future.
• Benefit People: Conceptualization can help servant leaders arrive at outcomes that benefit as many people as possible.
• Navigate emotions: Conceptualization can help servant leaders proactively navigate positive and negative emotional attractors (PEA and NEA).
• Recognize trends: Conceptualization can help servant leaders recognize trends.
• Outline a process: Conceptualization can help servant leaders outline a process for dealing with broken expectations.
• Equip others: Conceptualization can help servant leaders equip others to make corporate goals a reality. 

Foresight is a positive leadership characteristic that allows servant leaders to apply past lessons, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision in the future. It is closely related to conceptualization and is rooted in intuition. It can help the servant leader develop long-term plans and big-picture goals that benefit everyone in the end.

Stewardship is a guiding principle of servant leadership that involves working towards the greater good and serving the needs of others. It involves a commitment to remain true to the trust invested.

Growth is a necessary component of servant leadership as having a growth mindset will result in placing the servant leader’s energy into learning opportunities instead of worrying about things that are not within their control. Furthermore, research indicates that those that approach situations with a growth mindset are more committed to the organization, have the confidence to empower others, and receive greater support from others in the organization.

Servant leaders need to possess the ability to build a community. Because persuasion is the preferred method of achieving buy-in on a particular initiative, the servant leader relies on trust and community to ensure that all followers are rowing in the same direction.

A calling to servant leadership is a natural desire to serve others and make a difference in their lives.  This characteristic is deeply rooted and value-based, and cannot be taught.  Servant leaders are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of others, and their greatest desire is to see others achieve their best, even if it means sacrificing their own agenda.

With the characteristics of servant leadership defined and out of the way, we can begin to dive deep into the reasons why servant leadership should be the preferred leadership style in information security organizations.