CSOs speak out on today's leadership challenges

What leadership issues are challenging and motivating today’s senior security executives? I put that question out to a “brain trust” of chief security officers, VPs of security, and security directors across several verticals, sizes, geographies, and reporting structures.

The following represent some of the most pertinent leadership issues identified by your peers today.

Downsizing and Restructuring

“Many organizations are experiencing mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructuring, reductions in workforce and layoffs — the latter two items affecting both the general employee population and security staff. There needs to be constant preparation regarding yourself and your program for future downsizing and optimizing what you currently have to align with where the business and the economy (or other external factors) is going. This should not be a knee-jerk reaction to the circumstances. It must be an ongoing awareness and execution of your planning. I emphasize ‘planning’ as that is far more useful than any plan because nothing ever goes according to your plan.”

— Roy Lemons, CSO, International Paper

Persistent Law Enforcement Mentality

“Looking across our industry, we continue to see antiquated security leadership. Even after talking about this for years, the corporate police mentality and belief in the ‘cost center principle’ still trumps the view of security as a strategic business partner, competitive advantage, growth driver, and culture creator. Job descriptions for senior-level positions still list law enforcement experience as prerequisites. It’s time we move away from sourcing CSO positions from federal agencies and police departments and begin to diversity our function and skillsets.”

— Steven Antoine, Vice President of Global Security, Pepsico

Recognition and Respect from the C Suite

“My biggest challenge here has consistently been trying to get the C-Suite to take security and safety seriously. The lack of a culture of accountability makes it close to impossible to get compliance with existing protocols and best practices. It is the ages-old conundrum that security and convenience often collide.”

— Lori Flor, Director of Safety and Security, University of California San Diego

Being Both Global and Local

“How can we best prepare our physical security teams for the plethora of risks that cascade to our local level from international conflicts, natural disasters, infrastructure attacks and outages, potential resource scarcities etc., while still managing regular security responsibilities in access control, medical assistance, threat assessment, technology maintenance, and so forth? We need to prepare for global situations that impact local security that will not improve in the near future. This challenge requires teams with members that have developed wide knowledge, and perhaps creating larger teams during a time when many organizations are facing fiscal constraints. Hiring a mix of experience levels from a wide scope of industries is integral, since it creates diversity in thought and a wider span of experience dealing with complex issues.”

— Danielle Weddepohl, multidisciplinary senior security executive

Technology and Talent

“Between my work as a security executive and as an executive coach, I have the opportunity to talk to many security professionals. Acquiring the right talent is almost a universal challenge. The pace of change in technology and emerging threats call for more highly skilled (and more expensive) front-line security professionals. As for the technology itself, it offers the opportunity to make us more effective and efficient at the same time, if used correctly by properly trained staff. The potential — such as to parse vast amounts of data to uncover threats — is incredible.”

— Scott R. Wolford, Director of Security, Grandview Yard, Nationwide; Owner, Beyond the Blue Professional Coaching

It’s clear that today’s security executives are struggling with both long-term leadership issues (influence and respect, old leadership models, staffing, etc.) and newer challenges (complexity of tech, global issues having local repercussions, for example).

But opportunities present themselves as well, such as when local staff must deal with global issues. Weddepohl notes that it may be wise to promote employment opportunities where potential candidates speak the language of your patrons and understand cultural nuances. Or organizations can draw candidates from other industries and consider altering traditional job and educational requirements to expand the talent pool, bringing in new experiences and perspectives.

“Diversity and wide understanding will help prepare our organizations for issues that cascade from global events, and heighten our ability to best serve customers,” Weddepohl says.