Lasting Presence: How to Build Status and Influence as a Security Practitioner
We’ve all been there. You’re scrolling on LinkedIn and between the new certification updates and the latest work trip post, you see it—a brutally funny work-related post.
For Alison Fragale, psychologist and keynote speaker at the 2026 Security LeadHER conference this week in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that post was by Lauren Howard on what women really want: equal pay, respect, and pockets.
Fragale said that the post stood out not just because she also wants pockets in her work attire, but because of how it ranked money, a form of power, versus respect, a form of status.
Typically, people think that the more money someone has, the more authority and influence he or she has, too. But Fragale’s research shows that is not always the case. A lot of the time, status matters more because those who have it receive more resources and have greater influence on those around them.
“When we don’t have status, it makes that power harder to achieve,” she said. “It makes power we achieve a lot more difficult and unpleasant to use.”
Fragale and other speakers provided nearly 500 Security LeadHER attendees with practical tools and techniques to gain and maintain their status. For women, this is particularly important because while they might advance up the career ladder to higher roles with greater corporate power, they often note lingering status issues that make them more likely to leave those roles.
“People who are low-status power holders aren’t treated very well by the people around them,” Fragale said. These individuals are often cut out of conversations with other key stakeholders and separated from information flows because they are not perceived as having status.
While this dynamic can be personally frustrating, it can be particularly damaging for security practitioners because they might lack awareness of business conditions, emerging threats, and connections to stakeholders that could help them mitigate organizational risk.
So, how do you build your status? Sadly, there are no shortcuts on this journey. But there are concrete steps that people can take to build their status over time by demonstrating that they are both competent and caring.
Craft an Impactful, Accurate Personal Narrative
One of the first actions you can take is to start telling a strong story about yourself. Fragale learned about this approach during a stint as a consultant with McKinsey. She was assigned to work with a man at the company that everyone had glowing reviews about and said was a rising star, despite not actually having worked with him. Over the course of their assignment, Fragale soon learned that he was not as talented as the office lore made him out to be—he had actually spun most of the stories himself.
“If talking about yourself can be so beneficial for someone who has no underlying talent, imagine how useful it would be if you actually had talent?” Fragale joked.
To craft a strong story, avoid hiding your success, using self-deprecating humor, and rejecting compliments, Fragale recommended. You are considered the expert on yourself, so when you say negative things about yourself, people might laugh, but they will also take that information at face value.
But how do you share a positive story about yourself without sounding like you’re bragging?
Fragale suggested using a dual promotion technique: Promote a personal success while also thanking a person who played a role in making that success possible. For example, share that you were selected to speak at a conference while also thanking your colleague who helped you draft your session pitch or your spouse who helped you practice your remarks. People who take this approach are seen as both competent and caring—two skill sets that are associated with status.
“You can use this on social media, but also for end-of-project or end-of-month emails,” Fragale said. “By sharing the spotlight, we don’t have to run from the spotlight.”
Small Actions, Big Effects
To prepare for retirement, many of us set small amounts of money aside over decades to create a large post-work revenue stream. People can take the same approach to building and managing status.
Fragale recommended thinking about something you are uniquely good at, enjoy doing, and that could help others. For example, she said in her keynote, think of a man who reads a lot of nonfiction for pleasure and takes notes to keep himself engaged in the books. Many of his colleagues told him that they were too busy outside of work to dedicate significant time to reading, so he offered to share his notes with them.
That small suggestion turned into a vast network, with the man sharing his notes and book recommendations not just with his colleagues, but friends in his neighborhood and connections across his industry—increasing his status.
Another small action with big effect is offering to make an introduction between two people in your network, either in person or by email. This one-time interaction can have big ripple effects if the introduction becomes meaningful—such as introducing a security manager who’s hiring to the person they ultimately select for the role. The introduction demonstrates that you, as the connector, have value.
Those connections can grow significantly, too. Kimberly Fearno, regional vice president at Convergint, said in a panel discussion that she often gets requests for mentorship or sponsorship. Sometimes, she doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on that role for someone. So, to bridge the gap, she helped create smaller groups for women in the security industry to become allies for each other and to facilitate mentorship and sponsorship opportunities that way.
By sharing the spotlight, we don’t have to run from the spotlight.
Build Your Team
Another way to build your status is by building your “army of other promoters,” Fragale said. This means creating a group of people who talk about you positively when you’re not in the room.
Start by making an effort to meet more people. “People can’t talk you up if they don’t know you exist,” said Fragale, who recommended building connections through formal events as well as chance interactions, such as at the airport bar while waiting for a flight.
Other times, these intros can come from a cold call. Kara Brennion, product analyst, product security at Amgen, said in a Security LeadHER session that when she was in college, she told her professor she was interested in a career in pharmaceuticals. The professor suggested she call a CSO who was considered the best in the industry, so Brennion did.
“That’s how I found a mentor—a sponsor, someone when I’m not in that room, they’re putting me up for jobs and saying my name when I’m not there,” Brennion explained.
Rachael Paskvan, founder of Femme Force and chair of the ASIS International Women in Security Community, has also taken a bold approach to building her network.
At the conference, she spoke about being laid off from her executive protection role at Meta in 2025 and laid off again a short time later. When she was looking for new roles, she would search on LinkedIn for women who worked at a company she was interested in and who might also be connected to the Women in Security group. Then Paskvan would message them for a coffee chat. She went to 82 different chats, which helped lead to new job offers within eight weeks of each layoff.
“The girlies show up for the girlies,” Paskvan said.
This year's Security LeadHER saw a 10 percent increase in attendance over 2025, underscoring the event's growing momentum and influence. (Photo by Anthologie for SIA and Security LeadHER)
Fragale also recommended identifying specific people in your network and asking them to promote you. This might sound intimidating, but people who respect you will want to help you, she said.
One example she gave was of a woman who wanted to attend a specific conference to connect with key people in her industry. Her company chose to send her boss instead, so she wrote him a list of people who would likely be at the event and asked him to talk to them about her and a recent work project that she had completed. Her boss was onboard and sent her daily updates of on how he was progressing through the list to find the people and talk about her work—building her status and his own.
Additionally, Fragale encouraged becoming an “evangelical talker-upper of the people around you.” Respecting and promoting others whom you work with even when they aren’t in the room will circle back to them, helping them achieve their goals and also demonstrating that you are a caring and competent person.
She also suggested that when you are thinking something kind about someone, share that in some fashion. Send that person a text message, post about them in a work chat, or spread the good thought on social media.
“One of the most strategic things we can do for ourselves is one of the biggest things we can do for others, which is when you see great people around you doing great things, try to put that out into the world,” Fragale said.
Security LeadHER is presented by ASIS International and the Security Industry Association. The event, now in its fourth year, is dedicated to the advancement of women in the global security industry.
Megan Gates is senior editor for Security Management. One of her favorite parts of attending Security LeadHER was hearing from so many women about the mentors and sponsors who have made a difference in their career trajectory and what they’re doing to pay that support forward to others. Connect with her via LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
