In the Jungle of Trust, Resilience Begins with You
“When it comes to risk and resilience, we have failed to turn a critical eye on ourselves.”
Brian Cooke, a security executive and former Diplomatic Security Service member, told me this when helping to craft a Great Conversation in Security panel on the crisis facing security, risk, and resilience professionals. It still echoes in my mind.
It is impossible to build effective systems for risk management, for assessing vulnerability, and for building resilience if we are not building that same capacity within the people and leaders who are responsible for those systems. In the security industry, we have programs that audit an organization's ability to respond to both catastrophic security events and the most common threats, but we have yet to build that same level of resilience in the leaders and teams responsible for that response.
We can do better, but it will take an intentional investment in applying the best research in the world on organizational performance and wellness.
From Jungles to Strongholds of Trust in Security
Ask any leader in the security industry what trust has to do with the resilience of their programs, and most will say, “Everything”. Resilient systems are trusted systems, and resilient leaders are trusted leaders.
In too many cases, we see that trust has been the most important casualty in our war against bad actors. Without trust, communications break down and our capacity to speak truthfully to one another is severely disabled. Without trust, our stakeholders will fail to partner with us effectively—risking the complete breakdown of our programs. And, without trust, the best people will either wither and die in their jobs or they will leave and find a better place to grow. You see, it’s not only about getting the right people. It’s also about having ideal conditions for those people and ensuring that they are growing well together in our organizations.
Resilient systems are trusted systems, and resilient leaders are trusted leaders.
Imagine leading or serving in a place where the level of trust in the organization and its leaders is low, and the level of trust between team members is even lower. These are the jungles of trust. They are chaotic places that require an exhausting amount of emotional labor just to navigate the politics—let alone do our jobs well. In jungles of trust, resilience is an aspiration we want so badly, but it is so far out of reach.
On the other end of the spectrum, imagine your organization is a stronghold of trust, where employees feel supported by clear structures and dependable leaders, and teams are united by integrity, reliability, strength, truth, and transparency. For leaders, reaching this stronghold requires a consistent commitment to building clear communication channels and fostering open, authentic relationships. Building this begins within every individual security leader who serves with us.
Remember, at the heart of every resilient and sustainable security system is a resilient and trusted leader.
The Resilient and Trusted Leader
Trust is a feeling, but it is so much more. Like oxygen, trust has a chemical make-up that includes many elements. While we assume that it's impossible to measure with certainty something inside of us, trust is measurable.
Trust is your belief in my integrity, my ability, my reliability, my strength, and that I will tell you the truth when any of those are lacking. To trust a leader is to know that they will execute on the mission assigned, be able to do it, do it consistently, will learn and get stronger and better, and that they will speak truthfully to others about all of those things. Trust requires us to know ourselves and to share that knowledge with others on our teams.
Unfortunately, too many leaders either are not self-aware enough to know what to share, or they are unwilling to be vulnerable and open up their own deficiencies long enough for us to build deeper levels of trust. But, what if they did? How would it impact the resilience of the programs they lead, their personal resilience, and the resilience of their teams? Show me an organization full of leaders like that, and I will show you an organization on its way to being a stronghold of trust.
Where Do We Begin?
Decades of research leadership development have taught us something about the fundamental chemistry of a resilient and trusted leader, and it applies to every member of your team. What do we know about them?
They are willing to assess both their strengths and their vulnerabilities.
They are clear about their purpose and have a line of sight between their personal purpose and the mission of their organization.
They get meaningful results.
They are composed and difficult to rattle under pressure.
They learn from their experiences.
They are clear about their areas of competence and areas that need some work.
They know what motivates them.
They have strong support networks of mentors, role models, advisors, feedback, and emotional support around them.
They make intentional and sacrificial investments in the development of the people in their care.
They take their development seriously and do not leave their resilience up to chance.
When a leader or a team member gains this kind of knowledge, they begin to grow. They are no longer blown by the winds of change and casualties of a volatile and complex world, but instead they participate and lead in it. But if we are to take this level of awareness within the heart and mind of every security leader and build trust together, this knowledge of ourselves must be shared, and that will take vulnerability and a methodology that is less prescriptive and more invitational.
Trust is built between our team members when this kind of learning about ourselves is shared with others, and that takes the courage to get a little vulnerable.
Making Trust a Hard Target
The harder the target, the less likely the bad actors are to make a move against us. Imagine what it would look like if trust was a hard target in our organizations? Imagine how much easier it would be to create resilience and effective risk management systems if we trusted each other more.
Resilience requires us to focus on systems and processes for security, but if we are to move our mission forward, we must start at the most basic level. Our efforts must begin with the resilience of the person, the leader, and the team. We can measure trust and we must start there to assess the risk, and then we must build it between us as systematically as we do the programs that guard the gates and keep us safe. We must make trust a hard target and move our organizations from jungles to strongholds of trust—one resilient leader at a time.
Dr. Rob McKenna is the CEO and founder of WiLD Leaders, Inc. Named one of the top 30 I-O (industrial-organizational) psychologists alive today, Dr. McKenna is passionate about developing whole leaders, increasing performance and well-being, and creating whole and sustaining trust.
© 2024, Rob McKenna
