Reliable: A Leadership Life Pursuit...

If you were asked about some of the greatest “Leaders” you have ever experienced in your lifetime so far, what is the most important “adjective” you shall use to describe them?

At an early age, perhaps they were teachers or coaches in your schools or sports teams  growing up.  They were always on-time and reinforcing several key attributes in life such as hard work, telling the truth or following the rules.

As you were just gaining experience in the work force in your mid-twenties, maybe you found bosses who focused on other key adjectives.

What about you?  Have you been described as reliable:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reliable

re· li· able ri-ˈlī-ə-bəl

Synonyms of reliable

1: suitable or fit to be relied on : DEPENDABLE.

2: giving the same result on successive trials

Moving through your mid-life as you gained more experience at work or in the armed forces, or/and maybe you got married and had kids…were you someone that close people could rely on?

Being reliable in our personal life and our career is vital, if you are ever going to become a sought after leader and a true professional.

• Do you ever find yourself running late for scheduled appointments or missing meetings or events all together?
• Do you make excuses for your own mistakes or losing important items?
• Do you have trouble getting along with other people and losing their trust?

Learning to become “Reliable” is perhaps one of the greatest leadership traits you can achieve in your life.

Think about it.

Do you make it onto the front page of “Sports Illustrated” for being unreliable?

Do you have trusted relationships with others on your team who you put your life in their hands from time to time?

Becoming a real leader in your life is not without making mistakes and disappointing others due to extra ordinary circumstances along the way.

"It has all to do with your consistency, your loyalty, your trustworthiness, your faith, your honesty, your devotion and your continuous solid character."

Maybe most of all, becoming reliable is being so capable of being trusted…

People: Coopers Colors...

When was the last time your corporate travel department gave you some timely INTEL? Maybe you got a report on the current level of risk in the region, city or country you are now scheduled to visit in the next few days.

What are you going to do if everything goes “South” in a matter of seconds or minutes?

The Mission

In situations that require instinctive response, you have to go beyond the traditional travel management report on what to do and who to call. You have to act and make decisions on your own.

In order to survive, one must be trained on the authoritative, detailed description of the methods by which terrorist organizations, hostile intelligence services, and criminal groups select and target specific individuals. Individuals and a team must learn how they can detect and counter potential threats against them, and their sponsoring organizations to better manage these operational risks.

These threats could include recruitment by a hostile service, kidnapping or assassination by terrorist and criminal elements or espionage by business competitors. Combined with real-time INTEL, you must receive intense, real-time instruction in surveillance detection and counter-surveillance so that you can take appropriate actions.

Combining real-time intelligence with a focused surveillance and threat detection-training program is exactly what savvy corporate executives and Chief Security Officers are looking for from a single source. Personnel threat management is a prudent risk mitigation solution. This combination is one key strategy to mitigate the operational risks associated with key personnel in your organization.

Individuals whose occupations place them at risk may include people with access to valuable proprietary information or holders of high level security clearances, the wealthy and those responsible for their safety.

What may be more vital is the use of "Coopers Colors:":

"By using a well-practiced, concrete, formulaic train of thought, it prevents the hesitation normally experienced when one is under threat of attack or actual attack, and this is the purpose of the code, to prevent unnecessary hesitation, and to apply only that force which is necessary to defend yourself." "The way Jeff Cooper explains it is:"

• White - relaxed and fairly oblivious of your surroundings, you should only be in this condition if you are at home or another secure setting behind locked doors.

• Yellow - the state of not only constant awareness, but the constant recognition of possible threats. In this state, you are observant of your surroundings, allowing you to recognize threats if they present themselves.

• Orange - in this state, you have recognized a potential threat, and are ready to defend yourself against this threat if necessary.

• Red - you are actively defending yourself or others against a threat that has presented itself to you.

It's not just about general awareness, it's about positively identifying potential and actual threats, as you go about your daily life. It is this threat identification and acquisition process that is so valuable, that reduces your response time to those threats, if they present themselves.

The Take Away

Combine two parts “Threat Detection & Management” with one part INTEL and you have the perfect combination to ensure the successful completion of corporate missions across the globe.

Strategic Organizational Resilience & Survivability...

According to the best practices from several sources, the Board of Directors is responsible for the "Strategic Resilience and Survivability" of an organization.

Let’s take a look at what the highly influential Basel Committee says about one principle as it pertains to Business Crisis and Continuity Management (BCCM):

Review and Testing of Business Continuity Plans – Basel Principle 13

“It is the responsibility of the organization's Internal Audit and Business Continuity functions to ensure that all of the organization's business continuity plans are tested and reviewed on a periodic basis to spot incorrect assumptions, oversights or changes to equipment, and employees and to identify any changes in business requirements not reflected in specific plans. Any undocumented requirements must immediately be documented. In addition, appropriate information owners and users must be informed of updates to plans.”

The Basel Accord for large global money center institutions says you have to test all of your suppliers and their plans so that you don’t have any service interruptions. The question is how often is enough? When is the last time you knocked on the door of your Power Company, Phone Company, and Water Company and said I’m here to audit your BCCM plans. And in every country you operate critical information processing and personnel centers.

Having survived several large quakes in Southern California in years past, you can be sure that all of the testing in the world can't prepare people for human behaviors that come from within.

People literally lose all sense of common sense when you are on the 42nd of the 50+ skyscraper and without any warning it physically sways a couple feet to the left and a few more feet to the right.

Believe it, the issue is not the testing itself, it’s how to create a real enough scenario that you get similar behaviors out of unsuspecting people.

Certainly the largest organizations realize that the threats are taking on different forms than the standard fire, flood, earthquake and twister scenarios.

These large catastrophic external loss events have been insured against and the premiums are substantial.

What it is less easy to analyze from a threat perspective are the constantly changing landscapes and continuity postures of the many facets of the organization having to do with people, processes and systems.

The many sources of significant loss events are changing as we speak. Here are a few that should not be overlooked:

· Public perception

· Unethical dealings

· Regulatory or civil action

· Failure to respond to market changes

· Failure to control industrial espionage

· Failure to take account of widespread disease or illness among the workforce

· Fraud

· Exploitation of the 3rd party suppliers

· Failure to establish a positive culture

· Failure in post employment process to quarantine information assets upon termination of employees

In summation, the following six factors are the critical aspects of effective and strategic organizational resilience and survivability:

1. Business continuity planning will be conducted on an enterprise-wide basis 24/7.

2. A thorough and continuous business impact analysis and risk assessment is the foundation of an effective BCCM.

3. Business continuity planning is more than the recovery of the technology; it is the recovery of the business.

4. The effectiveness of a BCCM can only be validated through continuous and thorough testing.

5. The BCCM and test results will be subjected to continuous independent audit.

6. A BCCM will be continuously updated to reflect and respond to changes in the organization.

Frankly, corporate directors have their hands full managing risk and continuity on behalf of the shareholders.

The risk management process will someday have as big an impact on the enterprise as other key functions because shareholders will be asking more questions about the changing landscape of managing risk for corporate governance…

operational risk

Be Brave: Courage to Experience Fear...

“We’re all afraid of something.  Some have more fears than others for reasons too various to quantify and examine.  The one we must all guard against is the fear of ourselves.  Don’t let the sensation of fear convince you that you’re too weak to have courage.  Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice.  No one is born a coward.  We were meant to love.  And we were meant to have the courage for it.  So be brave.  The rest is easy.”  —p. 206. Why Courage Matters by John McCain

What are you waiting for in your life?

Making decisions to do or act on a daily or weekly basis takes courage.  When was the last time you did something that was foreign or even fearful to you?

Before you had courage, did you ever think about how it would hurt if you fell off your bike.  And when you did, yes it did hurt.  Did you get back on and ride home with tears in your eyes?

Before you had courage, did you ever think about asking for permission to leave home for a night out with a friend without your parent beside you?  Did you ever have a curfew of 10:00PM and arrive back home at 9:55PM with your mother sitting in the kitchen with the light on?

Before you had courage, did you ever worry that someone would reject you if you called them on the phone to ask them for a business appointment to introduce your company or product?

Before you had courage, did you ever fear investing in your future by saving 10% of every paycheck to put in a savings/investment account?

Before you had courage, did you ever fear learning how to debate on stage or give a presentation to an audience about a topic that you had become an expert in?

After you realized that after every attempt to engage with your fears, you learned and adapted for the next attempt and gained a little more courage each time.

Of course you did.

So what are you waiting for and why are you hesitant to get out there.  To try it.  To make your call or send your message.  Or save for your future.

After you learn to be more brave and love to practice to alleviate your fears your life will change for the better.

Your courage to live and to love experiencing fear will make all the difference in your life.  Get out there!