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Bob Moore Knows How Not to Get Fired

Remember: Once you have a security leadership job, it's the little things that help you keep it.

The good news is that some of the tips that helped you get the job will also help you keep the job. But here's even more advice, from successful CSOs and ISOs in the field, on how to make yourself truly indispensible so that, one day, you too can rightfully brag like Bob Moore can today.

Easy Is Good

Overall, not getting fired is not so easy for security executives. After all, theirs is a job that, when done well, leads to...well, nothing. Sales executives can show higher sales and not get fired. Accounting executives can show lower expenses and not get fired. But security executives need, literally, to demonstrate that their spending led to nothing and that the company should keep spending money for nothing. Now, that's a talent that requires exceptional skill!

Having said that, you can always start by grabbing for the low-hanging fruit—the easy tasks that demonstrate some of your value now. We're not suggesting that such tasks are the most important steps for you to take, just the first ones. And that is an especially good place to start if you happen to be the company's first security executive. You'll need that "now" payoff that the easy win provides, since there's a fairly good chance your executive board created the CSO position with only a vague sense of need—and with absolutely no good sense of the role. So if the board doesn't see payoff soon, it's likely to lose interest and try to kill the position, or, as it thinks of it, reduce the expenditure.

The easy (and relatively low-cost) first steps that follow will quickly give you purchase, and at the same time help your executive peers know, now, that you're valuable.

First, Do Nothing (But Observe)

Pick your metaphor—survey the environment, do reconnaissance, diagnose the patient. The point is this: A good portion of a new CSO's time should be dedicated to figuring out the corporate culture and how to work (in) it. If you don't, you'll probably lose your job.

Lenzner has seen it happen too many times. "When you go into an organization, you are probationary, no matter what level you're at," she says. "We've watched people go in and start firing, changing policy wholesale, messing with staff—and all before they even know where they are. All before they even have a clear understanding of how the company works."

Conversely, she says, some security executives learn to go into a situation without a clear understanding, yet they thrive. "They take the time to learn the nuances," Lenzner says, "and they find the silent players and learn the politics."