THE NEW MANAGER HOLDS A CONTEST!

Holding a contest is a great way for you to bond with your department and to inject some positive excitement into your staff. You can use the contest to learn more about their group dynamics, to build a stronger team, and to attain your required numbers. Announce your intentions to your staff at your weekly meeting.

Do not depend on your own good judgment when deciding on rewards. Why? Here are typical fails made by well-meaning managers: Handing out chocolate covered peanut candies or instant scratch lottery tickets. Oops! Is someone allergic to peanuts? On a diet? Diabetic? Observing a religious fasting period? And the lottery ticket  might be unacceptable to the winner’s moral stance.

Rely on your staff to advise you what  rewards are acceptable and desired. Phrase your questions in such a way that you do not single anyone out. You might state you were thinking of offering a specific treat, but wondered if you should, since it contains nuts, or sugar. Or you could ask whether the group thinks lottery tickets are an appropriate prize.

Typically, some of your staff will want immediate gratification, and some will enjoy a larger reward that takes longer time to achieve. Be prepared to provide both. As an example, you could offer smaller, incremental rewards for a shift or a week, and also larger rewards for the month or even the quarter.

Be especially aware of the metrics you choose, since you will get more of whatever you measure. You will  learn quickly whether the contest is successful in rewarding the intended behaviors. You will also learn quickly what inadvertent loopholes exist in your metrics. It is best to start off with a fairly short-term contest, so that you become aware of unintended consequences sooner rather than later.

Remember: You are always the ultimate winner of any successful contest you hold! 

Jeannie Newman, Chief Solutions Officer of JZN Associates, is an experienced creator of many contact center contests, across several different industries. She is available to  advise you on your contests, and to save you from pitfalls both obvious and hidden. Find her and connect with her on LinkedIn or at http://jznassociates.com.

Do you have Security Champions in your company?

Happy New Year 2016! I am continuing my series of posts on security topics of primary interest to businesses, as I mentioned in my first post on this blog. In this post, I focus on making sure you have some security-minded people on your team(s).

Starting the New Year Right

If you are like me, when the new year rolls around, you reflect on the past year and determine what worked and what didn't. You also make goals and plans for the coming year.

Because I focus on security, application security in particular, I usually think about the application security needs of my business and those of my clients. None of us wants to be in the headlines for a security breach. We know security is still important in 2016, but how do you make sure it happens? How do you make sure security is a priority in your products and services?

Early in 2015, there was a role mentioned in a few places around the internet that every software development team in a company should consider having: A Security Champion.

What is a Security Champion?

I first heard this term early in 2015 from Dinis Cruz in his blog post Does your team has a Security Champion? If not, get this Mug and Library and later What are Security Champions and what do they do?. There were a few others who talked about the role in 2015, including Gunnar Peterson in his blog post Security Champions Guide to Web Application Security.

Essentially, a Security Champion is someone on your software development team who takes on the responsibility of coordinating and tracking security issues and efforts. They are not responsible for implementing all security features in your products or services, but instead they help lead the efforts. They report status on security issues to the team leads. They also make recommendations and/or help make security decisions that impact your products and services.

Why do I need one?

You need a Security Champion on your team because security does not happen by accident. Also, while everyone should be thinking more about security in their everyday lives (i.e. don't blindly open that email attachment even if it seems like it came from someone you know, etc.), everyone can't focus on it exclusively. It helps to have someone or several people in your company who are more aware of security issues and who are willing to lead others in best practices.

My goals for 2016 and a challenge for you

This past year, and for several years, I have served as a Security Champion for my clients on several development teams and for several projects. I look forward to continuing to do so. In this past year, I also had opportunity to speak to more software developers in user groups and conferences about the Threat Modeling process and as I did I also tried to encourage a few to consider becoming Security Champions on their own teams.  I plan to keep speaking on these topics. In addition, I will also provide training for those who are also interested in being effective Security Champions.

My challenge to you: If you don't already have Security Champion(s) on your team(s), think about hiring one or determining who may take on that role. If you already have Security Champions, then by all means encourage them and help them be as effective as possible.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or get in touch through my contacts below.

About Robert Hurlbut

Robert Hurlbut, owner of Robert Hurlbut Consulting Services, based in Enfield, CT, provides software security consulting, architecture, and training. This includes software development, threat modeling, secure code reviews, and other kinds of security audits for your company. If Robert can be of assistance to your company, please get in touch through the below contacts.

Web: https://roberthurlbut.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthurlbut
Twitter: @RobertHurlbut

Upcoming security talk: Robert is speaking on February 9, 2016 on "Threat Modeling" at the OWASP Hartford Chapter meeting in Hartford, CT.

IMPRINT YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE

As the new manager, having taken your first three steps (see http://bit.ly/1NNnVOj) you are ready to put your own imprint on your department. Your changes should be immediate, observable, and purposeful, to your staff, and also to those outside the department. Here are three suggestions for making changes that will be noticeable within your department:

Model the Behavior You Wish To Encourage

While you are evaluating your new staff, they are evaluating you. Managers who say one thing and do another send mixed messages to the troops and undermine their own goals. Being the leader does not give you the right to arrive late, leave early, or be too important to clean up after yourself. Rather, it gives you the right to lead by example.

Conduct Regularly Scheduled Meetings

Consider asking your staff for input on time and location. Make the meetings regularly scheduled events.

§  Let nothing interrupt your meeting time.

§  DO NOT use these meetings as a time to chastise any of your staff. 

Create a Department Newsletter

If you choose a newsletter as a way to keep your team informed and motivated, be consistent in time and tone.

§  The written word is powerful and it has an incredibly long shelf life. This is not the place for negativity.

§  Make sure that everyone receives recognition within a reasonable period of time.

§  Prepare for any typos or misspellings in your message. Offer a prize to the first one to catch a mistake, or include a disclaimer, such as, “typos included at no extra charge.” This will take the sting out of it for you when one of your staff points out an error.  Additionally, if you have a difficult group it will keep them from feeling as though they have scored a coup against you. It will also imply, on another level, that mistakes are not the end of the world.

      Jeannie Newman of JZN Associates is experienced in building cohesive teams with individuals from diverse backgrounds and teaching social skills as they apply to the workplace. She has a special interest in empowering women in their careers and lives. Contact her for speaking engagements and workshops by email  at Jeannie@JZNAssociates.com, or through LinkedIn.