This is the Way: A New Leadership Creed for Info-Sec professionals

Kate Collins opens by describing how much the security field has absorbed in recent years, from the pandemic and supply chain strain to burnout and heavy turnover. She argues that cyber professionals lack leadership development tailored to their work, and she cites research on stress, retention and human-driven incidents. In her view, workplace culture and how managers treat their people now decide which employers keep their talent.

The core of the talk is a proposed set of guiding principles, illustrated with episodes from The Mandalorian. The principles cover shifting from an individual focus to a collective one, treating colleagues in the way they prefer, and concentrating on shared outcomes rather than hours or visible presence. Other points include building diverse alliances through empathy, recognising how personal experience and bias shape behaviour, balancing determination with work-life balance, admitting limits and asking for feedback, and keeping the mission in view to avoid burnout.

Collins closes by urging attendees to choose one small change from these ideas and apply it at work, and she points to a worksheet-based resource for setting development goals. For practitioners, the takeaway is that skills such as communication, self-awareness and humility are a practical part of staying effective in security roles.