A formation of F-14A Tomcats of Fighter Squadrons VF-51 Screaming Eagles and VF-111 Sundowners, and F-5E/F Tiger II’s of the Navy Fighter Weapons School. These units represented a vital part of the U.S. Navy’s participation in the 1986 feature-film “TOPGUN”, providing the aerial dogfighting sequences that were a defining trademark of this movie. Note the fictitious markings on the tail of at least one of the F-14’s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Some people thrive when thrown into the mix like this, others might tread water frantically, while still others flounder about badly. In my current company, we have definitely been guilty in the past of throwing people into the breech and expecting them to suddenly develop manager skills without any formal training. However as we’ve grown over the years we’ve found that there is no escaping the need for a more formal approach to training our managers.
Luckily for us, we have internal resources that most companies don’t have. Over 60% of our employees are former military, with varying degrees of leadership training and skills. In addition, several of our employees (Tom Lang, Russ Novak, RADM (ret) Ham Tallent) are former “TOPGUN” (the Navy Fighter Weapons School) instructors, one of the most rigorous schools in terms of instructor training. As a company we perform training across a variety of areas from information security to ethics training. In short we have the resources to train our people in the skills they need to succeed.
We also run an internal training program on information security skills whereby some of our cyber-ninjas pick a particular topic and conduct tailored training for the other members of the team. This is an effective method of ensuring that perishable skills are kept current, and that the most recent cyber exploitation events are broken down for our information security team members. Externally, we run a program to teach government employees and other defense contractors the ins and outs of DIACAP – the process by which the DoD helps to secure its information systems against cyber attacks.
Another training program under development is “Leadership 101”. This program is designed for those employees who aspire to a management role. This course leverages many leadership best-practices from the military and industry. This course breaks down management skills and practices into three basic types: personal skills, the ability to look at oneself; team-focused skills that enhance a manager’s ability to effectively employ small groups; and corporate focused skills or those needed to make your company more successful. Through this course, leaders will develop both day-to-day management skills (time cards, tracking costs, hiring/firing) as well as the classic leadership skills (motivating your people, planting the seeds of a vision, etc.) needed to establish and maintain a corporate culture of excellence. We have found that while these skills remain in great demand in our industry they tend to be relatively rare and difficult to find.
Cyber Security Federated Model (Photo credit: Argonne National Laboratory)
This program is going to be rolled out in the next few months, to a waiting group of smart future (and some current) managers. I’m hoping and expecting that this training will help ensure that even as the company grows there will be a consistency of leadership throughout the ranks which will create a stable platform for future growth.