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How to Keep Your Security Team Happy

Juggling the needs of top performers and less-seasoned team members can be difficult, but it's critical to everyone's growth

October 01, 2007 — CSO — The e-mail was from one of my best engineers, and it began, "I don't understand why you keep giving these important projects to people with a track record of not performing. John hasn't completed a task yet without someone coming in to bail him out at the last minute. I can deliver this task in less time and give you a better product and you know it! I'm concerned about how you are managing this team."

My first reaction was "What! You're concerned about my management style? I've been doing this leadership stuff longer than you've been alive and I think I know what I'm doing." My second thought was "Uh oh, I have bigger problems than getting this individual job done. Now I have to nurture two people, but only one of them is the real issue and the other one is my best guy!"

The Dangers of Class Warfare

You know the drill. If you are lucky and have recruited well, you have a couple of people who are always ready for a new challenge and are willing to tackle literally anything. In fact, they thrive when the stress is high and the challenges are significant.

The positive aspect of such employees is that they are typically successful and you can always count on them for their best effort.

The negative aspect is that it's easy to find yourself overloading these "A" players. Because our days are filled with crises and stress, these go-to guys are the folks you can absolutely count on for success—just like pushing the Staples Easy Button! That's the problem though, it's too easy! The nullifying outcome is that your "B" players will eventually grow resentful if a few superstars seem to be getting all the important projects. Unless you're careful, you'll soon find yourself being criticized by both groups because you've created a class war. The "A" players will eventually be unhappy because you've given them too much to do, and the "B" and "C" players will be mad at you for ignoring them. Don't fool yourself either—even your people who know they're not "A" players will feel left out.

The "A," "B" and "C" player analogy is obviously a rule of thumb, but it's necessary to have some combination of these different people in your organization. Too many of one without the others leads to an imbalance that can overwhelm your ability to manage them. While it's interesting to contemplate, can you imagine an entire team of "alpha geeks?" Yikes! The point is that while you'll always have a range of skill levels in your organization, you will also have varying levels of maturity, loyalty and dedication.