What's in the cards for you?

How you play your cards can make or break a relationship. This newsletter first appeared on the DuhaOne substack.

Leadership Moment: Playing Your Cards Right

Last week, I was in New York for a CISO dinner with two of our portfolio companies, Valence Security and Aim Security. Yoni Shohet (Valence CEO) pulls me aside before the dinner and says, “I brought you a gift.” Now, I often get a lot of swag from companies I work with (much as they’d all like me to list the awesome things I’ve collected, I won’t bore you), so I was expecting something like that … or possibly something NYC related, since my eldest is heading there for school next month.

Instead, he pulled out a deck of cards. I think they were making them for BlackHat, and Yoni’s co-founder, Shlomi Matichin (also a stand-up mensch) had the brilliant idea to make me a deck of cards, except each card contained a lesson from 1% Leadership (actually, four decks, so I have one for display and a few spares).

It’s one the most meaningful professional gifts anyone’s ever given me (and that includes the seven penguins adopted on my behalf). It wasn’t a simple 5 minute endeavor … but one truly appreciated for the thought and consideration that went into it.

One Minute Pro Tip: Don’t Play The Stalker Card

It’s become common in the cold sales outreach community to do automated stalking of sales targets.

“Saw on LinkedIn that you attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Did you ever participate in Tetazoo 500, where students race makeshift chariots down the halls with mechanical beasts? I heard it's a lively, chaotic race! By the way, I noticed you’re the …”

is the output of one such tool - just substituting the institution (which no graduate calls by its full name) and some random piece of trivia, before an instant pivot to a sales pitch. This fools almost no one, and it’s especially obvious that you didn’t even type this (because it’s exactly a template that targets see multiple times and share with each other).

It’s natural in sales to do a little stalking proactive research on your target. It might help you understand what language you should use, or prepare for a conversation. But leading off with that moment of “see, I stalked you!” isn’t actually the relationship builder you think it is.

Appearances

Recent

Jul 9: CISO Series Podcast: How to Get the Most for Yourself Through Altruism

Jul 16: CISO Circuit Edition 10: CISO Reporting Landscape

Jul 16: CISO Series Podcast: I Don’t Want Insider Risk. You Take It.

Jul 19: Cyberwire Daily Podcast

Upcoming

Aug 8, BlackHat: Book signing: Code Resilience in the Age of ASPM, Cycode’s Book & Breakfast

Aug 21: Security Leadership Happy Hour w/ Grip Security (Tewksbury, MA)

Sep 12: ASPM Book Roadshow (Boston, MA)

Sep 24: HOU.SEC.CON