Leadership Laboratory

Leadership Lab: STI Degree Candidates' Leadership Essays

SANS Technology Institute's mission is to develop the leaders of the future for the information security industry. One of our admission requirements is that an applicant complete an essay describing leadership qualities they have demonstrated in the past.

Leadership Essay SANS Technology Institute

Aug 27th, 2008
By Jim Horwath

A company where I worked exercised their disaster recovery capability annually. The purpose of the exercise was to strengthen the business continuity plan and improve business processes and procedures. Although viewed as mission critical by business leaders, non-management staff viewed these drills as nothing more than an inconvenience taking them away from “real” work. Each team had one person who was responsible for coordinating the disaster recovery activities of the entire group. In preparation for one drill, the UNIX coordinator (a.k.a. leader) wanted nothing to do with the drill. His attitude and poor leadership skills affected the other team members who strived to complete the exercise. The result was chaos and anarchy among the team members; the leader lacked the initiative to make impassive decisions. Without strong leadership, the team missed timelines, deliverables, and milestones. I saw the exercise heading for failure, and along with it, morale was declining. Team members were turning on each other, and a once functioning team was nothing more than a collection of individuals. The problem was not insufficient staff, but the proper use of staff in areas where they could excel.

With time becoming short, I assumed the leadership role in an effort to save the department and organization from failure. At the helm, I provided the leadership my colleagues and management team so desperately needed. Recognizing there was a team problem and not a staffing issue, building team unity and trust was the first task. Assessing personnel, tasks, timelines and milestones, I made the tough decisions regarding who needed to do what and when. The task list assigned responsibilities, deliverables, expectations, and timelines. Team members knew their colleagues depended on their success in order to complete dependant tasks. Progress was slow at first, but once the team recognized we were heading in the right direction, collaboration increased, deliverables were met, and confidence among the team improved. Under my leadership, the team made quick progress on the project, and avoided making a disaster of the disaster recovery drill.

Strong leadership during the disaster recovery exercise kept things moving along smoothly. Staff with problems performing under pressure handled unforeseen circumstances without panic. The team completed the job with the fewest mistakes of any drill to that point. This disaster recovery exercise produced the best results of any disaster drill to date.

After the drill, the team thanked me for providing leadership in the moment of crisis. Steady leadership and vision prevented team members from panicking under the pressure of deadlines and complications. Keeping the team calm and focused during the drill was the biggest challenge. Because of the initial leadership problems, the team went into the drill not as ready as they should have been. Although the pressure was intense, all team members contributed towards a successful project. Management labeled the drill a success because it produced the best results up to that point. Through tough decisions, steady nerves, and indomitable attitude the company met and exceeded the business objectives.

This incident demonstrated the importance of strong leadership and how critical it can be for task completion and team cohesiveness. Teams without a leader and direction become individuals and anarchy will result. Leadership provided the glue for bringing together staff, responsibilities, deliverables, deadlines and expectations.