Chris revisits the key points made by Ciaran Martin, adds his own insights and gives listeners some suggestions for practical actions they can take immediately to help them get where they want to go.
Welcome to every one of our Perspectives from the Top community of listeners around the world to “Reflections on the Top”. “Reflections” is to help you get the best from the series by me reviewing the key insights from our latest guest, Ciaran Martin, founder and former CEO of the UK National Cyber Security Centre.
Ciaran founded the UK’s world-leading National Cyber Security Centre and headed it for the first four years of its existence policy. The International Telecommunications Union now ranks the UK as the #1 country for cybersecurity because of the NCSC’s work. Ciaran is also a 23-year veteran of the UK Government, working directly with five Prime Ministers having held senior positions at HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office as well as GCHQ.
In 2020 he was appointed CB, a senior recognition award, by Her Majesty The Queen and has received a range of awards domestically and internationally in recognition of his cybersecurity work. Ciaran is Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, advises several private sector organisations on cybersecurity strategies and is one of the leading global authorities in the field of cyber security.
The fact that he had a boss when he was quite junior who would give him the opportunity to take on challenges which were significantly greater than his current responsibilities and to do so in a safe environment naturally helped Ciaran rapidly develop his skills and abilities.
But he had amazing inspiration from his mother who had not used a computer until her mid 50s but went on to become a global expert on online education teaching into her 80s. That showed him it is possible for you to be successful in a new area of endeavour at any point in your life. This is perhaps why he made his significant transition from traditional civil service governmental work into the world of cyber security at 39 .
His experience of growing up in Northern Ireland during the ending of the troubles there, where civil strife between different religious communities developed into a confrontation between the British Army and security forces and Irish republicans, gave us really meaningful comment that when he went to university in mainland UK it was quite a surprise not to see streets full of armed security forces. But this developed his insight into the importance of diversity of perspective and thought to bring people with different perspectives together to avoid polarisation. And it was perhaps this feeling of the importance of cohesive communities which may have been one of the catalysts that encouraged him into the world of government service.
His really interesting point about his experiences across the world and the fundamental foundation of effective communities and societies being built on the simple principle of fairness. But lets not forget this fundamental principle also applies to leadership because it is the leadership within our societies, and indeed organisations, which determines how those within those groups are committed, or not, to them. Certainly from my experience one of the quickest ways to destroy a team is for a boss to act unfairly in his treatment between different people. It's also worth saying at this point that it is the perception of the people who think they are being treated unfairly which is critical, not the view of the boss. Even if they weren't treated unfairly but they think they were then the impact is just the same. This stresses the absolute importance of leaders being seen to act fairly and 2 way communication with everybody about what is happening, why and regular day to day feedback.
But this doesn't just apply to individual leaders. For those of you listening who are senior leaders, or in HR, let's take another example. Sometimes the way organisations identify their talent and then subsequently develop those individuals differently from everybody else is unclear to the wider organisation. As I say to HR teams that I speak to it's very easy to tell somebody that they have, for example, been selected have a mentor. But your big problem is having a credible reason why those who are not fortunate enough to get one not do so and one that is, in their eyes, perceived to be fair and reasonable. Too often I have seen some form of organisational selection process turning from something which could be significantly positive into something which becomes just divisive. Negatively impacting the reputation of not just the programme itself but also by implication HR and the senior leaders involved.
It was for this reason when I was Global Head of Leadership at UBS the criteria for selection for such programmes was made public so that those who were successful and those who were unsuccessful knew why they were in each category and that it was fair and transparent. It also had the wonderful side effect of encouraging those who had been unsuccessful to focus their efforts subsequently on meeting the criteria to join such the programme.
When we talk about government and working in it we tend to think about the large organisations which operate across an entire country but as Ciaran pointed out he had roles within much smaller specialist areas. It's interesting that, to some degree, you can have small organisations experience even under the massive umbrella of government. Also that different parts of government have widely varying cultures. He mentioned the treasury, the UK finance ministry, having a culture similar perhaps to a management consultancy where are some of the other departments which were much larger had a very different feel, more like a big logistics company or service organisation.
Ciaran made the interesting point within the governmental world there are often many more and differing criteria for success that need to be balanced perhaps, more than the reasonably simple challenge that the business organisation has to deliver a profit. Its often a more complex balancing act between the financial resource is available, efficiency of delivery, the short medium and long term benefits of government action within the community, public satisfaction, the political benefits for the current government, the response of various stakeholder and the media. What's also clear is that unlike profit many of these are not that easy to quantify.
When he was talking about the skills that you needed to succeed within the government environment one of the most important was judgement. And it was strange that he mentioned this wasn't something that senior leaders were formally assessed for but which in reality determined their successful or failure. It was his ability to effectively judge situations and assess what needed to be done which led to him into becoming a troubleshooter within government.
Ciaran also mentioned that one of the challenges within government in terms of measuring the quality of judgement that leaders had was that it is all too easy to work on the simple principle that if things go wrong there must have been a failure of judgement. Add to that any implicit blame culture which might exist and you very quickly create an environment where nobody wants to take any risks just in case things might go wrong and it would reflect badly on them.
The problem is that any form of proactive change in the organisation to take it forwards must by its nature involve an element of risk, but if people are not prepared to take risk then the organisation will never move forwards. One of the things that I have seen too often within larger organisations are strenuous attempts to minimise risk, without those involved realising that when you get to a certain point of risk minimization you are effectively hindering the organisation from taking steps that it needs to take to be successful. The answer is simply to optimise risk not to minimise it.
But also I think this idea of the application of effective judgement when challenges arise isn't just something that should apply within government, it's something which commercial organisations need to get right as well. These problems arise when the system goes wrong but those who created the system and have spent a long time in the system often have great difficulty in working out why their system went wrong and what to do about it. Somebody with a different perspective is needed to resolve issues because those already in the system are often too close to it to take the objective perspective necessary. But that also emphasises the importance of diversity of thought within any system so that if things do go wrong the system itself has the capability of solving it rather than having to get somebody in from outside.
Ciaran's work at the highest level of government working with Prime Ministers and senior civil servants dealing with some of the top challenges faced by government gave him an amazing insight and experience invaluable to his own development. All the evidence is that the better the people you work with, even if you find it challenging, the greater your growth. It’s a point which leaders need to recognise in selecting team members. The more talented the people on your team the more likely you are to increase the pace of your own development. So leaders who recruit people who aren’t as good as them to minimise perceived threat are actually impairing their own development.
Much of his work at this point in his career was not leading large groups of people but being presented with a problem which had arisen and, with his team of 160 and colleagues, developing options Government ministers could potentially use to solve it. So very complex very strategic problem solving.
One of these was a problem linked to the UK's GCHQ, the secret signals intelligence service based out of London, that Ciaran was asked to deal. So he moved from the world of the traditional civil servant into the top secret highly technical world of signals intelligence. Here the people he was working with were vastly different in terms of their professional capabilities, working style and mindset. So he had to significantly adjust the way he operated to meet the needs of the situation. These were some of the best experts in the world in this field who could have moved to the business sector to earn significantly more money but stayed within government because of the importance of their mission to maintain the security of the UK.
Having dealt with the initial challenges Ciaran set about using the skills within the organisation to build a wider cyber security organisation which would work with the private sector to enhance cyber security across UK with government, business and wider society. As he put it channelling world class expertise to deliver even more public good. Here Ciaran was running a team of 1000.
Interesting points here I think is that his ability to get things done successfully within the context of the traditional world of civil servants and politics but also then do the same within the highly technical and non political world of cyber security just confirms that effective leadership skills will deliver results no matter where they are applied.
In addition what was interesting was that when he started this role as well as considering the big picture he also spent time developing his detailed understanding of what the organisation did by working with people at all levels on the frontline. Not only did he get briefings on what was happening from different people but also he sat down with key groups to ask them what they thought about how they could create a more impactful organisation in the future. Just that simple act of listening and committing to look at how to develop their ideas gained him the critical commitment and credibility from key people he needed to succeed.
From my perspective this is a great example for anyone moving into senior leadership in a new organisation. Whilst you might quickly pick up the strategic big picture unless you understand what is happening at the frontline your ability to interpret that big picture in relation to it's relationship to the frontline means that your decision making is unlikely to be optimal.
Also Ciaran's career change at the age of 39 also demonstrates beyond doubt that it is possible to significantly change direction and be successful. But listeners you have had similar examples from other people who have had dramatic changes in their careers, for example Sylvia Acevedo from NASA scientist to CEO of US Girl Scouts, from the corporate world to the entrepreneurial world with Marcus Imbach and Asesh Sarkar and many others which demonstrate that if you build a core foundation of good leadership capability you can apply it anywhere and be successful.
So Ciaran had this amazing opportunity to build a new organisation to meet the challenges that were growing in terms of cyber security threats to the UK which he did with great success. More details of which are in the interview and fascinating. But what was great was that having worked with the technical cyber security experts to understand what they did and the opportunities he then used his skills at creating options and proposals for government ministers to put forward a compelling plan to make it reality. So to some degree he was acting not only as a CEO but also as an ambassador for NCSC as the government has within its power the ability to approve and fund the improvements that he and the team wanted to make.
What was really interesting was when Kieran said that effectively, although funded by the government and not subject to commercial pressures, the organisation was essentially a start up at this stage. I think that's a fascinating idea of within government start up breaking new ground in an area that is critical to the future. The idea of perhaps entrepreneurial government. Facing not primarily financial risk but certainly political and reputational risk in relation to the country and government.
But listeners you probably think that this is all just about the cyber security technical . But is was so much more Ciaran created a holistic organisation, for example a really expert internal media team to work with external media to present the organisation and ensure that it achieved maximum impact. And that was achieved by ensuring that the media experts were interacting effectively with the technical experts – one organisation working in collaboration.
However the other critical element in the success of the National Cyber Security Centre was creating an effective partnership at all levels with the cyber security elements of the business community, so that they could do best what they did best within the business world and that the NCSC would support them and work with them. A level of collaboration and partnership which had not previously existed.
The fact that Kieran was able to create this partnership also emphasises the importance for senior leaders to have the ability to reach out to people you need to collaborate with. All about building trust, which we've seen time and again is what then delivers success. Also don't forget that this organisation fundamentally is a highly secret government establishment on which the UK depends for its security and therefore this is about the ultimate in professionalism and trust at its core.
Ciaran made an interesting point about he felt that one of the reasons that he was successful was that if you are working with a group of experts but you are not an expert but leading them then the ability to offer them something that allows them to take their expertise upper level and deliver more was key. Here is an implicit point that in any organisation where you are a leader you are not going to know as much as all the experts who might work for you, but if you can create a vision where through working with you they can do what they are passionate about even better then you will get them to work with you.
Within that it's also about choosing to do things which make a difference and take the organisation forward to where it should be going not just things that people enjoy doing, working with everyone to agree what those are and focus on them. So in Ciaran's case the fundamental question was does this advance UK cyber security capability.
Overall whilst Ciaran said that the troubleshooting roles that he had were quite fun he reflected that his role in creating the UK NCSC gave him a greater feeling of self satisfaction. Certainly from my own career troubleshooting can be quite fun but when I reflect it is always the role I have had where I have been able to create something for the organisation which has then gone on to add value even after I have left. Many of you will probably have felt the same.
When I was working at top level at London Underground the London subway during the significant restructuring of the organisation in the public private partnership we needed to communicate effectively and with consistency and clarity from top to bottom. I put in place a structured team briefing system called “Teamtalk”. Eight years later I met a senior leader from London Underground who told me that “Teamtalk” was still working effectively. Why because it was simple, practical, and met the needs of everyone involved.
Now Ciaran has moved onto the third part of his career which is teaching at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford. He came out with an interesting comment as someone who is teaching – really enjoying learning so much about what is going on around the world from his students. In that sense he sounds more like a perfect mentor - as well as helping his students learn they help him learn as they learn which is the way it should be. He also beautifully breaks the assumption some have when they are more senior and experienced that they know more than others, especially those younger than themselves. But he quoted students of his who he admires because they have climbed Everest, have set up NGOs for refugees, or worked as doctors in war zones. The message is clear, always discover the experiences of others to help you broaden your perspectives both personally and professionally, you never know what they have done or seen.
In summary the key insights and ideas for action you can take away from what Ciaran said are perhaps first of all the reassurance that you can change career even late on and be successful if you are passionate about what you do and have an underpinning of good leadership capability. If that foundation is in place you are likely to be successful in any environment where an organisation needs to get things done. But part of that capability is the recognition that you need to reach out to, and understand, those on the frontline of your organisation and to genuinely collaborate with them in finding areas in which their passion and capability can be used to take the organisation forwards. Building trust and working in partnership, those themes that you will have heard many times before.
So what would be one action I would suggest that you should do ? Maybe identify some people who work for you, work with, or who are your stakeholders and talk to them about what they want to achieve and how you can help them grow and develop, the organisation do the same and in so doing grow yourself.
As with the previous guests and now Ciaran hopefully you are seeing a pattern of simple actions you can take to be more successful. Share these interviews colleagues who would benefit so they can grow and develop with you. Certainly I will be using these powerful points in my speaking and Masterclasses in the future.
If you have any thoughts or questions connect with me on LinkedIn or via email as detailed on the Perspectives website. Don't forget to sign up to Perspectives from the Top. It's free, so you don't miss any of the great episodes in the future.
That’s it for now, so from me its onwards and upwards until our next episode.