Being an ally/advocate is great. Ducking for cover is understandable. Everyone gets to choose for themselves how open they want to be, but what if you’re more exposed than you think? A bad actor’s ability to harm is limited only by information and imagination, but who has time to learn expert risk management and safety skills?

Fortunately, adopting a few simple life security skills (LifeSec!) and applying them everywhere (at work, at home, online, etc.) will put the odds in your favor.

Have you ever faced the frustration of people making mountains out of molehills? Complaining loudly and often about "simple" things that could be solved if they just put in a little more effort?

What makes you so sure?

In this talk, Jeremy will explain how concluding that employee-raised issues aren’t issues made employee parking one of the most talked-about downsides of working for the National Security Agency.

Why is it so hard to build meaningful connections as a leader? Despite all your efforts to be open and accommodating, somehow people still keep their distance and won’t approach even when there are critical issues brewing that you should have been informed about long prior.

It turns out that the basic lessons on “listening” in books and lectures and classes aren’t enough. With all that training, leaders often still can’t tell the difference between what IS and ISN’T listening.

A common frustration among NSA leaders I counseled was engagement. Why don’t people open up and actually raise issues instead of stewing silently?

To answer that question, I’ll lead you through the story of the single most-successful attempt to elicit the true thoughts of employees that I ever saw… and how the opportunity was squandered when leadership didn’t know how to follow through on the feedback they received.