Episode 57 - From the Secret Service to TikTok: Cybersecurity Leadership with Andy Bonillo

You talk about basically being able to translate, and we've talked to other guests that say basically that is a skill.

One of my guests, Joe McCormick, said it's the ability to translate Dolphin because you have the technical people that speak in a language that regular people can't understand.

But being able to sit and understand what they're saying and then translate that into Dolphin.

normal people language is a really valuable skill because quite often when you have all technical people in the room, it quickly becomes a contest of who's the smartest guy in the room.

They're trying to outdo each other.

One of the things that is interesting to me as you're talking is the chase, finding that individual that is around the world that we don't know who they are, but we know it's a dude, it's a dude somewhere and going after them.

I found that to be intoxicating.

And I chased that forever.

It's a tough game to give up, right?

It is, isn't it? When they start to say, well, it's time to go to protection full time.

You're like, man, is it? I think the agency's done a much better job of creating that track for agents to be able to

fulfill both

of those parts of the investigative mission and the protection mission, but at the same time, like really lean in on their skill set where they get the most value.

When I think about this, like I think about how do you get value out of people as a leader and the value components when you're translating between the languages, if you will, it's like, okay, that's really all you're trying to do.

You're trying to figure out how can I get somebody to understand some concept that they need to understand to get more value.

My philosophy on communication is really to flip things around.

Oftentimes, I think there's two components that really get in the way of communication.

One is ego.

You hit on it.

Somebody wants to be the smartest person in the room.

The other is an offshoot of that is if you and I are talking, Matt, and there's something I'm not conveying to you, I don't walk out of that meeting and go, man, he just doesn't get it.

Like when I hear people say that that person just doesn't get it.

I'm like, okay, well, what is it about your delivery? What is it that you're not communicating? What are you not looking at to help them get it? So I'm always thinking about how am I communicating and how am I trying to relay the information in a manner that you can consume? And so that's really where that started.

And when I build teams now, we do personality testing.

I want to know how teams are wired and I've got the right individuals in the right spots.

You talk about basically being able to translate, and we've talked to other guests that say basically that is a skill.

One of my guests, Joe McCormick, said it's the ability to translate Dolphin because you have the technical people that speak in a language that regular people can't understand.

But being able to sit and understand what they're saying and then translate that into Dolphin.

normal people language is a really valuable skill because quite often when you have all technical people in the room, it quickly becomes a contest of who's the smartest guy in the room.

They're trying to outdo each other.

One of the things that is interesting to me as you're talking is the chase, finding that individual that is around the world that we don't know who they are, but we know it's a dude, it's a dude somewhere and going after them.

I found that to be intoxicating.

And I chased that forever.

It's a tough game to give up, right?

It is, isn't it? When they start to say, well, it's time to go to protection full time.

You're like, man, is it? I think the agency's done a much better job of creating that track for agents to be able to

fulfill both

of those parts of the investigative mission and the protection mission, but at the same time, like really lean in on their skill set where they get the most value.

When I think about this, like I think about how do you get value out of people as a leader and the value components when you're translating between the languages, if you will, it's like, okay, that's really all you're trying to do.

You're trying to figure out how can I get somebody to understand some concept that they need to understand to get more value.

My philosophy on communication is really to flip things around.

Oftentimes, I think there's two components that really get in the way of communication.

One is ego.

You hit on it.

Somebody wants to be the smartest person in the room.

The other is an offshoot of that is if you and I are talking, Matt, and there's something I'm not conveying to you, I don't walk out of that meeting and go, man, he just doesn't get it.

Like when I hear people say that that person just doesn't get it.

I'm like, okay, well, what is it about your delivery? What is it that you're not communicating? What are you not looking at to help them get it? So I'm always thinking about how am I communicating and how am I trying to relay the information in a manner that you can consume? And so that's really where that started.

And when I build teams now, we do personality testing.

I want to know how teams are wired and I've got the right individuals in the right spots.