Best of GSX 2022: Boosting Security Leadership through DE&I Strategy

The role of the security leader is constantly evolving. Recently, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) has become an important focus across industries. Security leaders must remain up to date on DE&I initiatives and their applications to teams, organizations, and the profession.

This Best of GSX package contains 7 recordings focusing on how DE&I supports excellent leadership.

This package includes:

• Extraordinary Thinking Creates Extraordinary Security Leaders

Leadership is not a title but an action you exhibit daily through being the example. The foundation for extraordinary leaders in security comes down to extraordinary thinking. How you think creates clarity to be focused on the tasks that drive your organization forward to desired results. This foundation starts with building mental toughness that embraces a process to lead by example and be resourceful to executive team tasks to the next level. This inspires others to be responsible and accountable for their own role and duties so they can come together and form an interdependent work environment toward protecting their organization moving forward. Transparent leaders create other leaders to build momentum and sustain growth over time.   

• Building Great Teams: Leveraging DE&I to Empower Organizational Competitive Advantage

Globalization is continuously changing the dynamic landscape for public safety and security organizations, which in turn manifests a need for organizations to further their competitive advantage to be effective within the global environment. To truly excel on this front, organizational leaders must strive to build great teams using a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) lens in support of its personnel actions, i.e., recruitment, hiring, and professional development opportunities. By bolstering organizational teams through this framework, entities will increase their level of strategic thinking to better analyze issues holistically due to a team's increased frames of reference in furtherance of becoming more agile in the VUCA environment.

• Learning Through Failure

Many Security Industry professionals have experienced or observed failures either on their own, through clients or the businesses we serve. Failure is a great teacher and part of life’s learning experience. In this light-hearted session, a diverse group of prominent professionals moderated by Michael Gips will share their experiences in failure so that attendees can learn pitfalls to avoid in the security industry, know the reasons for failure, learn about predictable failure, gain an understanding of root cause analysis and the critical lessons that failure can teach us. Followed by a question-and-answer session, attendees can engage in open dialogue with the panelists. Learn the spectrum of reasons for failure. The Harvard Business School identifies nine reasons for failure.

• Simple And Practical Activities In Putting Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Into Action

Many of us have embraced the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. We understand how it's important for our companies, our social environment and our souls. But where do we go from here? How can we put DE&I into action? This session will go beyond discussions of hiring diverse candidates. The focus is on INCLUSION. We’ll provide several activities that you can implement within your workplace or to use in your personal life. The activities are simple to implement and applicable to everyone. All they require are a little time and a passion for making change.        

• Diversity, Equity, Cultural Awareness — Building the Modern Security Team With Strategies and Best Practices That Work  

Diversity, equity and cultural awareness have never been as important as they are today. Modern security teams can and should be an organization’s model and leader for embracing diversity and equity. This class will present cutting-edge best practices security leaders can employ to build a strong, diverse, culturally aware security team. These best practices and strategies cover and include critical topics such as recruitment, training, continuing education, promotion and retention best practices for building and sustaining a highly successful and diverse security team. The class will also explore the growing importance of linking de-escalation training with diversity and equity best practices/ education.   

• Beyond Guns, Gates & Guards: The Changing Role of the Security Leader

Security practitioners have been a critical part of the organization response to the pandemic. Changes in business risk and the priorities of security leaders make the security leader's job more challenging. Join this panel of experienced thought leaders as they discuss the trends in role changes, challenges to come and what you need to do to succeed in the future.  

• Empowering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Security 2022

Organizations are faced with increasingly complex, complicated and fast-moving challenges – from geopolitical shifts to technology, generational change, ESG and the new hybrid working. Nowhere is the need for innovative problem solving more pressing than in corporate security departments, tasked with delivering resilience for their organizations in the face of this new business reality. Evidence shows that diverse teams are best equipped to solve these problems and innovate in the face of constant change. Yet progress on diversity is slow for the corporate security community. 

This session will deliver the findings of a new ASIS Foundation-funded research project, offering practical examples of how security leaders can enhance diversity and equity while developing inclusive and effective teams.