Most of what I know about leadership did not come from a textbook. It came from the front lines, working for brilliant mentors and absolute train wrecks. The great managers gave me examples to learn from. The bad ones probably taught me even more about what not to do.
This talk is a collection of those lessons, pulled from years of building and working on teams in security environments, along with plenty of mistakes made along the way. It is about what actually stuck, what did not, and how those experiences shaped how I think about work, hiring, and working with people.
I will also talk about sticking to your principles, regardless of your title. That matters when you are managing a team, managing up, or interviewing for your next role. I will share my own biased, hands-off approach that values humor, authenticity, and treating people like adults, while being honest about where it worked and where it failed.
This is not a how-to guide. Leadership is subjective, and what works for one team can fall apart somewhere else. This is more of a debrief for people building teams or trying to find their place on one. The goal is not to define the right way to lead or work, but to share a few hard-earned lessons people can take and adapt to their own careers.
