Thursday morning, back home after a few days of board meetings and I have some thoughts to share on being effective in board presentations. Tech and security leaders still seem to struggle in these settings so here goes:

As always, it's a 🧵

1/
1. Research your board members. Find out in advance who you'll be presenting to and look up their background. Talk to your peers who've chatted with the board before, see what intel you can get from them on the dynamics of those discussions. Prep accordingly.

2/
2. Read the room. Important with any presentation but particularly so in the board room. If they're looking at their phones, you lost them. It maybe that you got to technical. Change things up, change your tone, elevate the message and grab their attention again.

3/
3. Focus less on the what and more on the why. Typically your board members don't care much about the specifics of what you're doing, but they want to know why you're doing it. Connect your discussion to business success that is meaningful for them.

4/
4. Be Thematic. I can't stress this enough. Focus on progressions of events over time that show improvements or progress toward a goal. Show them where you were and how your projects and such are driving toward your future state plans.

5/
5. Main ideas up front. Get your most important message in front of them in the first 3-5 minutes. You may get derailed by questions early on so expect that and make sure you've set the theme of your presentation first then fill in the details.

6/
6. Chill the F out. They are just business people at the end of the day. You can joke and laugh with them. Seems obvious but I've watched colleagues get so nervous that they turn into stiff robots. Remember they're just trying to do their job as a board member.

7/
I hope that is helpful. Beyond all this, typically public speaking tips apply. Be dynamic and engaging, know your material, DON'T READ THE SLIDES TO THEM.

Every board is different but at the end of the day, most can be your ally if you can land your message.

/FIN

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alyssa Miller 👑 Duchess of Hackington

Alyssa Miller 👑 Duchess of Hackington Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @AlyssaM_InfoSec

1 Dec
The number of potentially qualified people that I see self-eliminating from open #infosecjobs saddens me. The thing is when you're looking at job descriptions, there are two ways you can look at them.

In typical Alyssa fashion, a 🧵 follows:

1/
Some people will read through the requirements from an implicit mindset of identifying the reasons not to apply. They look for any requirements that suggest they're not qualified and when they find too many of them (for some that means even one), they choose not to apply.

2/
The other method, and the mindset I wish more job seekers would take, is to look at a job description with the focus of finding the reasons to apply. What requirements are things you're good at or could be good at. What responsibilities are areas of interest for you.

3/
Read 6 tweets
21 Nov
FORTY SEVEN

Forty-seven trans people have been violently killed so far in 2021. While this number represents an increasing trend, let's talk about what that number doesn't tell us.

#TDOR #tdor2021

1/
* These are violent crimes, meaning someone else took their lives. This number does not reflect those that took their own lives as a result of unmanageable pressures of discrimination, abandonment, homelessness, forced conversion therapy, etc.

2/
* This number only includes those situations where Law Enforcement documents the victim as transgender. It does not include those killed where police and families hid the gender identity of the victim. This is a common occurrence and skews the numbers heavily.

3/
Read 12 tweets
6 Nov
Let's talk job offer negotiation, a 🧵.

If you've heard my talks on this, you know I'm a huge advocate for knowing your worth, getting paid, and asking for what you need.

Recruiters and hiring managers expect it, they're not going to rescind an offer if you ask for more 💰

1/
However, you also have to know what can and cannot be negotiated and remember it's a negotiation not a demand letter.

Salary, bonus, time-off, flexible work/wfh, signing bonuses, title

These are things that can typically be negotiated to varying degrees.

2/
Health/Dental coverage, retirement plans, other corporate benefits and all their associated costs and provisions

These are things that are pretty universal across the org, only get setup once per year, and most often cannot be negotiated.

3/
Read 8 tweets
6 Nov
Hey #infosec n00bs!!

One of the worst habits we have in security is speaking in absolutes. Saying things like "Unhackable", "Breachproof", "Fully Secure", "No Risk". They're simply untrue.

But this also includes when we talk about skillsets. There are no absolutes.

1/
So when someone says, "You must know x, y, z" or "You have to do a, b, c" to get a certain job (or any job) in security, you can simply toss out those absolutes in with all the other fallacious absolutisms that security people throw around. Simply ignore them.

2/
The reality is we need people of all different skillsets, all different backgrounds, and with all different perspectives in order to be successful. Security is about problem solving and problem solving is strongest when different viewpoints collaborate.

3/
Read 7 tweets
4 Nov
As more job descriptions are including pay range, you as a job seeker need to understand how those ranges actually work.

You might look at a range of $110K-155K and say, well I'll take $155K thanks! However, that might not always be the right approach.

1/
Unfortunately, most orgs only train managers (and sometimes not even them) on how these ranges work. Typically, there is a high, low, and midpoint.

The high-level goal is to bring people who are below the mid-point for a role, up to that mid-point.

2/
This happens through good performance appraisals that drive good raises and up they float. For those who've now moved beyond the mid-point, that's a sign to their leader that they should be about ready for next level up (i.e. a promotion), so those conversations start.

3/
Read 9 tweets
22 Oct
A 🧵 about tech interviews:

The technical interview is one of the most contentious aspects of the recruiting process IMHO. Hiring managers and orgs don't always handle it well and candidates get beat up with anxiety from the process. So how do we make it better?

1/
When I interviewed for my role at @Snyksec, I thought I bombed my tech interview. Benji asked me a couple questions about concepts I had never heard of before.

I admitted I didn't know the answer, but then shared a bit of logical deduction based on the terms as to what

2/
I thought they may mean. I was sure I had really messed up. However, I got an offer and shortly after I started I found out he thought I did very well and actually had recommended hiring me based off the interview. He told me he liked how I thought about things and that I was

3/
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(