Last year, I launched a Spring Leadership Series to think about leadership in nontraditional ways. As 2024 continued, I presented additional ways to think about leadership during my Olympics Leadership Series and Holiday Leadership Series. With a new year upon us, I've invited 25 thought leaders to share their responses to five questions relating to team-building, reading, and leadership. My #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 began the first day of Spring and continues through June 20th, the first day of Summer.
Before we begin, I'd like to applaud two special individuals for providing the inspiration for this series. First, big applause goes to Erika Andersen, a leadership expert and author who I've had the pleasure of knowing for nearly 15 years, and she's appeared on my blog 13 times since 2011. She wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders," and that article serves as the core of the series as its first question. Second, I also applaud Joseph Lalonde, a leadership expert and author of a book called REEL LEADERSHIP, for planting the seeds for last year's Spring Leadership Series on my blog. After I read Joe's book, I started looking at movies as well as works of fiction, TV shows, and TV characters with "leadership-tinted glasses."
For today's post, I'd like to introduce Rebecca Herold. Based in Des Moines, Iowa, and with over 30 years of IT, security, and privacy experience, Rebecca is the founder of The Privacy Professor Consultancy (2004) and of Privacy & Security Brainiacs SaaS services (2021). She has authored 22 published books so far, and co-authored NIST catalogs NISTIR 7628, NISTIR 8259, SP 800-213, NISTIR 8425 and TN 2066. She has served as an expert witness for cases covering HIPAA, criminals using IoT devices, social engineering, stolen personal data of retirement housing residents, and tracking app users with Meta Pixels. Rebecca hosts Data Security & Privacy with the Privacy Professor, and since early 2018, she has hosted the Voice America podcast/radio show, Data Security & Privacy with the Privacy Professor.
QUESTION: Leadership expert and author Erika Andersen wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders." In the article, Erika compared gardening to management and leadership. What are your thoughts, or was there something that stood out from the article?
REBECCA HEROLD: I spent my childhood in a very rural area of north-central Missouri, where my father was the Superintendent of Schools for the small town and farming community a couple of miles from interstate I-35. The weather there was very tumultuous (as it still is), especially during each spring.
When I was a student there one year, the first week in April, I had a birthday party with everyone outside, in beautiful weather, wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts. One week later the "Great Blizzard" hit, and over 60 inches of snow and high winds shut down the always busy I-35 interstate. Supposedly one of the largest blizzards in US history. People were literally stranded in their cars on the interstate, some completely covered, in subzero temperatures, in what seemed to most of them to be in the middle of nowhere. At a time before there were cellphones.
Instead of staying in our warm home, my father heard on his CB radio (that he always had on and listened to, especially for the State Patrol and Sheriff's communications) about all the vehicles snow covered and immobile on the interstate. He wasted no time, and started making calls to the many farmers (which included all the school board members), and many others who were in the school district. He coordinated over two dozen area residents with snowmobiles, and farmers with over a dozen field tractors with horse and livestock trailers, to go onto the interstate and bring all the stranded tourists to the school auditorium.
He asked our school cooks if they wanted to help by making food, drinks, coffee, and hot chocolate for the stranded travelers who would be staying in the auditorium overnight, and actually ended up being two, and for some, three, nights. He let the cooks, teachers, and other staff know that he'd understand if they didn't want to go out into the weather, but everyone in the area did not hesitate to help. The travelers were grateful, and actually all said they greatly enjoyed the hospitality, food, and cots with blankets and pillows that were provided to them in the gymnasium, where they also played some pickup basketball games during the days. After three nights, all the travelers' vehicles were dug out of the snow and back to their travels. Dad was there the entire time, making sure the travelers had what they needed, that everyone was staying safe, and that the volunteers were recognized and appreciated.
Dad was born a leader. He never sat back and waited for others to fix a problem. Instead, he was the first to recognize where there were going to be problems if he did not take action. That spring may have made Dad a better leader, but from what I witnessed, it revealed the great leader he already was. He also provided a model of great leadership to all the volunteers and to all the travelers who benefitted from his quick actions, all of which exemplified a great leader.
QUESTION: What was the most recent example of inspiring leadership that made an impact on you?
REBECCA HEROLD: In today's world, there are very few examples of inspiring leadership. In fact, it seems like we're going through an era of lost leadership. I was heartened to see, though. what appears on the surface to be an unlikely collaboration between two very different people to make an impact in actually inspiring and meaningfully teaching the general public about science facts and the need for a healthy, natural environment in their project to improve by reversing some of the devastation of the environment.
A climate and engineering expert recently teamed up with a graphic novelist artist to create a graphic novel that became the single bestselling book in France in 2022. And as a result, it is now inspiring positive changes for mitigating the destructive harms resulting from climate change in that country. The book is entitled, "Le Monde sans Fin," translated to English, "World Without End," by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain, published in October 2021. It gave me some hope that, if we have enough such initiatives throughout the world, not only for the environment but also for privacy rights, cybersecurity protections, societal improvements, and so many other necessary improvement areas, that perhaps, there can be positive changes in the years to come.
SHARE THIS: In today's world, there are very few examples of inspiring leadership. In fact, it seems like we're going through an era of lost leadership. ~Rebecca Herold #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog
QUESTION: What is your favorite team-building activity, and why?
REBECCA HEROLD: From the beginning of starting my own business in 2004, I've worked primarily alone; doing all the work for my business projects and deliverables myself. However, when my son Noah joined my business in 2021, I realized the great benefits and improved outcomes from having Noah take on responsibilities for contributing work for parts of the projects, while I did other parts. By bringing in his fresh views and perspectives, the project outcomes improved. Especially for the courses we create together for our Privacy & Security Brainiacs business. Typically I create the scripts and provide the audio, and Noah takes care of the technology requirements, along with doing the art and creating the videos. Working together to create one final product has turned out to be my favorite team-building activity!
QUESTION: Which book is on the top of your to-be-read pile, and why?
REBECCA HEROLD: I'm one of those folks who buy books and have book lists with the sincere intent to actually read them. But then, life and work activities always interfere to take precedence. So I haven't actually read a book just for fun or relaxation in a very long time. Typically, I read books I'm using for my work, or I'm reading my own books I've written or am in the process of writing. One book I've had on my list for several months, though, is "Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection" by Charles Duhigg. I think it will help me to improve not only the courses I create, but also my keynotes and other talks I give.
QUESTION: In the past year, has a TV show, film, or work of fiction stood out as a result of its emphasis on leadership?
REBECCA HEROLD: I rarely watch TV shows or movies; typically only for 30-60 minutes at night to wind down. And then, it is usually something completely different from my work. I also try to watch the evening and local news. One recurring segment within a TV show that I really liked was this episode of Steve Hartman's Kindness 101 about the CLEO Club. The high school students demonstrated some great inherent leadership instincts and actions, that included empathy and patience...characteristics that are missing from too many of our current corporate and government leaders!
My gratitude to Rebecca for sharing her leadership insights and for being a part of my #SpringLeadershipSeries2025. Did these questions open your eyes to think about leadership in nontraditional ways? That was the hope!
Image Credit: Unsplash via WordSwag.
Read Erika Andersen's article, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2015/05/14/how-springtime-can-make-us-better-leaders/
Check out the book Rebecca referenced:
Check out the book Rebecca referenced:
https://charlesduhigg.com/supercommunicators/
Watch the video Rebecca referenced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7zsF6vAWfc
Read Rebecca's previous appearances here on my blog:
Leadership Lessons from #PostElectionSeries Featuring Rebecca Herold (December 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/12/leadership-lessons-from_078135581.html
OLYMPICS LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Rebecca Herold (August 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/08/olympics-leadership-series-featuring_0274490879.html
SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Rebecca Herold (May 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/05/spring-leadership-series-featuring.html
FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Rebecca Herold (October 2023)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2023/10/fall-back-to-reading-series-featuring_01678868989.html
Connect with Rebecca at these links:
Websites:
Privacy Security Brainiacs: https://www.privacysecuritybrainiacs.com
and
Privacy Guidance: https://www.privacyguidance.com
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/privacy-and-security-brainiacs
and
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaherold/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.herold.1/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PrivacyProfessor
