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Whenever theres economic uncertainty, its easy to worry that your position is at risk. But what if the worst has happened: Your company has done a big layoffand you and your team werent on the list? Of course, you and your direct reports may both fear that more cuts are on the horizon. And yet, theres work to be done. How do you support your team, keep them productive and also find the opportunities in the middle of such a big disruption, especially when you may face the need to do more with less? We work with executive clientsAlisa Cohn as an executive coach and Dorie Clark as a keynote speaker and consultantand have seen this increasingly as layoffs stay stubbornly in the news. Here are five valuable things you can do in the near-term to maintain your focus in the wake of a major shakeup. 1. Identify why you got saved Its helpful to discern why you werent included in the layoff. Analyze the situation dispassionately. What are the patterns you see in who was let go? Perhaps certain divisions were hit hard, indicating that their strategic importance has waned at your company. And its equally useful to identify what you bring to the table. Perhaps you work in an area the company has identified as valuable (a certain functional role, geography, or growth initiative). For example, one of Alisas clients on the risk team was retained when others were let go because she had deep industry expertise in the most strategic area for the company. Understanding your competitive advantage can help you leverage it further. This may be an area youll want to highlight by talking about your skills and experience more widely. For instance, as Dorie has pointed out, one of the most overlooked networking opportunities is how you choose to answer the question What have you been up to lately? because you can choose to talk about areas that matter to your company. If you know your company is prioritizing building its customer base in financial services, for example, you could talk about a recent conference you attended or article youve read about that industry. That will position you as someone focused on the most important things. 2. Reset expectations with your team In an environment where there have been big layoffs, teams are certainly being scrutinized. Your team is likely upset and may feel bitterness about what happened. You might be inclined to soothe them (this wont happen to us) or commiserate (I cant believe those idiots did that.) But the kindest thing you can do for them is to help them deliver. Its a good moment to look at how you work together. In many companies, leaders often get in the habit of playing down a level and doing some of the work of their team. But after a layoff when you have more on your plate, you need everyone working at full capacity, and that means not doing their work for them. Push decision-making down wherever you can. Give high level guidance more clearly and more regularly so everyone is aligned on the most important things and can make smart decisions in the moment. Alisa experienced this with one of her clients, a vice president of product in a large tech company. The deadline for a big project was only three months away when two of her key peers and a good portion of their teams got laid off, leaving her with massive pressure to finish the project but a lot less support and resources. She directed her teams to own their domains like general managers and asked them to run with decisions that were reversible. They created a process to huddle and quickly resolve conflicts as a team. The project shipped on time and the team got a lot more capable during this periodin fact, many of them said theyd grown more in those three months than in the past three years. 3. Rethink your calendar If youre like most managers, your day is filled up with meetings. Use this moment as an opportunity to look at all the group meetings and one-to-ones youre doing and evaluate what can be cut (indeed, if youre now being asked to manage more people, you may not physically have the capacity to take on any more meetings). Alisa created the the 4R Framework to assess how useful meetings are. They might be warranted if youre using them to: Review progress Resolve conflicts and problems Refine strategy or decisions Reinforce alignment and understanding But if your meetings arent meeting any of these objectives, theyre probably good candidates to omit. Once you have more room in your day, think carefully about high value activities you could do instead. These include getting more involved with high visibility strategic projects or spending more time with customers. 4. Stand out and find the opportunities Now that there are fewer managers or colleagues, the good news is that youll probably have more opportunities to shine. Youll have more exposure to senior leaders and may be asked to join meetings with clients or other key stakeholders. Prepare for this by sharpening your presentation skills. It might be a good moment to get formal training, join a group like Toastmasters, or just practice more in small, low stakes environments. You should also consciously build your executive presence and bone up on your strategic thinking. See if there are key projects you can become part of, or volunteer to take over. 5. Dont neglect your network The world of work is never certain and having a strong internaland externalnetwork helps you build more career security. Even though you may be busy dealing with the extra obligations this round of layoffs created, make sure you continue to nourish your network and build it more robustly so youre prepared if the hammer comes for you. Examples could include hosting virtual one-to-ones or small group coffees with colleagues you havent seen in a while or making a point to attend conferences or industry meetings. One professional Dorie profiled in her book Reinventing Youwho realized with concern that his network mostly consisted of other people employed by his longtime companydecided to start weekly breakfast meetings with people outside the company, leading both to a fresher network and ideas about new technologies and acquisitions his organization cold make. One client Alisa worked with resolved to get back in touch with people shed lost contact with, leading her to a board director position, as well as a new career opportunity. Layoffs are challenging for everyone, and its both emotionally and logistically difficult to lose a number of your coworkers. But by accepting reality and focusing on the things you can control, youll be able to move forward and keep your team focused, even in uncertain times.
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E-Commerce
Eight months into the second Trump administration, whats most striking about its cybersecurity policy is whats missing: Much of the workforce of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, a permanent leader for the agency, and a public discussion about what the president did to its two previous directors. On top of this, CISA and other federal information-security offices have been plunged into this turmoil even as digital threats continue to escalate, with Chinese and North Korean attackers regularly breaking into critical U.S. systems. The next cybersecurity crisis could come in the form of yet another penetration of corporate or government networks, or of less-defended but still-critical infrastructure like sewer and water systems. Or it could involve a target that the Trump administration has itself created: the large amounts of data compiled and copied with questionable security by its DOGE government-disruption project and its brutal crackdown on undocumented immigrants. But since Trumps second inauguration, standing before a contingent of tech CEOs, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has ordered CISA to drop election security and misinformation from its missions. Layoffs have cut deep into its ranks: In June, the trade publication Cybersecurity Dive reported that one-third of CISAs workforce had headed for the exits. That marks a stark contrast with the first Trump administrations approach to cybersecurity — which included launching CISA. Sure, there was some upheaval, but nothing like this administration, says Katie Moussouris, CEO of the bug-bounty firm Luta Security. The government shutdown, which is forcing about a third of CISAs remaining employees to work without pay while it furloughs the remainder, seems unlikely to improve the situation. Outrage, weaponized CISA also lacks a Senate-confirmed director, with Trumps nominee Sean Plankey stalled after Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon, placed a hold on the nomination until CISA releases a 2022 report on the security of U.S. telecom networks. Trump himself has paid less attention to his would-be CISA head than to the two previous occupants of that office: Jen Easterly, who ran it under President Biden, and Chris Krebs, whom Trump appointed in 2017 at CISAs founding and then fired in November of 2020 for his public defense of the 2020 elections integrity. In April, Trump ordered agencies to yank Krebs security clearances and launch investigations into him and his employer, the security firm SentinelOne. A week later, Krebs resigned, telling colleagues that he needed to take on that fight fully – outside of SentinelOne. In July, the Army rescinded Easterlys appointment to a temporary department chair at West Point after the extremist influencer Laura Loomer complained about it on X as she has about other staffing choices. When outrage is weaponized and truth discarded, it tears at the fabric of unity and undermines the very ethos that draws brave young men and women to serve and sacrifice, Easterly, a West Point graduate, wrote in a LinkedIn post denouncing the move. Neither Krebs nor Easterly, contacted via intermediaries, responded to requests for comment. Worse than expected Add in developments like Trump dismissing the members of the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), an investigatory office modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board, and the barely averted end of federal funding for a widely consulted database of security vulnerabilities, and the picture looks grimmer than the forecasts of security experts last summer for a possible Trump victory. I did not think they were going to break with norms as much as they have in this administration, says Moussouris. She worries about attackers overseas now taking advantage of this disarray: I think our adversaries are having a field day. She finds the punishment of Krebs and Easterly especially toxic. Its going to make it harder for career professionals to want to move into the federal government space, she says. Its going to make it harder for those folks coming out of government to be hired by private industry. Steven Bellovin, a computer-science professor at Columbia University with multiple stints on government advisory boards, gripes about the pettiness of cutbacks like shutting down the CSRB. Of course they didit was a Biden initiative, he says. Ari Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law and, in President Obamas second term, the National Security Councils senior director for cyber, worries about the loss of experience and talent at ISA and elsewhere. They lost some people that have been there a long time, he says. They lost some people who are really, really good. And its the nations loss. Schwartz also sees this White Houses foreign policy impeding cooperation with other countries. This administration has done some things to build good relationships with our allies and has done some things to put our allies off a bit,” he says. He declined to comment about Krebs and Easterly. CISA is laser-focused on its role as America’s premiere cyber defense agency and national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience, the agencys public-affairs director Marci McCarthy said in a statement. A somewhat silenced CISA When security researchers, policymakers and marketers convened in Las Vegas in August for the annual Black Hat conference to compare notes and do business, CISA had a much lower profile there. Agency representatives speaking this year were relegated to side stagesa sharp contrast with last year, when that event opened with a keynote from Easterly. Chris Butera, acting executive assistant director for CISAs cybersecurity division, acknowledged that the agency had lost some people, while adding that it has a very talented workforce. He noted CISAs speedy response to a Microsoft Exchange vulnerability disclosed in a Black Hat talk the day before the first time, he said, the agency had directed other federal offices to install patches for a just-identified weakness within 24 hours. Following a panel featuring McCarthy hosted by the Washington security-startup foundry DataTribe, Fast Company asked her what the administrations treatment of Krebs and Easterly suggested about its openness to dissenting views. That would be a question for President Trump, McCarthy replied. The work continues The Trump administrations capriciousness notwithstanding, Schwartz and Moussouris cited some reasons for cautious optimism. Schwartz points to Trumps pick of Sean Cairncross as national cyber director. Hes known to be a good manager, Schwartz says of Cairncross, who served as CEO of the governments Millennium Challenge Corporation in the first Trump administration. Schwartzs suggested a key next step for the administration: Get Congress to renew the 2015 law offering legal protection to companies for sharing threat data amongst themselves and with the government. Congress allowed that statute expire at the end of September. That, of course, will have to wait until the conclusion of the shutdown. Moussouris, meanwhile, gives a thumbs-up to the Trump administrations push back against Britain’s demand that Apple compromise end-to-end encryption securing iCloud backupswhich resulted in Westminster giving in to Washington. Whoever is giving them advice on that particular policy matter has it dead right, she says. Thats also her advice for cybersecurity leaders in this administration going forward. Listen to the technologists, she says. Go beyond the scope of whatever policy agenda has been given to you.
Category:
E-Commerce
You might have noticed some of your coworkers are overly excited this week and counting down the minutes until midnight on October 3. No, these are not diehard cinephiles devoted to the 2004 film Mean Girls (which features a joke about the date). Instead, they’re Taylor Swift fans. The Life of a Showgirl, Swifts twelfth studio album, is set to be released late Friday night. (So if the Swifties in the office seem overwhelmed, grant them grace, because this is a big week.) Heres everything you need to know about the albumin case you’re cornered by the coffee maker by someone with a friendship bracelet (the unofficial signifier of a Swift super fan). When and how did Swift announce The Life of a Showgirl? On August 11, Swifts website revealed a countdown to 12:12 a.m. ET on August 12. When time ran out, she announced The Life of a Showgirl and promised more details would be revealed on her later appearance on her fiancé Travis Kelces podcast “New Heights. How did the Eras Tour influence The Life of a Showgirl? During her two-hour podcast conversation with both Travis and his brother Jason Kelce, Swift revealed that the album was inspired by her experiences behind the scenes of the Eras tour. She wrote, produced, and recorded the majority of the album on the European leg in 2024. She would do three days of shows, then fly to Sweden to record. It was hard but rewarding work: I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating, she explained. Who is the creative team behind The Life of a Showgirl? For this album, Swift is teaming up with producers Max Martin and Shellback again. The trio had previously collaborated on tracks such as 22, Blank Space, and “. . . Ready for It?” Former long-time collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner did not work on this album.These guys, theyre just geniuses, Swift gushed on the podcast, referring to Martin and Shellback. Weve never actually made an album before where its just the three of us. Theres no other collaborators. Its just the three of us making a focused album. What do we know about the album’s tracks, titles, and lead single? There are just 12 tracks on the album, which is a big departure from Swifts recent releases. The Tortured Poets Department turned into a surprise double album with 31 tracks. Midnights had 13 tracks, until Midnights (3am Edition) added seven bonus tracks. Because of Martin and Shellbacks involvement, we can guess this will be a more pop-centered album full of big showstopping numbers, and likely more upbeat and less folksy than recent releases.It just comes from like the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, Swift explained on the podcast. And so that effervescence has come through on this record. The albums lead single is The Fate of Ophelia, referencing William Shakespeares tragic character from Hamlet. Meanwhile, the title track features Sabrina Carpenter, who opened for Swift in select cities during the Eras Tour. She is the only known guest artist on the album at this time.Historically, the fifth track of a Swift album is saved for the most emotional song. This time around, Eldest Daughter gets that honor. I heard there’s also a movie? Swift is a master of public relations and marketing. To coincide with the album release, she is also hosting a movie event. Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl will feature behind-the-scenes footage, the music video for The Fate of Ophelia, and special commentary on the creative process. The 89-minute extravaganza will only be in limited theaters from October 3 to 5. How is Swift promoting The Life of a Showgirl? During release week, Swift is appearing on The Graham Norton Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Late Night With Seth Meyers. Her social media accounts have a calendar listing all the events leading up to the big day. Why are Swift fans talking about the word ‘standby’? One of these events is currently a mystery: Saturday, October 4 is simply listed as standby. Swifties, known for being internet detectives, are desperately trying to figure out what this means. Could it be a tour announcement, or a surprise Saturday Night Live appearance? All will be revealed with time, but one can see how Swifties have a lot to be excited about this week.
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E-Commerce
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