The website Glassdoor provides an interesting peek into Silicon Valley companies from the employee’s perspective. Using Glassdoor as an information source, the news website SiliconValley featured an article by Michelle Quinn of the Mercury News, providing a glimpse into what Silicon Valley employees want from their leaders. Michelle observed that employees in the Valley “want to feel like a part of a mission”. Glassdoor community expert Scott Dobroski said the top CEOs in Silicon Valley “have a clear vision for their company.” He further explained the top Silicon Valley CEOs “communicate very clearly where the company is going, how the company is going to get there, and how every single employee is going to play a role.” While few of us are Silicon Valley CEOs, many of us are Silicon Valley leaders; and I propose that CIOs and CISOs should tune-in very closely to this feedback from Glassdoor because the burden of communicating a clear vision and mission does not rest solely on the shoulders of the CEO; the CIOs and CISOs who involve their employees in crafting an IT and Security strategy that accomplishes a clear and tight linkage to the corporate mission will enable each of their employees to link their own goals to the goals of the company, gaining a real sense of how they personally can contribute to helping the company attain its goals, safely. Technology Angle has a lot of experience integrating strategies across the company to legitimatize the strategy for IT and Security. The outcome is valuable for the business because employees are direct-connected to the goals of the company, and the IT & Security roadmaps are crafted to show how the limited resources available to the IT and Security departments will be consumed to support the priorities of the company. This is a big part of what leadership is about.
