Working with the power of self-belief

I want to propose an approach which is not new, but might have novel application in tackling burnout in cyber teams. It should be generalisable across professions, but let’s start with cyber because that’s what we do.

Here’s the proposition…

Anything which occurs at the same level of consciousness as the problem cannot be a solution.  

Now, let’s test the theory.

Assume the problem can be broken down into three predictors of burnout.
• a diminishing drive and commitment to the job
• questioning your own effectiveness.
• feeling like you have nothing left to give the job or your team

It would follow that a central element of our work in burnout prevention should be to enable individuals to reclaim and reignite connection with the passion that brought them into cybersecurity in the first place.

How might you do that in a way that is transformational, not just self talk?

The approach calls for shifting perspective and embedding a new healthier mindset which is authentic and integrated (encoded) into a resilient sense of worth.

I am talking about building a winners mind. A ‘winner’ for this purpose is someone who has the self belief and tenacity to prevail against the odds.

Here are the neurologically proven strategies we build in to the delivery of the iRest protocol which are science-based and repeatable :
- a sense of gratitude for the opportunity life has given you to make a difference (will trigger neuronal growth in areas which can immunise against stress, fear and reactivity)
- reconnection with a felt sense of intention that you carry deep into your core
- deep relaxation to switch you out of negative recursive thinking (moves brain from default mode network to task oriented /present centered network)
- the capacity to recalibrate and tune into your unbreakable and innate sense of worth (correlates to changes to anterior cingulate cortex and insula)

None of this will work by just telling yourself these things.

The absolute requirement is that you take these deep, deep, deep. Hold, hold, hold. Release, release, release.

During the delivery of the iRest protocol this is brought to the highest level of efficacy.

I am deeply indebted to Dr Richard Miller for having applied over 40 years of research into the development of the system we now bring to cyber teams to give effect to these changes.

Postscript: External validation and reward might ordinarily form buffers against burnout. Yet we are seeing two intrinsic aspects of working in cyber that would frustrate these factors. The first is that the effects of their work are not making a visible impact in security. Attacks may be thwarted, but the primary mission of making the org safer simply cannot be demonstrated. The second is that the reward process where accompanied with an underlying sense of self doubt may give rise to imposter syndrome. This is why we need to tackle the problem at the underlying layer of belief.