Name: Bryson Bort

Title: CEO/Founder

Organisation: SCYTHE

Bryson is the Founder of SCYTHE, a start-up building a next-generation threat emulation platform, and GRIMM, a cybersecurity consultancy, and Co-Founder of the ICS Village, a non-profit advancing awareness of industrial control system security.

He is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute and Adjunct Senior Technical Advisor for the Institute of Security and Technology. As a U.S. Army Officer, he served as a Battle Captain and Brigade Engineering Officer in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom before leaving the Army as a Captain. He is recognized as a 'Top 50 in Cyber' by Business Insider, 'Security Executive Finalist of the Year' by SC Media, and was awarded 'Tech Titan' twice.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Bryson's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

The "infinite calculus of humanity": a constantly changing set of different people at different times acting differently based on who else is there and you everyone needs to work together.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I wanted to give back, so the best form of service was the US Army for me, and that's why I went to West Point. As an officer, your responsibility is to lead. I carried this ethos with me into the civilian sector; I can take care of the team and that is my responsibility.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I wake up and go walking for 1-2 hours-- that's me time to greet the day with exercise and contemplation. I listen to classical music and just let thoughts come and go and see where my mind is-- if there are particular work challenges, then my leadership knows they'll probably get an informal call.

Then, the proper work day starts with meetings. I try to do as many meetings on the phone vs video so I can grab short walks outside while doing them. After dinner, I don't engage work at all, it's not beneficial, I put it down. Before going to bed, I will journal the good and bad highlights of the day and set high-level actions to be completed the next day.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Things really do change with scale: it requires personal adaptation as a leader. Managing a team directly is a different problem set than managing the managers of teams. Adapting that style, while implementing process and systems, and you're hiring at multiple levels at the same time is a particular challenge of a growth start-up.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Write your own book. I'm not saying you have to publish, but you should be documenting examples of the good and bad you see in management/leadership in your career: especially the bad, I see folks typically only focus on good examples and then make the same mistakes. In addition, document your vision, mission, goals, etc and periodically review/update-- make sure to celebrate your wins!

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Do what you say. It seems simple, but literally just follow through on what you say you're going to do for your people. And if something changes, then immediately go back and inform of the what and why.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

Less than one story, but the pattern of folks coming up to me years later and thanking me for the impact I had on them.