Grooming the Security Industry’s Next Generation

August 07, 2011 Scott Goldfine

Jim Henry: I agree with everything that’s been said here with regards to the critical importance of training. Our assets go up and down in the elevator every
day. This is a people business. I would add the dimension that the training has got multiple lengths to it. Not only does it make your people more competent so that they are more efficient and they make fewer mistakes, but it also is the differentiator that enables them to feel good about themselves and feel the level of accomplishment beyond the paycheck. Otherwise, they are vulnerable to those headhunters that call and say, “I got a deal here.” You have to make sure that the awareness is there, that they understand the only way the headhunters make money is when they’re moving people and assets. And once they move them somewhere else, they want to move them again. Every transaction is how they get paid. To that end, years ago I used to think that I needed exposure, bringing my guys out into the confines of the collective where they’re with their peers, you know, the technicians and whatnot. Even though we have the ability to do Web training now, I want my project managers, technicians and what have you to always come and sit in classes with their peers because it inevitably all talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, the woes, the problems they’ve got with this thing, that thing or that manufacturer. “I’ve got this problem out here” or “The scheduling efficiency they never take into account over here,” or “They try to pull me over here. Why does that happen?” Look, it happens in every company, and it gives them the awareness that the grass isn’t always greener. Those problems exist systemically across this industry. It’s the nature of the beast. We respond to problems, right? Customers are calling us with problems. Reactive mode, we try to minimize it with all the preventive service we do, but there is still a level of reactive mode that we have to do and be responsive and that creates those stresses, problems and challenges or what have you. So to have them understand that no matter where they go, they’re going to have that, I think it helps them look introspectively of what is really the value of getting here at HBE? How has my company responded to that in comparison to what these other guys are dealing with? I think it gives them a little pause to think when a headhunter is calling them. It’s not quite as rosy as the picture that’s being painted for them.

Bradley: I have something to add beyond focusing on a technical level and an installation level. My equal concern is on a leadership level. Now, I’m at that age, unfortunately, where I’m trying to figure out that next generation that’s going to follow me and everyone at this table is in that same boat. Who are the young people who are going to step in our shoes? Unfortunately for us they are not like us. They don’t think like us; they don’t have the same objectives that we have. They see our generation as pretty well screwed up the family and other things, saying, “Why would I want to be like you?” So they’re trying to figure out their own place. I think they’re smarter, and they’ll probably do a better job than we did, but we still have to identify them and bring them along. In our organization, we have a pretty good emphasis I think, and we put a lot of effort in this last two or three years on best practice discussions to the point where we created our own groups within our industry and people that we know and trust where we’re not competing, and we get people together and we’ll send people to other groups. We have a lot of that thing going on through other organizations. Some of it is formal and some of it’s informal, so they can learn from each other. We’re trying to bring them along through some formal training as well using books like “Good to Great” by Jim Collins and other leadership concepts and learning concepts like blue ocean strategies and all these other things, and trying to invest in them — things I wish I had, frankly, 20 or 30 years ago. I think we have to put a great emphasis on that segment because they’re the ones that are going to make the decisions five, 10 or 20 years from now about the same things we’re discussing here today, and I’m worried that we’re not doing as good a job at that level as we think. I think some of us are holding on a little too tightly to the reins. I see evidence of that in some companies.

Keeping with the theme of the next generation coming up, if a younger sibling of yours, nephew, relative, younger friend, what have you, was coming into this business, what would be the one or two key pieces of advice you would offer them?

Nikel: Integrity would be the first one to come to mind, and reputation. This industry is one that if you network well and you have good integrity and a wonderful reputation and you’ve earned that reputation, it will take you a long way. It’s a very small group of people that exist in the security industry across North America. So I’d say, work to develop an outstanding reputation. Take the high road; be honorable, and it will take you a lot of places. You need to be intelligent and well read, speak well and cautious, but your integrity is the one that I would lead with.

Bradley: I’ll buy into that. One of the hallmarks of this younger generation – and I’m not saying that we didn’t have the same problems – is they all want it now. There really is a lack of patience and willingness to bide your time, to learn over time, to grow. There is just no substitute, period, for experience. There never will be for having experiences and learning through experiences of good and bad. I think I would probably advise the thing that I struggled with the most and that I would say that the younger generation struggles with even more than I did and that is patience. It takes a very high degree of patience to be successful in this industry, I think. Success is not really obvious; it’s kind of hard to measure because it comes in a lot of different ways, and it’s not always bottom line. Part of success is being happy, so I think I would encourage them to be patient. I would encourage them to be great listeners early on and not try to be the expert and move too quickly to the point where they have all the answers. I think the best people in our industry are the ones who ask the most questions. The people that I respect the most are the ones that probably thought that they knew the least and were always in that learning mode. That requires a great deal of humility and a great deal of patience. I don’t see that in my kids as much as I’d like to see, and maybe my father didn’t see it in me, I don’t know. But I do think there’s evidence that this new generation, this Millennial generation, has a very different expectation of what the world offers that we live in an entitlement society today that didn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago. That’s probably the downside legacy of the greatest generation is the creation of the entitlement society, and it probably ruined a lot for us. I give them a lot of credit. I’m going to say that they probably screwed that up pretty good, so we have a generation now that expects it all and they think that it all ought to be handed to them, and we see that evidence in so many different ways. So I think that we have a job and responsibility as leaders today for this newer generation to help them understand that you need to earn it and you need to be responsible. You need to have the values and integrity and all the things that go along with that because they’re not getting that in school; they’re not getting it from their peers, and most likely, they’re not getting that from their parents.

Nikel: It’s a great
line, isn’t it? God gave you two ears and one mouth. Use them that way. Listen more than you speak.

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About the Author

Scott Goldfine

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Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].