< PreviousA True Story with False Names A Late Night CallMy phone rang shortly after 1 a.m. Having worked in IT for a few years and I knew this wouldn’t be good. If the call was from family, it was undoubtedly about something serious. If it was a call from work, something was broken — badly.Hello,” I sleepily slurred as I answered the phone.“Good morning,” replied the caller.I instantly recognized the voice from years of previous late night calls. For purposes of anonymity, I will call him “Jacob.” Jacob is always excited to solve problems, even if that means ransomware problems at 1 a.m.“What’s broke?” I asked Jacob.“We have WannaCry. I am opening a conference bridge and heading to the casino,” came the reply. I love working with Jacob, he is usually optimistic and always high-energy.My sleep-addled brain tried to process what to do. Do I have to go in? Can this wait until I get to the office at the normal time? Can I just call into the bridge? My bed is warm, and I am sleepy.TIME TO GO I decided. I quickly got dressed, told the spouse “I have to go to work; not sure when I will be back,” and started the drive to the casino.I arrived at the casino and realized I forgot my employee ID badge, gaming badge, and door access card. Instead of making the drive back home, I called Jacob and asked if he could meet me at the employee entrance. I would have to skirt by security and technically break some rules, but if a WannaCry outbreak was underway, I would do what I had to.As I neared the door, Jacob emerged and was all smiles and barely-controlled excitement. “Good morning,” he said for the second time that day.“Good morning, yourself. How bad is it?” I asked.“We have about 15 hosts infected but plan to find more. I have been saying the teams aren’t taking patching seriously, and now we have proof,” Jacob said as we walked past the security desk.I pulled in close to Jacob and tightened up my coat a bit to make it less obvious I was in a secure area of a casino without a badge before I responded. “Do we have anything encrypted? What is offline?”“Nothing is encrypted. No major systems are offline. The DNS tool we bought last year prevented the infected hosts from contacting the Command and Control (C&C) servers. Since they couldn’t reach the C&C servers, they couldn’t get an encryption key. All that the infected machines are doing is trying to spread to other devices in our network and continually phoning home to the C&C servers,” Jacob declared in an all too chipper way.“Sounds like you are having fun. Have we seen anything bleed over to the tribal networks?” I asked hopefully. If the ransomware had spread beyond the casino environment the problem could be three times worse. The casino operations were supported by about one-third of the organization’s knowledge workers, so if it spread we would have an even bigger problem.“We had a few test systems on the government side get infected,” said Jacob. “No reports of anything impacting the medical division. Turn left - this is the war room we are using.” “Are we sure it is WannaCry?” I asked as I entered the make-shift war room. “Yep, we confirmed that a few minutes ago,” said Jacob.“Somebody hasn’t been patching!” Taunted one of the analysts in the room.Jacob went on, “The good news is that less than 1% of the servers are not patched. The bad news is that all of the unpatched devices are without anti-virus, so they can and will get infected. We have contacted our Vendor X’s commercial incident response group and they are gearing up to help us right now.”TECHNOLOGY | CYBERSECURITY“| tribalnetonline.com30TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018How bad is it?I asked...We have WannaCry.I saw Nicole look up from her laptop at the other end of the room. “WannaCry is trying to spend internally via ports 3389 and 445,” she said. “We are now running NMAP to scan for hosts that are vulnerable to infection.”Ok. Spreading internally. Affecting up to 1% of the servers. We have about 2,000 servers, so that means we have about 20 servers to deal with. The rest must be desktop computers.“What about the desktops?” I asked. “How are they doing in terms of patching and anti-virus?”“Well,” Jacob began, “the service desk person tasked with patching must not have been doing it.”“Oh,” was all I could respond with. Then I sat down and opened up my laptop. While the technical team did their job, I could help out with email updates to both IT and the business stakeholders. I typed out a quick email, explaining the state of things, how we would be sending updates every hour, and hit send.Over the next 24 hours, I sent 24 emails, hosted a few conference calls, coordinated food deliveries, and watched the team work very hard to remove all traces of WannaCry from our environment. As usual, they responded incredibly well but I couldn’t help but think that it was sad that we were having to respond at all.Our network is segmented, we attempt to patch monthly, we have anti-virus, we filter our web traffic, we use an IPS, and we even have a DNS tool. We seemingly have done a pretty good job of keeping things safe. The trouble with “pretty good” is that with the scale of modern tribes, “pretty good” isn’t sufficient. One percent of 1,000 servers or desktops being vulnerable to infection is enough of an exposure that an organization might find itself crippled by a cyber attack.Are your cybersecurity defenses better than “pretty good?” Do you have the protections in place you need to keep ransomware from encrypting your files or hackers from stealing your patient health data? We were lucky and prepared. I hope you take away a small motivation from this article to make sure your organization is prepared as well. Good luck!Signed,Jane DoeTRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018tribalnetonline.com |31FEATURE | TRIBALNETONLINE.COM| tribalnetonline.com32tribalnetonline.com |33TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018FEATURE | TRIBALNETONLINE.COM| tribalnetonline.com34tribalnetonline.com |35TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018FEATURE | TRIBALNETONLINE.COM| tribalnetonline.com36tribalnetonline.com |37TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018| tribalnetonline.com38Change is on the horizon for the modern workplace, and newly emerging dynamics are causing a shift in the relationship we have with our employees. As business leaders, our greatest responsibility is to create an exceptional employment experience for the people we are serving. In the ongoing competition for talent, organizations that prioritize the well-being of their employees above all else will reap the greatest rewards. An essential part of building employee satisfaction is the ability to provide your team with the resources and support they need to truly thrive. Developing a coaching relationship with employees is an extremely effective strategy to cultivate two-way communication and build a supportive community within a team. Our goal as leaders is to be intentional in the steps we take to ensure performance coaching becomes an integrated part of our organizational culture. SHOW GENUINE CAREGreat leadership starts with genuine care for the people we are serving, and this is where performance coaching also begins. For our employees to become emotionally invested in their work, they need to see that we are investing the same level of effort and care in their well-being. This investment is the foundation for a positive employee experience and is what makes the greatest impact on the relationship between an employer and employee. When we start to recognize the humanity and value of every person that joins our team, we can help our people break through personal barriers in order to do their best work. Our employees are so much more than names on a weekly schedule — they are people looking for a career and a workplace where they are treated with dignity and respect, while given room for professional growth. Coaching is only truly effective when it is predicated on genuine interest in the success and well-being of our people. SERVE AS A COLLABORATORWhen serving as a performance coach, it is important for us to act as collaborators who are invested in our employees’ success. Collaboration is a joint venture in which we understand the needs of our people so we can discover the most effective ways to motivate them. The dynamics of modern performance development are changing quickly, and ongoing communication and feedback are critical. Many companies are implementing new strategies with regards to how they approach employee performance development. Soon, annual performance evaluations will be seen as relics of old personnel management policies. Instead, modern organizations utilize a process in which employees receive continuous feedback, both positive and constructive. Our employees seek and need this from their leadership throughout the year. In addition, it is equally important to provide our people with the opportunity to give us feedback on how we are performing as leaders. Are we providing our employees with the resources and support they need? This feedback can be used to further grow your organization and will help to foster a mutually beneficial coaching relationship. When first transitioning to a modern method of performance coaching, I recommend scheduling regular sessions to give feedback and have discussions with your employees. Leaders as Performance CoachesBYCHRISTOPHER OROZCOTEAM MEMBER RELATIONS MANAGER, WIN-RIVER RESORT & CASINO ABOUT THE AUTHORChristopher Orozco is the Team Member Relations Manager at Win-River Resort & Casino. He believes the fundamental purpose of HR is to help others, and to change lives for the better. Chris is also passionate about purposeful leadership; listening to the needs of others, setting out to intentionally do good for others, and seeing potential in someone to help lift them up to achieve something wonderful. Read more about Christopher’s thoughts on life and leadership at chrisjorozco.com, and follow along with him on Twitter and Instagram at chrisorozco72.Soon, Annual Performance Evaluations Will Be Seen as Relics of Old PoliciesHUMAN RESOURCES | THE MODERN WORKPLACEtribalnetonline.com |39TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018In time, these meetings will become second nature, ingrained in how we approach our leadership responsibilities. When ongoing communication becomes routine, old-fashioned performance management tactics will become irrelevant and unnecessary. PROVIDE VISION AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTHEffective leadership is very much about helping employees discover their talents through a journey of growth and self-awareness. Then, we have to give our people the opportunity and flexibility to unleash their talents upon the organization. To do this, we should strive to help our team connect with a vision of the future and seek how they can align their talents with their passion and values. Many organizations have established vision statements, but we should also ensure that our organizational vision involves the future of our employees. Our people are looking for ways they can contribute to and grow with the organization they are invested in. As you are providing feedback to your employees, ask them about their goals and discuss how you can be their ally in achieving those goals. More than anything, during coaching conversations it is important to listen. If we listen to our employees we can guide the conversation to help them discover ways they can leverage their talent in order to achieve their goals. Provide your team with a sense of safety to take risks and discover what they are capable of. ACCOUNTABILITYDuring the journey of growth and self-awareness that takes place throughout a coaching relationship, accountability is essential for success. Creating exceptional performance does not rest solely on the leader’s shoulders — it is a shared responsibility. It is our charge to first provide our employees with opportunities to succeed; it is then our employees’ duty to take these opportunities and use them to flourish. In addition, our employees have an obligation to improve their own performance. Ongoing positive and constructive feedback are equally important in the effort to produce exceptional performance. Celebrate the success of your employees, and also be sure to provide support when they need it the most. If an employee is experiencing difficulties in their performance, talk with them to understand where their barriers to exceptional performance are coming from. During these discussions, remember the intent is not to punish your employees but to improve their performance and their satisfaction level. The future belongs to those companies that are proactive in building genuine and authentic relationships with their team members. Employees of all ages and backgrounds seek a work environment in which they can thrive. With the right proactive strategies in place, employers can offer something special in the fierce competition for quality talent, and they can recruit and retain highly engaged employees. An exceptional employee experience, in which employees feel valued for their contributions and are motivated to produce exceptional results, can make all the difference.Next >